He made a nation fall in love with the smooth sounds of Cajun French on “The Voice.” He’s a road warrior, touring his brand of swamp-Americana all over Louisiana and the country. Dustin Dale Gaspard has been busy — and he’s not slowing down any time soon.
Since appearing on season 28 of “The Voice,” the singer from Cow Island has been further refining his sound in front of audiences that love Gaspard’s modern take on swamp pop — a blend of blues, country, and Cajun folk that exploded in previous generations with local stars like TK Hulin.
Gaspard’s debut on “The Voice,” with a bilingual cover of Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home To Me,” epitomized much of what this artist does better than anyone else — fusing soulful, accessible tunes with Louisiana French and a deep Cajun sensibility. On a Kickstarter he recently published to raise funds for his next album, Gaspard explains that his Cajun identity is central to who he is as an artist — and that’s why he wants to expand the boundaries of what “Cajun music” is.
“I don’t want to separate any of my creativity anymore,” he said. “It might be folk songs. It might be funk songs. It will certainly be a lot of soul-inspired bilingual music. I want to pursue my creativity, in the opposite direction of traditional music.”
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That doesn’t mean abandoning his Cajun roots. Far from it. On the Kickstarter, Gaspard talks about pushing for a swamp pop revival — that southwest Louisiana-grown genre that pulls in all of the sounds that make you move and feel something, and mixes it with a bit of Cajun rock ’n’ roll.
“As I’ve experienced my heritage and my culture as a Cajun, there were so many things portrayed to me about that heritage that didn’t necessarily feel like me,” according to Gaspard. “It felt more like what people were telling me that I am.
“My pursuit in my music has always been to express myself as creatively as possible and talk about who I am, and that means accepting that I’m not necessarily a traditional Cajun artist. There’s a lot of people that are losing their connection to who they are — or maybe they are trying to discover who they are, especially when it doesn’t look like all the ways that we’ve been taught. My hope is to create the next step in the progress and expansion of Cajun music, to re-inspire and help reignite an identity for my generation and the generations to come.”
Dustin Dale Gaspard will play two sets at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Saturday, May 2 at 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.
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