Louisiana has distinctive cultural patterns in its mixes that are reflected in music able to cross social and political divides.

Some social historians maintain there are three states in one in Louisiana: New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge to Alexandria and Alexandria to the North, initiated through its historical development. Travel through these areas and listen to the sounds and watch the cultures mix and mingle, and there is a noticeable difference among these places.

Read the history of Louisiana that talks about those differences and how they came to be in scientific studies. The life that is Louisiana transforms itself in many ways along the roads that link the towns that spread from the Gulf Coast to the edge of Texas and where it touches Arkansas. New Orleans has the blues sounds, distinctly its own, mixed with jazz and gospel that pours from the bars, cafes and back streets from the Ninth Ward to the French Quarter that tourists identify with Louisiana. Cajun country, that springs from near Baton Rouge and extends to Alexandria, has its unique sounds as well. Its music has a special beat, in its rolling timbre and its sounds of accordion mixed with guitar and fiddle to bring out the flavor folks call Cajun or Zydeco when it's put together with African American blends. North central and northern Louisiana are the areas of country music, sometimes mixed with Louisiana's other musical venues, but mostly maintaining a tradition of stories set to music.

Country traditions stretch through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri long ago taken to the far reaches of the Northwest, where in Eastern Oregon they remain as strong as their origins to the South. The cultural patterns of Louisiana's music are like its political arenas that also show distinctive social and political history.

There are books that tell that story, even as the music does today. New Orleans allows Mary Landrieu in the Senate, a politician who is somewhat vilified by the conservative factions to the north. New Orleans was seen as the catalyst for the election in the early 90's of Edwin Edwards over David Duke for Governor of the state, the latter a former Klansman who took the white, conservative sections and Edwards, whose corruption eventually put him in prison. New Orleans has the runaway jazz and the down-home blues sounds played with abandon and recklessness in the style identified with its cultural and political patterns.

Cajuns continue to set their own course in political arenas, Catholic for the most part, politically divided, centrist for the most part, as political historians and active politicians declare. Its music is the mix of guitar and country to the north and the softer sides of blues to the south.

The northern part of Louisiana is the area of the state developed by English following the early settlement of French and Spanish. Those English and Scottish groups came to dominate much of the north and brought Protestant traditions and a conservative approach to social traditions and political thought. Those traditions are continued in the music of today, where country music speaks of the simple life. It relates the tales of folks gone wrong as it tells stories of Saturday night bad behavior even as its gospel music reminds people how God will judge them for it on Sunday. Music crosses political divides in Louisiana as many of its musicians play the music from all its regions, allowing people to get past differences and simply enjoy the moment in ways that make the state so special. Digital Journal spent Sunday night listening to and filming some of these musicians, joining with others in the celebration of what it is that makes Louisiana fine and how its music crosses its divides.