00:00:00.009 - 00:00:12.949

OK. What of, one of the things I wanted to ask you about was that, um it seems like the Belfer Brothers really have a totally, you know, your style is so unique from most of the other Cajun music you hear and most of the songs you'll

00:00:12.960 - 00:00:32.389

play are not heard by other groups, many of them anyway, you know, and where did you learn your music well, from the family and from the, from the community of which we were raised, uh where were you raised? Uh West of Mau, a little community called

00:00:32.400 - 00:00:56.500

Grand Louis. And my family was a musical family as far back as I know. Uh and some of the songs just survived from generation to generation uh in the family. And uh there was no communication with outside musicians. So the songs that a lot of the

00:00:56.509 - 00:01:14.790

songs that we, we played, uh we're all known to other musicians. Yes. You mean was your family pretty isolated, like from the other families there? Is it just in this Grand Lois? Did you feel like that was the world? I mean, was that your um back

00:01:14.800 - 00:01:37.629

then and every, everybody was isolated into their little community, like the people from, from Grand Lois or Dural or, uh, from, let's say Pine Point or long of pa, if these people in a mix, a lot of time there was, there were fights because, uh, because

00:01:37.940 - 00:01:54.209

they didn't, they didn't communicate with one another. So it's really like another, like, like your transportation. Like when you were little between these communities, you all did not really frequent the other communities at all. You just stayed there, like, like what would a community be made

00:01:54.220 - 00:02:06.949

up of? Like in Grand Louis? What would you have like? Would there be one main family who like ran most of the stores or, or what? Like how was it set up more or less like, yeah, they were the wealthy people and the poor people, the

00:02:06.959 - 00:02:25.449

sharecroppers and uh and we were one of the sharecroppers and like was there one main family there that was the um that owned the land or what? Uh not one main family, but there was, there was family families like the fusilier that, that owned a lot

00:02:25.460 - 00:02:54.190

of land uh uh the reeds um The manuals, a few of the families that I can think of the La Fleurs. Uh And this was all in K so like, like what size community was that I would say like from west of Mau, you go up

00:02:54.199 - 00:03:15.460

to about five miles west of Mammal a little further than that, about six or seven miles west of mau and, uh, it was about the same width, you know, north, south, about the same six or seven miles long. It was, uh, they call that a cold,

00:03:15.789 - 00:03:32.949

a cold. Was it lo like the name Louis? And, um, like how many families live there? I mean, was it like, there was a, there was a lot of, it was a heavy, heavy populated country area. It was, well, was your family, like, was this music

00:03:32.960 - 00:03:48.520

that the Belfer Brothers perform a style to that area or was it just mainly these songs and all? Was it mainly your family more than anything else? Well, like what are the names of some of your family? Your father was Charles and like you said, your

00:03:48.529 - 00:04:11.000

family as far back as you could remember, played music? Like was it like, what was your mom's name? Uh, maiden name was Ardan. What was her first name? Amy? Amy? And she spelled it a ma yaa. I ma ma y a ma y well, ok. So

00:04:11.009 - 00:04:34.820

did their parents play music? And did your mom on the art? I did, I don't know too much of uh the background of my, my mama's side musically. However, uh you know, Allan or l he played, plays with Bell from the show? Ok. Well, he, his

00:04:34.829 - 00:04:55.649

mom, his dad and my mom was first cousin. We learned that later. Yeah. And then your da what about your dad? What, what was his parents' name? His parents, you know, a given name with Charles and, uh, his mama's name, his mama's name. It was. And

00:04:55.660 - 00:05:23.089

she very, uh, specifically said Marie Richard. That, that's a hot, ok. J, I love that. Well, did either of them play musical instruments, Charles or? Oh, my dad. But his dad play too. Oh, yes. Where did they play? Did they, did they ever play together? Did

00:05:23.100 - 00:05:40.869

you know? Oh, no. Iii, I never have, uh, known neither one of my, my grandfathers. Did you? Do you have any pictures of them? No, I, I wish I did. I seen that one picture of your dad that you had. So, he played the fiddler. Did

