Once upon a time, sometime in the 90’s, a certain Linda Rees formed Linda Lou and the Lucky 4 with her four oldest children. They pleased their audiences with old country songs and old rock tunes, but as they were originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, they were fated to return to their Cajun roots. Those four siblings, Katie, Paige, Johnny, and Stephen, are now bringing the joie de vivre as L’Angelus, your premiere Catholic Cajun band.
Even if you aren’t Catholic, L’Angelus has the appeal of being a finalist in Billboard’s Independent Music World Series (2006), and has been featured in the PBS documentary, Washing Away. Not to mention, they’ve been interviewed on RTE (Ireland’s prominent radio station) and the BBC. But, if you are Catholic, their World Youth Day appearance just makes them that much cooler.  |
| It’s gotta be that we’re living our lives fully and not afraid of being right there in the middle of society and bringing Christ’s love and joy wherever we go. -Katie |
Being both Cajun and Catholic is not a combination in the sense of chocolate and ice cream, two great things that together make one great thing. Rather, their roots and faith are so intertwined, it’s more like a guitar (their faith) and its strings (their upbringing): together they work, separate they don’t.
We wanted to have that Cajun identity… it’s such an authentically Catholic culture that the faith is not separated from other things, other aspects in your life. It was a natural way to let…the faith influence everything. –Katie, the oldest, from Life on the RockTheir name is the most obvious manifestation of this fusion of faith and culture. L’Angelus is the French name for the Angelus, a prayer that you hopefully know. At the sound of bells, the community would stop what they were doing to pray the Angelus together, a practice going back hundreds of years to the original French settlers.
Being named for a universal prayer, it makes sense that L’Angelus themselves have toured Europe in addition to the Unites States and Canada. What’s more, their songs range from the fun-loving “Rice and Gravy” to solemn hymns, and they try to only perform in family venues so everyone can come. Their typical performances could be classified as secular, but that does not dampen their perceived mission in serving Christ and facing the culture war:
We need to go right there into the middle of our culture, the middle of our society…to look at what’s good around us, the natural and the supernatural things, and say this is what we’re going to write songs about and how do we celebrate life and bring joy when often there is none. -KateBe sure to sample their albums (Ça C'est Bon, Sacred Hymns, O Night Divine) on Amazon. Or, sign up for their mailing list and get a free download!
Man! I have to look into more of their songs now. Thanks!
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