HOT OFF THE BAYOU

It's nine in the morning, and Fred's Lounge is packed. please do not stand on the tables, chairs, cigarette machines, booths and juke-box! warns the sign on the wall of the tiny, bunker-like tavern on the main street of Mamou, Louisiana. Despite the early hour-the club is open just one day a week, Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.-the all-white crowd is washing down breakfasts of spicy boudin with cold, long-necked beers. As the onlookers tap their toes and stamp their feet, bandleader Don Thibodeaux, backed by an accordion, steel guitar, fiddle, drums and triangle, starts to sing: "Jolie blonde,...