00:05:40.880 - 00:05:56.500

he teach you all how to play? I mean, did he actually, well, actually he wouldn't sit down and, and say, I'm like, like, I'm teaching you but he would play for us. Now, he was in a very, ah, good musician, you know, he played more or

00:05:56.510 - 00:06:17.589

less for small gatherings and, uh, family gatherings and in the afternoon, in the evenings he would just sit with his fiddle or just Monica and he would play and tell us stories about how, how the occasions came down and, uh, how, how they had a hard

00:06:17.600 - 00:06:42.329

struggle and so on and so forth. And he told you stories like that. That's pretty amazing. He knew about that because I guess his parents had told him about it. My grandmother Mario Tarishi was very, very religious. And I remember, like, after, uh, grandpa, uh, died

00:06:42.339 - 00:06:58.329

she would, it wasn't like it is today, you know, they didn't have welfare and so forth. So she'd come and spend maybe a month at, at our house and then she would go to the next, uh, I'm gonna hurt, you will spend a month there and

00:06:58.339 - 00:07:21.140

then she would be very, she was very, very, very strict on our French, very strict. Where is that? I want to hear this member of the family to other members of the family teacher. Yeah. After, after uh grandpa died, there was no uh yeah, there was

00:07:21.149 - 00:07:38.450

no welfare. No, no way of uh earning a living here then maybe taking in washing. But everybody was so poor, they couldn't afford that, you know, have their clo closed off. So what she would do, she spend a month like at our house and then she

00:07:38.459 - 00:08:02.679

would go to another one of her child and spend a month there and she would, she was very religious and she would teach us her our prayers in French. She was very, very strict on our French, our pronunciation of words. And I thank her very much

00:08:02.690 - 00:08:25.119

because I think I'm one of the person that can explain more about little things of the old French than a lot of people don't hear. And so on the part of the front of her and, and my parents too, but she was very, very strict. She

00:08:25.130 - 00:08:53.530

we would a lot of times say with and she would say, don't say we say weep, weep, mama weep about. So like Mark's mama, she does that to Sarah, you know, in England, I say yes, yes. Um, yes. Yeah. Where was she from? Did she, was

00:08:53.539 - 00:09:16.530

she from this area or did she actually come down? Um Yeah. Well, the, the one family and the Richard family and the flo family uh was traced all the way back to the 16 hundreds in France. Where is the opinion? Uh, on the, on my mother's

00:09:16.539 - 00:09:47.390

side, her mother was, her mom was and, uh, I forgot what the question was. I was asking you where Marie came from. They were from the Church Point area. Then after marrying, they moved towards Del Pla, well, Mussel Pie Plaisance and the V flat area. And

00:09:47.400 - 00:10:06.979

then in 1926 my dad moved to Mau and I was the first child that was born after the move in the area. I was born in 27. See, I had, I was the fourth child in the family. Uh, well, they, the Children in your family. And

00:10:06.989 - 00:10:29.780

how many Children were there? Well, there was the oldest one was will second to all was uh a sister, Cecilia and next to her was Hazel. And then I was born and then, uh I had another sister, uh, her name is Dina. Do you, do you

00:10:29.789 - 00:11:01.789

know DNA? And then Harry was born in Rodney Work Wedding. Yeah, you know which reminds me this morning. Alright I had uh people that move off of my school ride about a month ago and some people moved in and I stopped this morning. Nine Children got

00:11:01.890 - 00:11:26.630

on the bus so beautiful. So you could tell though they were so well mannered. No, usually when you get one or two chil child that's when they're the real SPS but a lot of us better. Um ok, now this is a, this is a dream question

00:11:26.640 - 00:11:46.530

that you gotta just think in your mind and describe me something. I want you to describe your father the way he looked and his personality because you see it and then I want you, we'll do that first. And then my dad was, I guess the shortest

00:11:46.539 - 00:12:08.679

one out of the whole family. Uh He had two brothers and they were over 6 ft and daddy was shorter than I am and I'm 5 ft nine and he was the latter year, you know, towards the latter part of his life. He's growing up to,

