In February of 1978, when recently relocated Texan Dave Lang welcomed visiting Cajun musicians Dewey Balfa, Rodney Balfa, and Marc Savoy into his Mercer Island living room, he serendipitously became a catalyst in the explosion of a Cajun and Zydeco music scene in the greater Seattle area.  

His introduction to these fine Cajun musicians began a love affair that would take Dave all over Louisiana. His years learning and communing with Cajun and Creole legends and cultural torchbearers would inspire Lang to foster a community back home in the Northwest, to welcome and enjoy those artists and their music. When his two grandsons were born, they never stood a chance.  

Raised on Vashon Island, by a musical family, Cajun and Zydeco weren’t the only kinds of music Danny and David Salonen played, but they may have been the earliest. First in a family band, then in bands of their creation, the brothers took after their grandfather both in their love for Cajun and Zydeco, and their desire to watch it prosper in the Northwest.

In 2017, the brothers started a passion project – a band that could live with one foot in Zydeco’s rich history, and the other in its captivating and evolving present. This was Bayou Envie. 

Joining the brothers in their Zydeco odyssey are other veterans of the Seattle Louisiana music contingent: Mark Myking (Zydeco Rex) on accordion, Kevin Kilmartin (The Zydeco Locals) on guitar, Tai Taitano (TMB Brass) on drums, and most recently, Charles Langat on keys. Together with the boys (Danny on lead vocals and frottoir, David on bass), Bayou Envie has set out on a mission to help bring Zydeco to a new generation in the PNW and remind dance hall veterans why they fell in love in the first place.