CAJUN BAND TO PERFORM TONIGHT

Former Southeast history student Dennis Stroughmatt and his band, The Brown Baggers, will perform their Cajun-style music at a free concert at 8 tonight at the University Center Ballroom.

The band also will perform April 15 on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion."

A native of Murphysboro, Ill., Stroughmatt picked up the fiddle after completing a project on the folklore and songs in the Old Mines area for the Center for Regional History at Southeast.

He graduated from Southeast in 1993 with a degree in history and historic preservation. He recently completed a French language program at the University of Quebec and previously worked at the Cajun Folklore Center in Vermilionville.

He recently played lead fiddle in a tour by Sheryl Cormier, a leading Cajun vocalist. The band has played the City of Roses Festival in past years and at Broussard's in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Stroughmatt will speak about his work to preserve traditional Cajun folk music and about French culture in Missouri, Louisiana and Canada at 2 p.m. today in Crisp Hall Auditorium.