Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music

Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music
Studio album by Various Artists
Released	March 5, 2002
Genre	Cajun, Zydeco
Length	44:06
Label	Vanguard
Producer	Ann Savoy

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
No Depression	(Favorable)

Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music is an album of Cajun music by various pop and rock musical artists, released in 2002. It reached number 6 on the Billboard Top World Music chart and was nominated for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 45th Grammy Awards.

Producer Ann Savoy's goal for Evangeline Made was to demonstrate the affection of popular artists for Cajun music. She enlisted various pop performers along with members of BeauSoleil, her own group with her husband accordionist Marc Savoy and fiddler Michael Doucet of the Savoy Doucet Cajun Band as well as other musicians to "renew and extend Cajun tradition rather than simply re-create it."

Vocal performances include two duets by Linda Ronstadt and Savoy, John Fogerty, Rodney Crowell, Patty Griffin, Nick Lowe, Maria McKee, and David Johansen. Each song is sung in French even though most of the artists don't speak the language. The two instrumental tracks do not identify the musicians performing.

Evangeline Made was nominated for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 45th Grammy Awards.

Music critic Richie Unterberger, writing for Allmusic, rated the album 4 of 5 stars, writing: "The production is understated and sympathetic, as it's neither hardcore Cajun music nor Cajun music that's been bleached into pop… Purists might find this something of a sellout, a dilution of the real and rawer thing for ears unaccustomed to the real deal. Perhaps they have viable points, but here's a fact which might be hard for them to face: this simply has much more variety, skillful singing, and thoughtful, pleasing production than most Cajun records do, without compromising the spirit of the music."

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