00:12:09.450 - 00:12:27.669

to have a pulse, you know, like, like the Duke Dukes of Hazzard, you know, that old man was to do. And uh and he, he wore that, that type of uh clothes, you know, always. No, no, no, no. Uh you don't never watch the, you know,

00:12:27.679 - 00:13:02.609

they call them uh suspenders. Yeah, but it's what is it called? It's like the name Lee but it has, it has uh yeah. Oh overall, overall. And uh he had a very, very light skin, very smooth skin, very, very thick so hair who come with this

00:13:04.020 - 00:13:34.369

dark black and he had blue eyes. You got unique. Yeah. And he was, he wasn't one like the, the fathers of today. He would, he didn't like devote much much time and pleasing the kids. He had his orders ma I wanna ask man's with, he was

00:13:34.380 - 00:13:54.349

a very good man, but he was very, very strict like he told you, uh he would like, you know, much, we were nine of us. So we had a little mischief that we'd get into and, and he would say sooner or later it's coming and when

00:13:54.359 - 00:14:12.650

he did got a hold of a, of a, a limb or his, his trap that he used to uh do his razor on. You remembered it for a while when you pushed him too far. I guess he worked so hard, didn't he? He was a very,

00:14:12.659 - 00:14:29.729

very hard work. What did he do? Like, what was this, what was this particular task? Because it is farming. Uh Well, we farm cotton corn, sweet potatoes, sugar cane and, and you name it, you either you either grew it or you did without. So you all

00:14:29.739 - 00:14:47.809

did some for yourself and some for other people or oh no, the, well, the, the, the money crop was the cotton crop. Uh All the corn the sweet potatoes. The popcorn and sugar cane was to provide syrup for the family for the year. And uh sweet

00:14:47.820 - 00:15:07.400

potatoes, arch potatoes. And you either grew it or you did without, you grew your, your own meat, you grew your, your uh chickens and ducks and, and uh your hogs and your, your cattle and just keeping your family fit was a major, major. That's what I'm

00:15:07.409 - 00:15:23.909

saying. You know, but didn't, didn't you say y'all share crop too? That doesn't that mean you worked for other people's land or how, what does that mean? Exactly. Sharecrop or like, ok, like you own a piece of land and you've had a house. So you, you

00:15:23.919 - 00:15:42.780

would furnish the house and I would, I would work your land, me and my Children and my family. And depending on if I furnished the team to work the land or if you furnished the team, I there was a way of uh, you furnished the team,

00:15:42.789 - 00:16:01.359

the house, the land and we cultivated the land and, and, and uh when you gave them a certain percentage that was uh, that was on half. Oh, you gave them half of what you made. That is a bad deal, bad deal. You might, you might think

00:16:01.369 - 00:16:20.190

it's bad. But then if you have no house to live in and, and then the other way was if you furnish the teams, you f the land in the house where you, you work it one third and you give one third of whatever the crop was.

00:16:20.880 - 00:16:49.080

But I mean everything, even beans, potatoes, anything other than your livestock. Did he, did you want to ask you? I was just asking. Ok. Um Now, now I wanna ask you uh a romantic question here. I want you to describe like a room like like the

00:16:49.090 - 00:17:01.880

main room of your house. Describe your house, y'all lived in most of the time like when you lived in grand and describe me the room where you'd hang around at night, like was your house mainly one big room and or did you have a lot of

00:17:01.890 - 00:17:24.010

rooms off for the bedrooms or did everybody pile in a loft or no? Then we had a big family group usually had pretty good sized house. Uh, but it was like maybe one bedroom for the boys and one bedroom for the for the girls. And then

00:17:24.020 - 00:17:42.989

there was a private bedroom for mom and dad. And then there was uh like an area kitchen where they had the, the table where you would eat and usually a fireplace and that's during the winters. That's where you spend your time is in the kitchen. So

00:17:43.020 - 00:17:56.680

the kitchen was like the heart of the house. Did you have a living room or anything like that? Or was the kitchen? The kitchen was, it was a big room, I guess, is that where you'd hang around and play music and everything other than in the

00:17:56.689 - 00:18:17.339

summer, the summer would be, uh, normally the, these old time houses would have porches and you'd just sit out on the porch because there was no fans or anything to clear you up. So, you sat on the porch? Well, I wonder why the words of the

00:18:17.349 - 00:18:31.030

songs, you remember why the songs you all sing have so many more words in general than the other songs you hear most groups doing. You know, like it seemed like a lot of the songs you sing have such a complete set of words that tell stories.

