Music is About Being Open
You may know Laura Huval from her band Sweet Cecilia. The Grammy-nominated artist, music minister, speaker and retreat leader also serves as music director for St. Joseph’s Church in Cecilia. We visited her in Breaux Bridge last week to see what she has been up to and to hear about her upcoming projects. Her Catholic faith has always been important to her, and earlier this month she released “Sing the Rosary,” a song cycle in which she sets original melodies to the prayers of the rosary from beginning to end. The recording has already garnered national recognition since its release earlier this month. It was featured in the National Catholic Register and was named “Best New Prayer Resource of 2024” by Aleteia.
Tell me about Cecilia. Have you always lived there?
I’m from Cecilia. My family’s from Cecilia. We all grew up in a row of the Guidrys, the Calais, the Berards. I actually grew up across from Cecilia High School, and yes I did venture out after I graduated high school. I attended LSU and lived in Baton Rouge for four years. But there’s no place like home. I call it … it’s God’s country. St.Martin Parish, y’all, we are a treasure. And sometimes it takes you leaving and coming back to really appreciate the people, the resources, the culture, the music, the food, the language, everything. I love my home.
What are you working on at the moment?
In the month of October I’m releasing “Sing the Rosary.” My Catholic faith is something that has always been very important for me—I’ve always been in the choir, I’m the music director at St. Joseph Church in Cecilia—and it was placed on my heart to sing the rosary, and so I wrote original melodies to the prayers of the rosary. It’s long, but it’s really beautiful. It’s about forty-three minutes, from the Sign of the Cross and your rosary prayers and Decades all the way to the end. I hope it will just bless people and bring them peace and joy in this world that we live in today. We need that.
What’s your dream project, or something that you’ve been thinking about for the future?
My sister Maegan and I, we really have been talking about writing more. We have a studio behind my mom’s house—it was for my late father, Al “Pyook” Berard from Cecilia—so we really want to utilize that space. We’ve been trying to doll it up, to make it feel more comfortable to be more creative, so I’m thinking about just doing more writing in general. But also one of the things that I want to do with my ministry—and I’ve already done two of them—is leading pilgrimages. Acadiana is the holy land of the United States. Our faith is amazing and just leading people on pilgrimages here around all of our rich Catholic and Christian sites, and then you put our amazing culture in there, too . . . So adding to my music will be pilgrimage, and we’ll sing on them as well. That’s what I think is next for me.
Has music always been fused with spirituality and religion for you?
For me it was. Some of my first memories were growing up in the church choir loft at St. Joseph in Cecilia. My parents met and fell in love in Cecilia—in the choir loft. My dad was the guitarist, and my mom sang. So we always had that side of it, where you can pray with music and teach people how to pray with music. But my dad was also a Cajun musician, so we had that amazing, rich treasure of Cajun music, and then I was introduced to Zydeco, and my dad loved rock and roll. I guess our background is really diverse. I love all sorts of music. I appreciate it all. I have two teenage boys, and I listen to some of their music, and I’ll think, “Man, that’s a great hook,” or “Those are some good lyrics.” I try to be open when it comes to music. That’s what it’s about, being open. That’s how you learn and you grow, when you listen to things that aren’t necessarily something you would be drawn to. I’ve learned a lot from that.
You can stream “Sing the Rosary” wherever you listen to music—Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube—or you can download it for free from her website.