Grammy nominee Cedric Watson, a rising star in south Louisiana’s indigenous music scene and band leader of Bijou Creole, is featured in a short ‘webisode’ on the Web site for the television series Music Voyager, which will begin airing on PBS stations in February. The short documentary on Watson, a fiddle- and accordion-playing Texas native who moved to the area when he was 20 after being drawn to Cajun and zydeco music and subsequently immersing himself in the culture, is the second in the site’s “Road to a Grammy” on-line series; banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck is featured in the inaugural webisode. Three more will be posted on the site leading up to the Jan. 31 Grammy Awards ceremony.
Watson’s 2009 album “L’Ésprit Créole” is nominated in the Zydeco-Cajun category; four other Acadiana groups are also nominated: Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet, The Magnolia Sisters, The Pine Leaf Boys and Buckwheat Zydeco.
Music Voyager is hosted by Jacob Edgar, president of the indie label Cumbancha and a former music researcher for Putumayo World Music.