00:18:31.040 - 00:18:42.780

Like you was, it just, that was your dad a good storyteller. And he remembered all these words and he would just tell these stories to you. Like he'd sing these stories and you all would remember in your head because you hear him sing stories a lot

00:18:43.030 - 00:18:58.280

and he'd hear his dad and singing these same stories because you know how most of the words are lost nowadays. But you all sure do remember all your words. That's something unique. And honey, let me tell you, it's only a very small portion of what we

00:18:58.290 - 00:19:18.900

were taught. You know, when, when, when we finally realized what was happening and we were losing all of this. It's when we started working, uh the brothers together and trying to recollect but we've lost. Oh God knows. How much did you, have you ever tried sit

00:19:18.910 - 00:19:33.069

down, did you ever sit down together and like try to recollect some songs she'll do every, like all the we did for, for a long time and a lot of times we might have, uh, a V year, you know, the, the family together and, and then

00:19:33.079 - 00:19:50.349

something was said and then maybe the following week or, or so it would some, something would pop back in my mind and then we get together and we work on it. You remember the words of some of the songs? Ok. Now, um oh, I wish I'd

00:19:50.359 - 00:20:02.599

read the list of the songs I'm using. I was gonna mention the names of some of the songs to see if you can. Anything comes to your mind like about these songs. Like I, is there any story behind them that you know, or anything like Le

00:20:02.640 - 00:20:21.260

Verve de La Cole? Is it, was it just a song your dad sang or I mean, or, or did he know anything about like where that came from? The two y'all remember? And like poly lo ao, it was just, you know, song you see, however, the

00:20:21.270 - 00:20:36.790

way it was about an unaccommodating ballet he was saying. And then one day, one day uh Rodney and, and then came over to me, Hilda and I, and we just thought we decided we'd go out on the town, you know, and we go from bar to

00:20:36.800 - 00:20:57.729

bar and we started, we started uh with a dancing rhythm like you take his ballads and do it with a dance with your instruments. And uh then we got so moved about that, that night, that the next day Sunday I went and spent the whole day

00:20:57.739 - 00:21:10.709

at Rot Nest and we were just, we just went out on the, on the shade of a tree and we worked, it, worked, it worked, it worked it. So you got the sound you wanted, you could dance to it. You took that same because he would

00:21:10.719 - 00:21:38.560

just say it without ai or you, I understand. Let me take care of Mr Le, why don't you sit down? You might say something. We don't know if you think you get inspired. No, because I took one and take no matter, no matter how poor you

00:21:38.569 - 00:22:08.619

were, there was always somebody else poor than you and them. Well, why do you think all the words, the songs have gotten lost? What happened? Why? Because of the fact that the Acadians came down and they were all four people. There were uh third for and

00:22:08.630 - 00:22:33.079

life was so hard. And as a rule, they all had big families and the only way to survive was to work the land. And uh first before you could close feed and shelter your family. And once a mom and dad had that done, they have, they

00:22:33.089 - 00:22:57.829

had accomplished a lot because when they came down, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs and there was a period in life that they didn't, you didn't worry about schooling your Children, educating your Children, you worried about surviving and therefore the Acadian, the Cajuns

00:22:57.839 - 00:23:20.010

became a lyric, looked, looked down upon because they were uneducated. Mhm. Because they, they had to work so hard just to keep up much less teachers. If you survived, you ate and you clothed your Children and you sheltered it, you had done a great job. That

