Unknown Tongues

Location: R.A. Fountain

Our promo at the time:

The Unknown Tongues have been playing their hard-driving eastern Carolina Cajun swamp music since 1989. Formed by the husband-wife duo of Bryan and Barbara Blake and based out of the Down East fishing village of Gloucester, the Tongues also include Todd Humphreys, bass, guitar, vocals; and Tom Parker, drums.

The multi-talented Bryan Blake, who makes wooden boats in his day job, plays accordion, fiddle, guitar, pedal steel, and sings. Barbara Blake, who plays guitar, bass, rub board and sings, is an occasional academic who has taught anthropology at East Carolina University. She is the author of The Fish Factory, a study of coastal Carolina’s menhaden fishing industry, published by the University of Tennessee Press in 1994.

• • • 

We had our own little Mardi Gras celebration in Fountain, complete with a king cake fresh-sent from New Orleans and plenty of beads. The night began with Myrtle Wooten asking Barbara if it hadn’t been her younger sister that was with the band last time. She also took Barbara up on her offer to try out the rub board, and she didn’t want to give it back. 

 

Tags: Cajun, Concert