Irish Cajun Steve Riley grew up around music

From his surname, you would guess that Steve Riley was a player of Irish music.

But no. Riley, a native of Mamou, La., is one of the nation’s top practitioners of Cajun music. He and his Mamou Playboys will be playing Aug. 26-28 at the first American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront.

The Cajuns were originally Acadians, French Canadians forced from their homes in the Maritimes who eventually resettled in Louisiana’s swamps. Their culture has been under siege for 300 years, but has survived, thanks in part to its music.

Riley explained that there were a lot of Irish who settled in Cajun country as well. Dennis McGee, sometimes referred to as the grandfather of Cajun music, was among them.

Riley is another Irish Cajun.

“My dad’s dad was not Cajun, but he loved the music,” he said in a phone interview from his home in Lafayette, La. “Other than the name Riley, the whole family’s Cajun.”

Riley grew up around Cajun music, with his father, uncles and cousins all players. He still plays a single-row diatonic accordion built by his second cousin, famed accordionist Mark Savoy. After learning from Savoy’s energetic musical style, he was brought under the wing of Dewey Balfa, of the Balfa Brothers, at age 15. From Balfa, he learned a huge repertoire of French songs and how to sing them, and took up the fiddle as well. He went on to form the Mamou Playboys in 1988.

Riley’s experiences were typical among Cajuns.

“Every time there was a weekend get-together, there was music there,” he said. “It’s been that way for generations. They would work hard during the week; then on weekends, music was their form of entertainment. Nowadays, there’s a lot of festivals year-round in south Louisiana, and a lot of dance halls and clubs. The music is thriving down there.”

His fellow Playboys come from the same background: fiddler David Greely (his mother’s maiden name was Theriot), guitarist Sam Broussard, bassist Brazos Huval and drummer Kevin Dugas.

The group will come out with its 10th album, “Dominos,” in mid-September.

“There’s a lot of original material,” Riley said. “It’s a continuation of our last record [‘Bon Reve’], more traditional, more acoustic and folk. We’ve been together 18 years, and we’ve taken some twists and turns musically. We got away from traditional music for a while, making it more progressive and electric, but we’ve gone back to traditional stuff, which is what we do best. It’s been good to see people respond positively to it.”

The title refers to the domino effect one generation of Cajun musicians has on the next.

“[The music] is not written down; it’s passed from one generation to the next,” Riley said. “There’s songs from our heroes on this album, and our families have a lot to do with it too. At this point, we’re influencing a generation behind us. There’s a lot of good musicians coming up, and that’s good to see.”

For example, Riley produced the debut album of Feufollet, who played at the National Folk Festival in Bangor in 2003.

Music from Louisiana, whether Cajun, zydeco or Creole, has been a staple at the National Folk Festival, which was hosted by Bangor from 2002 to 2004. Riley understands why that’s so.

“It’s the type of music, energetic and soulful, that catches your attention, whether you understand the language or not,” he said. “I didn’t understand it when I started, but I was always drawn to it.”

Riley, who has played at the National and the Lowell Folk Festival, is looking forward to the new American Folk Festival.

“I love that kind of scene,” he said.