LE TRAVAILLANT

Making the Gumbo....

Le Travaillant plays Cajun, Creole, and zydeco music, the dance music of French-speaking Louisiana. Although the band is based hundreds of miles from Cajun country in Chicago, its mission is to "Bring the Bayou Down By You."

On Le Travaillant's debut EP, the barnstorming two-step boogie of "Au Derrière Du Bayou" is paired with the stately waltz of the title track, "Gumbo De Mon Père." Both are original compositions by bandleader Ethan Sellers. Although the band's live repertoire consists primarily of covers of revered Louisiana artists, Sellers felt strongly that Le Travaillant's recorded debut should use originals to make personal and heartfelt additions to the genre.

"Gumbo De Mon Père" is more than a reference to the famous Louisiana soup. The lyrics tell of songwriter Ethan Sellers learning to make gumbo from his Louisiana-born father, Bill Sellers - and then teaching his son the recipe. The story is both literal truth and an apt metaphor for Le Travaillant's multi-generational music-making.

Guitarist/singer Stewart Gehring has been active as a Cajun musician for more than 30 years and has in turn raised his son, accordionist/fiddler Dorian Gehring, in the musical tradition. The younger Gehring has played fiddle since kindergarten, picked up accordion in his teens, and began playing on the Chicago Cajun scene when he was ten. The Gehrings formed their own band, the Cajun Vagabonds, and have played and learned from Chicago-based Cajun musicians Will and Holly Whedbee and Charlie Terr, and have backed-up and/or guested with Louisiana music luminaries including Edward Poullard, Sheryl Cormier, Jesse Lege, Joel Savoy, Blake Miller, Gina Forsyth, and Joe Hall. Dorian's study also included trips to Cajun music camps to study with folks like Pine Leaf Boys, Feufollet, Cedric Watson, David Greely, Mitch Reed, Balfa Toujours, and more.

While the late Bill Sellers was not a musician, he was an avid music listener who brought along cassette tapes of the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band and Cajun humorist/chef Justin Wilson on long family trips. Guitarist/Keyboardist/Vocalist Ethan Sellers studied French in high school and college, by his own admission because he thought the girls in his school's French class were cute. He later found that his language skills were useful in learning Cajun/Creole songs. Sellers' catholic musical interests have led him through myriad projects and genres, but the dual lure of Louisiana cuisine and music was irresistible.

Le Travaillant's name means "the working man," and is a nod to both hard-working people who need to cut loose in their leisure time and to the old Chicago slogan - "Chicago, the City That Works."

The band's current line-up coalesced in 2015, when Sellers and the Gehrings combined with drummer/percussionist Pat Buzby and bassist Jake Samson. Sellers had played on other projects with Samson and Buzby and knew that they were the right ingredients to cook up a versatile, grooving, and hard-working rhythm section.

The band has performed at various Chicago area fests (New Orleans Fest, Oysterfest, Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest), museums (Adler Planetarium, Chicago Botanic Gardens), Cajun restaurants (Maple Tree Inn, Heaven on Seven, Ron's Cajun Connection), legendary music venues (Buddy Guy's Legends, Reggie's), public libraries (Skokie, Warrenville, Barrington, Lansing, Morton Grove), park districts (Chicago, DesPlaines, Villa Park, Wilmette), Kalamazoo College, and private engagements for a wide variety of events held by private and corporate clients that include the Lake Charles, Louisiana tourism board.

Airplay

Encore on KRVS 88.7 FM Radio Acadie, Lafayette, LA
KEUN 105.5 FM Eunice, LA
Folk Show on WBGU 88.1 FM Bowling Green, OH
It's All Folk on Glacier City Radio KEUL 88.9 FM Girdwood, AK
Acoustic Crossings on WGCS Globe Radio 91.1 FM Goshen, IN
KOCF 92.7 FM Veneta, OR
ChiCityLives on Que4 Radio Chicago, IL
Folk Directions on CKUT 90.3 FM Montreal, QC, Canada
PopCult on Radio Free Charleston
Folk Fury on KTEP 88.5 FM El Paso, TX
Radio Nowhere with Joltin' Joe on Folk Music Notebook
House Party on WDCB 90.9 FM Glen Ellyn, IL
Roots on WVUD 91.3 FM Newark, DE
Whiskey Before Breakfast WRCT 88.3 FM Pittsburgh, PA
Rhythm Atlas 89.5 FM Tulsa, OK