The Basin Brothers

It's impossible to sit still while Lafayette, Louisiana-based Cajun band The Basin Brothers, are playing. Led by fiddler, guitarist, mandolinist, and vocalist Al Berard, The Basin Brothers transform the traditional music of Louisiana's French Triangle into a highly energetic mixture of two-steps and waltzes. Taking their name from the Atchafayla Basin, where Berard grew up, The Basin Brothers have taken their music far beyond the bayous of Louisiana, appearing at Cajun and folk festivals throughout the United States.



The traditional sound of The Basin Brothers contrasts with Berard's earliest memories. The last of eight children and the son of a trapper and crawdad fisherman, Berard (b: 1960) showed a musical aptitude as an infant, beating rhythms on pots and pans in the family kitchen. At the age of 11, while attending a rehearsal of a band that included his brother-in-law's younger brother, he became fascinated by the guitar. Purchasing a chord book, he sketched out a guitar on a cardboard box and taught himself the basic chords. A week later, he acquired his first guitar.

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