Photo courtesy of In Concert! Michael Doucet and other BeauSoleil members perform their zesty-hot style of Cajun music. The group performs tomorrow at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St.

BeauSoleil's music explores outer limits of Creole rhythm

Lately, the Tucson music scene leans heavily toward folky, ethnic, unheard-of bands representing random genres.

Not to be outdone by other venues, the Rialto is capitalizing on this trend by bringing an assortment of such bands to the theatre this year, beginning tomorrow night with the highly danceable, down-home Cajun group BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet.

Doucet, teh leader and fiddler, is very much a leader of modern Cajun melody; he is well-known among heritage music lovers and record store owners alike. His group is booked nearly every weekend in venues around the country and sometimes the world.

The band has been together for more than 25 years and has been nominated for eight Grammy awards, including one in 2001 for its latest album Looking Back Tomorrow: BeauSoleil Live!.

Garrison Keillor, storyteller of "A Prairie Home Companion" fame, called the group "the best Cajun band in the world."

In other words, BeauSoleil is a band worth checking out.

The band's new CD sounds like Zydeco king Clifton Chenier to an extreme, exploring the limits of that genre and others. Its authentic Louisiana bayou tone is derived from a pleasing blend of accordion, fiddle and vocals, featuring shouts of "Et Toi!" and other Cajun-esque noises. Most of the band members are actually from Louisiana, and their lives have been infused with the soulful sound of that part of the country.

According to the album liner notes, Doucet's goal is to preserve the heritage of Louisiana through music. This album does the trick with such debut beauties as "Quoi 'y a Toi" and the fun, fast "Perky Dance," songs the group will almost definitely perform at the Rialto show.

In the Los Angeles Times, Doucet said tradition is as much a matter of looking forward as backward.

"(We) find a lot of different rhythms - we call them Creole rhythms but who knows what they originally were," he said in the Times.

"Someone heard a bit of something and a bit of something else, and (we) put it together. Our music culture is strong enough now and known enough to say that we can Cajunize anything."

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m. at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St Tickets are available at the door for $20 or in advance at various record stores for $16. They can also be charged by phone through In Concert! at 327-4809.