N. Michigan’s Benzie Playboys, the state’s leading purveyor of Cajun & zydeco music, marks a quarter-century of dance-inspiring revelry Wednesday in Frankfort. Local Spins digs into its remarkable history.
25 Years of Cajun Glory: K. Jones & The Benzie Playboys performing at the 2016 Winter Wheat festival. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
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How do you celebrate a quarter century of Cajun and zydeco music? With a party, of course.
Northern Michigan’s K. Jones and the Benzie Playboys will entertain the crowd at the Garden Theater in Frankfort Nov. 26 with its zesty blend of music from southern Louisiana. Tickets to the 7 p.m. show are $20 and are available at MyNorthTickets.com.
Appropriately enough for a music that practically demands listeners get up and dance, the band had its genesis at a party. Friends of Kirk and Sharon Jones wanted to hold a fais do do, a traditional Cajun dance party.
“They played bass, a buddy played guitar and knew a couple Cajun tunes, and I played harmonica,” says Jones. He enlisted Mark Stoltz on tit fer, the Cajun triangle.
The Current Band: Playing a fundraiser in Frankfort on Wednesday. (Courtesy Photo)
Despite it being their very first effort, Jones says the reception was positive, and best of all, they enjoyed it, too.
“It was so much fun. It was pretty rough, but we had a lot of fun,” he says. So the two teamed up to create a real band.
“I took the plunge and bought a cheap Chinese accordion on EBay. I started trying and got a little music out of it,” says Jones.
Meanwhile, Stoltz was expanding his repertoire to include scrubboard, as well as helping familiarize people with the music and the moves. “I gave dance lessons to all kinds of locals,” Stoltz says.
Both Jones and Stoltz had the music in their blood. They grew up in bayou country, as their fathers both worked for NASA in New Orleans. “Our dads probably worked together,” says Jones. The two lived within a mile of each other in the Big Easy, but it wasn’t until Mark and Kirk moved their families to Michigan’s Benzie County that they met.
As kids, they absorbed the Cajun music of the bayou on local AM radio. “By the time we got together, we just tapped into that,” says Jones.
The two cemented their friendship and furthered their musical ambition by attending several music camps over the years. Not only would they attend classes with masters of the genre, they would then jam with them and other attendees in the evening.
“We did it for a long time. Kirk got really good on accordion. I loved to dance and teach,” says Stoltz. “I got addicted to the culture and to dance.”
LISTEN: K. Jones & The Benzie Playboys, “Le danse de Mardi Gras” (from “Morning Train”)
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY, STILL ROMPING, RAISING MONEY FOR A GOOD CAUSE
While the two styles are both native to the same area, they are not the same thing. Zydeco is a blend of French, African and Caribbean musical styles, defined by the use of an accordion and a frottoir (washboard) played with spoons or thimbles. “Zydeco is more bluesy, with a stronger electrical element,” says Jones.
Cajun is folk music from Louisiana characterized by its distinctive accordion and fiddle melodies. Traditional forms rely on a fiddle, accordion, and triangle.
More modern styles of the two incorporate electric guitars, bass and drums, blending with influences from country, swamp pop and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s that amalgam where the Playboys thrive.
Mark Stoltz & Band: Performing at this summer’s Tamarack Music Festival. (Photo/Anna Sink)
Besides Stoltz and Jones, who has added fiddle and vocals to his accordion, the band includes Jonah Powell on fiddle and guitar, Doug Albright on bass, Scott Scholten on drums and Sean Dye on rhythm guitar. “With two fiddles we can do traditional fiddle Cajun,” says Jones. They often consider the gig a success by how many people they get up and dancing.
The 25th anniversary concert is also a fundraiser for Grow Benzie, the rural prosperity incubator nonprofit helmed by Stoltz’s son, Josh. It hosts a variety of activities and resources, from incubator kitchens and co-working offices to an apiary and sewing studios, and offers services such as communications, bookkeeping, grant writing and volunteer management to support other nonprofits.
The anniversary offers a chance for the ongoing partnership to party on. “It’s rare for a band to last this long. Mark and I have done a lot of gigs together,” says Jones.
It looked for a while like the band might not make it this long, nor would Stoltz. Suffering from congestive heart failure, he nearly died a few years ago before being fitted with a left ventricular assist device – LVAD – that helps pump blood to his body. He says at an early post-surgery gig, the battery pack started feeding back into the sound system, and he had to go offstage to make sure neither were going to fail.
Stoltz says they continue to enjoy one another’s company and the music.
“I go to Louisiana every winter. Kirk comes over” from Florida. That is where Kirk and Sharon winter with the bees from their businesses. At Sleeping Bear Farms, they create a variety of honey products. St. Ambrose Cellars is a restaurant, meadery, winery and brewery. At Bee Dazzled, Sharon creates a bevy of products courtesy of the bees, from beeswax candles to soaps, lip balms and body lotions.
So of course they want to party.
“We’re ambassadors of this music,” says Jones. As they say, “Laissez le bon temps rouler!”
VIDEO: K. Jones & The Benzie Playboys (Live, 2023)
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