00:23:20.020 - 00:23:46.099

is something that is. And then, and then it became where uh you will look down upon because you couldn't speak English, you couldn't read and write. So after Hugh Long was elected governor and started free schooling, free transportation, free lunches, then we, then you started going

00:23:46.109 - 00:24:10.189

to school and having a little schooling. And then once this uh in the thirties. So I went my first day of school, I was nine years old. And uh and then those that started uh being educated and learn to speak English, they wanted to get away

00:24:10.199 - 00:24:37.569

of that, that brand of being a Cajun. They wanted to forget the past because it was bad memories. Can you understand that? And, and I think, I think the movement started to uh to, to re recognizing and recollecting your, your uh your past, I guess when

00:24:37.640 - 00:24:58.849

the, I think in the, in the early sixties, I think the whole world was decided, hey, we're losing all of our and I think that's, that's why the away from home, you know, the Balfa brothers are much much better known for what they did away from

00:24:58.859 - 00:25:16.550

Louisiana than they are in Louisiana. I think it's the echoes, it's echoing back now. And that some of the, some of the Louisianians are, uh, started starting to recognize what we were doing. But for a long time, we were sort of looked down upon for playing

00:25:16.560 - 00:25:39.459

that old type music. Um, ok. When, all right. So when did you get your first spal? Like, how old were you? My, my, my daddy, they had a, they had a fiddle daddy played and will played. But, uh, you didn't mess around with it. And I

00:25:39.469 - 00:26:01.329

guess I was about, when I started trying to learn, I guess it was about 1011 years old, something like that. You were really young then. But I always, I always wanted to, I always wanted to be a figure, always, even when we were young, uh, we

00:26:01.339 - 00:26:23.589

had a lot of cousins and we get together like on weekends and, uh, I would play the musicians. I take two sticks and go ahead, play, play, play music with, you know, like I was playing with, with my mom and, uh, are you still there? Well,

00:26:23.599 - 00:26:36.510

um, like, ok, so you got your feeling, you started learning when you were pretty young? When did you start going out and daring to go out and playing dances? And did you, when you started playing in clubs, did you play with Rodney and all them or?

00:26:36.520 - 00:27:01.189

Did you play with some other people? Well, there was like around the holidays, uh, Christmas, New Year or birthdays or weddings. There was always, they'd have, uh, three years, you know, and I'd go in my, my, my dad or will was playing and finally I had

00:27:01.199 - 00:27:19.040

learned one or two songs that I could play well enough. So they let that little boy play his two or three songs and it started out like that in, in, in houses. And then during world war two, uh I left tonight, I left home and I

00:27:19.050 - 00:27:40.040

went to work at a shipyard. Where was that in Orange Texas, like we did, um I guess I was about 1617 years old. And then I, I was in the merchant Marines for 3.5 years and I had kind of gotten away from Cajun music because the,

00:27:40.050 - 00:27:58.780

the people that I was associating with the musicians did know, I've never heard of Cajun music that it's a very unique rhythm and uh car changes and whatnot. So I had, I more or less got away from my Cajun music till I came back after the

00:27:58.790 - 00:28:17.349

war, came back and I started playing uh and I close, I started playing with other people. And then we, we, the brothers realized that, you know, we could play, we could have a little group. And back in 48 we organized the brothers, we called ourselves the

00:28:17.359 - 00:28:34.060

musical brothers. And like, like I wonder how old you were when you came home after all this, traveling to merchant marines and working in the shipyards. About 22 21 22 years old, something like that. Well, so like when you were away and you had your fiddle,

00:28:34.069 - 00:28:49.199

did you try playing the fiddle with the other people? Like, what kind of stuff were y'all playing? Swing swing? So you were playing all that stuff and then when you came back, um, I guess Cajun music, like who was sort of playing? What were you hearing

00:28:49.209 - 00:29:12.209

when you came back here? The first, the first group that would play uh Cajun music, a mixture of Cajun and, and country or Texas swing. Whereas my and J be fusil, he would play for, he would play for dances and about, you know, every so often

00:29:12.219 - 00:29:33.920

he would throw an occasion song. And I've, I've always, I've always could tell when he just, he just kind of fiddle around whether he was going to play first song or not. This is what you mean right before it started, I knew where is he from?

