Accordion Dreams: A Journey into Cajun and Creole Music is an outsider's account of her transformative obsession with Louisiana's joyous music. This title will be available from UPM in January.By age 39, Blair Kilpatrick had settled into life as a practicing psychologist, wife, and mother. Then a chance encounter in New Orleans turned her world upside down. She returned home to Chicago with unlikely new passions for Cajun music and its defining instrument, the accordion.
Captivated by recurring dreams of playing the Cajun accordion, she set out to master it. Yet she was not a musician, was too self-conscious to dance, and didn't even sing in the shower. Kilpatrick's obsession took her from Chicago's Cajun dance scene to a folk music camp in West Virginia, back and forth to south Louisiana, and even to a Cajun festival in France.
An unexpected family move brought her to the San Francisco Bay Area, home to the largest Cajun-zydeco music scene outside the Gulf Coast. There she became a protégé of renowned accordionist Danny Poullard, a Louisiana-born Creole and the guiding spirit of the local Louisiana French music community. 
Engaging, uplifting, and illuminating a unique patch of the American cultural landscape, Accordion Dreams is Kilpatrick's account of the possibility of passion, risk-taking, and change--at any age.
For news and updates on the book, as well as music links and Blair's blog, vist www.blairkilpatrick.com
For all of our West Coast readers:
On Friday, January 23, 7:30 p.m. Blair will be signing copies of her memoir at The Booksmith in San Francisco. For details on the signing contact Thomas at The Booksmith.
Blair Kilpatrick and her band, Sauce Piquante, will play at the event.
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