Amis Du Teche’s Cajun dance party at Summer Breeze

DOUG HILL

LOCAL COLUMNIST

Bayou Teche is a waterway in Louisiana stretching over 125 miles across four parishes. It was big and important enough to witness gunboat battles between the Union and Confederate navies during the Civil War.

It’s significant culturally to many, including residents of small town Breaux Bridge situated on the bayou. Some are descendants of French Acadians exiled to Louisiana by the British Canadians in the 18th century. Fiddler Adeline Miller named her band Amis Du Teche, translated from French, it means Friends of the Bayou Teche.

The contemporary Cajun music quartet will perform a Summer Breeze concert series installment Sunday, 7:30 p.m. in Lions Park, 450 S. Flood Ave. There’s no admission charge. Miller spoke about her music and cultural heritage. It will be her first time performing in Oklahoma and she’s bringing along bandmates Cathryn Hanks on guitar and fiddle, drummer Elise Riley and bassist Ethan Moody.

“Teche is the bayou we all grew up on,” Miller said. “My dad’s family is from here. We moved there from New York when I was a child and found a house on the bayou.”

Distances are measured in boat ride lengths. Miller formed the original band with Amelia Powell, who lived nearby.

“We’d take the boat back and forth from Breaux Bridge and did a lot of kayaking back there,” Miller said. “The bayou brought us together and we jammed there. We recorded our first album on the bayou so there are a lot of memories of the town we grew up in that brought us together. We play festivals and there’s just a lot of community that happens whether it’s on the banks or in the water.”

Miller loves to see her audiences dance and even intends to teach some fais-do-do moves from the Summer Breeze stage. The band’s shows tend to be high energy and exciting, Miller said, with audience participation and dancing.

Cajun music is heavy on the fiddle and shares similarities to country swing from these parts.

“One of the best things about Cajun music is that it’s not stagnant,” Miller said. “Very important to me is use of our language. I learned French later in life because my dad didn’t know it. Speaking French was something shameful. When I started playing, I decided I wasn’t going to just memorize sounds and not know what I’m saying. Older people would ask if I knew what I was saying and I’d say, obviously no.”

Miller remedied that by attending the French language immersion program at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, Canada. Before she knew it, Miller was dreaming in French.

“Growing up in Breaux Bridge, there was a lot of French around me,” she said. “Also, our musician community really care about their language. My grandmother speaks French and when the older people were telling secrets, that’s what they’d speak, so I heard it a lot growing up.

When I got to high school, I didn’t want to be a phony Cajun musician and really wanted to connect with the lyrics I was singing. The easiest thing for me to do was go to Canada for French language immersion, which a lot of Louisiana musicians have done. It’s hard, but it’s the quickest way to learn. You can’t speak anything but French for five weeks.”

Amis Du Teche have been recognized for their musical virtuosity by inclusion in the Louisiana Department of Tourism’s Musical Ambassador Program. The band traveled to Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia, Canada, the birthplace of the Acadians. Miller said going to the location was “surreal,” and was able to meet with Acadian family there.

There, Miller saw the Canadian faces around her, similar outgoing personalities, community connectivity but also observed the differences in food and dancing.

“They understand our lyrics and history and wanted to learn more,” she said. “We’re appreciative to the state of Louisiana for making that happen.”

Amis Du Teche have never toured west of Louisiana before booking their Summer Breeze show. Norman’s talent scouts from The Depot who organize the concert series saw them perform at the 2026 Folk Alliance International conference in New Orleans earlier this year.

“I had the best time of my life at Folk Alliance because of having no idea what I was getting into,” Miller said. “It was our first time there, and we met so many people from all over the world, including Norman, Oklahoma. We’re very prideful, of course, of our Cajun culture, but it was great to see musicians from Ireland, Scotland, the Caribbean and Mexico also entirely prideful of their folk music. It was super inspiring and made me want to go write a bunch of songs.”

Louisiana Cajun music outfit Amis Du Teche will be performing in Oklahoma for the first time Sunday evening in Lions Park.

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