00:29:34.160 - 00:29:56.290

He was from Munich. And then, uh, the first accordionist that I remember hearing after World war two was old man. Uh ALF Bargeron and the veteran playboys. Did they go all the way to, uh Lafayette to do a weekly program? I'm gonna put, I wanted to

00:29:56.300 - 00:30:14.319

interview Shirley too later, you know, about his day. I get to talk about that because I love, I have a nice picture of Mr Bergeron and Mr Nathan. If I can find that I want you to, I want you to see if you can use it

00:30:14.329 - 00:30:30.829

or not because they were both, you know, uh, very, had a lot of influence in, uh, the renaissance of traditional Cajun music. Yeah, I was, I want to include too. So I, I'm glad you mention that because I, since Nathan is deceased, I wanted to ask

00:30:30.839 - 00:30:47.479

you some questions about him too and I hadn't polled that of his. Um, ok. Well, how come I wonder why y'all never heard jokes.com and all that. You were just not near enough that they were from Rain and Lafayette area. You see that you never traveled

00:30:47.489 - 00:31:04.130

that before and there was no, you didn't have little 70 eights or anything. No record players. Well, I can remember when I, when I don't remember what year it was. They went and recorded some, uh, 78 in New Orleans and then people would come and peddle

00:31:04.459 - 00:31:26.599

those little hand carried, uh, record player so they could sell the records. You see, and, uh, like few people could afford to buy the record player. And then the neighbors would buy, I say if I buy one record and we would buy one record from the

00:31:26.609 - 00:31:46.589

same neighborhood but not the same from the same person, maybe from Enjo last Lee, uh Joe Falcon. Uh, what different layers, layers like flood and the rose and then every so often, maybe every once a week, uh twice a week, uh Every of the week, the

00:31:46.599 - 00:32:02.969

whole neighborhood would get together with whoever had this record player and they each play that record. So y'all, y'all actually did this when you were young. Y'all, y'all, y'all have records and you wish you, so you all get together. So that's, that's pretty neat. Well, I

00:32:02.979 - 00:32:16.589

guess so. I guess you didn't get to listen to them much, but I wonder if those things influenced you? OK. Let me just, this is a really important question here. See if you can answer this one. Um OK, like when you were learning how to play

00:32:16.599 - 00:32:31.430

the fiddle, OK? You knew you wanted your fiddle to sound a certain way, right? And you knew you had to do certain things with your hands to make your fiddle sound like, say your dad or you know, these people you admired, what were some of those

00:32:31.439 - 00:32:47.479

things that you wanted to do with your fiddle to make it sound the way you wanted it to sound? Like? What were some of the techniques you've employed? Well, I, the one thing my daddy always said when we, when I was learning to play, you have

00:32:47.489 - 00:33:11.339

to learn to always have the sounds of two strings no matter where you are on either string. There's a harmony with an, with an open string of which is a drone. Like you, you know, we, we do a lot, we do, a lot of drones are

00:33:11.869 - 00:33:26.750

the, the double stop. Are you talking about two notes in harmony or the same note? One, the octave thing? Ok. You know, when you have the same note, one of them is real high and one of them is a little lower or the same note at

00:33:26.760 - 00:33:56.630

the same time. You know how you play the same note on those strings. Yeah. But it, it would make like maybe a card or a drone. OK. Like if I have a boat, I would, that's your two strings together. So OK. OK. All right. He always

00:33:56.640 - 00:34:22.590

said if you, if you had a note like this and if, if the, the, a string didn't give you a harmony, like over here there's a harmony with the other string, but always you could always have fun harmony with the string. You're playing to the open

00:34:22.600 - 00:34:41.530

string. Always, you always should be able to do that. But when you said a double stop, would you, it would be like instead of uh OK. So if it didn't harmonize, you'd put your finger on the other string. So that's your double stop. OK. That was

