Real-Estate Refugees, Cajun Connoisseurs : Don’t let their day jobs in property sales and title insurance fool you. Acadiana’s got an authentic bayou beat.

With a little suspension of disbelief, a basic bout of amnesia or 42 beers, the Channel Islands Harbor becomes the Channel Islands Bayou.

Forty-two beers is still probably cheaper than a flight to Louisiana for some authentic Cajun music, but even more affordable is a free Acadiana gig tonight at the Lobster Trap Restaurant.

These Cajun connoisseurs will provide the soundtrack for some serious crustacean crunching, at a venue where you can tap your feet even as butter drips down your chin and while you watch nautical types glide silently by on expensive boats.

The members in Acadiana aren’t a bunch of kids playing for beer to fuel their MTV dreams. They’re adults with real day jobs--they’re realtors. But while the population of Ventura County seems to have doubled in the last decade, don’t blame the members of Acadiana.

“Hey, we do resales; we don’t want this place to end up like L. A.,” said Terry Tintorri, who plays accordion and harmonica, talks up a storm, but never sings. “If it did, I’d move.”

The other rockin’ realtors assisting Tintorri with that happy beat include Michael Irwin on bass and vocals, and Johnny Koutzoukis on drums and vocals. Denise Loik, who is not a realtor but sells title insurance, plays guitar and sings. Sometimes, Alex--just Alex--shows up to play rub board, and sometimes Randy Covington shows up to play pedal steel guitar.

“We all just wanted something positive to do during this crummy real estate market,” said Tintorri. “The market is a little bit better. It’s just the recession. Our goal is not to make any money, but to have a good time. When it stops being fun, we’ll stop.”

Tintorri got the full effect of the ragin’ Cajun culture when he went to the New Orleans Jazz Festival a few years ago. He caught a typical case of Gotta Starta Band.

“I saw a lot of bands, but I noticed when the Cajuns came on, everyone would dance; even me, and I never dance in public,” he said. “Cajun people pride themselves on making people dance. If people don’t dance, they get insulted. One old guy told me that Cajun music reaches a nerve that connects your ears with your feet. Cajun music is an attitude, and when it’s happening it causes you to dance. It just struck a chord in me.”

The next thing you know, Tintorri bought an accordion and began learning Cajun songs and started watching Cajun artists like Lisa Haley and the Zydeco Party Band. Since the other two guys worked in Tintorri’s office, it was easy to recruit them.

Loik’s “yes” answer to the question “Do you play guitar?” got her into the band. Loik had prior band experience, and Irwin was once a member of the New Christy Minstrels, a much traveled folk group.

“We’ve got the Cajun set down--we can do almost 28 songs--each of them for at least 10 minutes,” said Tintorri. “Cajun music is sort of like jazz because it just goes on and on until everyone feels like stopping. Ideally we want to have a Zydeco set and a country set as well. It’s tougher to be good at country because you have to be so tight, but I think Denise’s voice is about as good as it gets.”

And Tintorri likes the layout at the Lobster Trap and believes the place has definite possibilities.

“We played at the realtors’ picnic down at Oxnard Shores,” said Tintorri. “There were about 200 realtors with their families. We had another casual gig that went well--the Merrill Lynch stockbrokers. For gigs like that, we’ve got Denise to sort of break the ice. She’ll go out there and give a dance lesson. And since the music is peppy and zippy, a lot of people end up dancing.”

Music may have charms to soothe a savage beast, but how about a rattled realtor?

“I was on the verge of quitting the business,” said Tintorri. “But after I came back from New Orleans, I bought the accordion. Then every day I had a goal in life. In sales, you get kicked in the head nine out of 10 times every day, and music makes me want to keep going because I know I get to play some music at night. You wanna buy it? Fine. You don’t? Fine. Music gives you an attitude where you just can’t lose.”

“Right now, our goal is to get together to practice or play once a week,” said Tintorri. “If you want to be good, you have to practice. You can see that our flyers are getting better, but we need a logo, I think. Eventually, we want to do all that stuff like make T-shirts, do a tape--that’s part of the whole thing.”

Another part of the whole thing is playing music people enjoy. Most people definitely like Cajun music. It’ll have you swaying like a flower in the breeze. And that doesn’t take any salesmanship at all.

Bill Locey, who writes regularly on rock ‘n’ roll, has survived the mosh pit and the local music scene for many years.