Tom Rigney & Flambeau

The Bay Area’s Cajun music scene includes a bevy of musicians dedicated to preserving Acadian cultural roots. Incendiary violinist and composer Tom Rigney has taken a different path. Deeply versed in fiery Cajun and zydeco two-steps, low-down blues, funky New Orleans grooves and heartbreakingly beautiful ballads and waltzes, he’s wrangled some of the finest musicians on the San Francisco roots music scene in Tom Rigney and Flambeau, a band known for turning unassuming gigs into stomping dance parties. With Rigney’s searing violin, the band delivers high-energy performances marked by tight ensemble playing and dazzling solos on songs composed by Rigney and occasional classics from the Cajun/zydeco/New Orleans songbook. While inspired by the vintage repertoire of fiddle tunes brought to Louisiana in the 18th century, Rigney is a 21st century artist whose band reflects the creative cross-pollination that makes the Bay Area scene so fertile.