00:34:41.540 - 00:35:00.830

one of the things. OK. What, what's something else you, he taught you about it? Or, or what was another sound you used the two strings? Al al also, always, instead of getting a E just rubbing the E string and get your E sound. Always get the

00:35:00.840 - 00:35:28.889

E on the A string. So you play them both together. You, you're, you're always twice as strong. See, and that's where the, the, the strength of occasion. Fid Fid comes in and uh OK. And if that was one of the hard things for me to learn

00:35:28.899 - 00:35:53.080

to do instead of, instead of just uh boiling the E string open, I've got the same sound. Only it was so weak, it was so on. Yeah, I didn't have the, the spark or, or any other, any other notes that you, that you, you can always

00:35:53.179 - 00:36:12.989

mean a double stop. You're twice as strong. I see that. Uh huh OK. That's, that's the three main things then right there. And um like, what about like, did you like, did you wanna try to achieve a whole lot of notes? Like you wouldn't just play

00:36:13.000 - 00:36:29.570

your melody, right? You wanna have, you know, like I say, it's your turn to take it like um like, what are some things you would wanna do to show up as a Cajun fiddle player when you take it? Like um what these techniques, those things there.

00:36:29.580 - 00:36:42.399

And um Mark said to me one time that a Cajun player never really just hangs on one note for a long time. But you try to keep things happening all the time. Is that right? You agree with that? You always try to keep um exciting things

00:36:42.409 - 00:37:05.750

happening in the melody. If I had a bow, I could tell you I could show you. But, you know, you can make, I see. Uh, I wish I had to go deliver some version. But, ok, 1011. Ok. I guess I can leave your. Ok. Um, ok,

00:37:05.760 - 00:37:29.110

one thing I wanted to ask you was, what about the bone stroke that is so important in getting the cy, it's the accent, it's the accent of, uh, what, what happened of traditional Cajun music. You know, you can play uh Nashville music, Cajun music or you

00:37:29.120 - 00:37:54.570

can play Canadian French music. But the Boeing is the bowing and the rhythm is the thing that tells you whether it's traditional Cajun music or not. Right? Well, can you describe like what you do? Well, in waltz time, I have, I have a problem describing music

00:37:54.580 - 00:38:20.409

because I can't read and I can't write, uh I feel music. Uh But like, you know, waltz time and Rodney and, you know, like you said, the family had, I guess our own style of playing music, but always liked the open cards for the reason that,

00:38:20.419 - 00:38:48.689

that when you hit an open card, the strains will keep on raining and it doesn't drop like when you play mute that when you go and there was always a lot of uh emphasis on like when the, the, like the song is changing that there was

00:38:50.560 - 00:39:09.439

a run like you call a run, you know, like you do a pick a run on your guitar and that, it always ended at the same time that the phrase of that song ended. Ok. So you'd start the next sprays with your feet in with a

00:39:09.449 - 00:39:26.750

run and then you'd start with the feet. So, in your fiddle. Ok. Now, let me tell you something else about the, the, the guitar part there was like, there was a one stroke open and then he would hit maybe the bass car. Like he would a

00:39:26.879 - 00:39:50.370

bass guitar, I mean, uh yeah, bass guitar and then he would go down and coming up, he would hit the little string, which I had people to listen. No, it was, it was more of a shuffle and, and, and they asked who was playing guitar, who

00:39:50.379 - 00:40:12.719

was playing uh base and who's playing triangle and there was only Rodney and I playing and you could really hear all of this in his, in his rhythm and the Boeing is on, on the, on the heavy beat. Uh I would, I would, my boy is

00:40:12.729 - 00:40:30.040

just like, when, when he was uh rhythm uh rhythming his guitar. I do the same thing. I, I just think that I'm, I'm just strum a guitar and you do the same. I do the same thing on my bone. Could you say it? Like, um you

00:40:30.050 - 00:40:54.199

know, like if it was a stretch you'd go boom and then you get chick boom. Like what? Like if you were doing a waltz if I said boo, boo, you see, so it's, is it like that dude? But you do, you emphasize on that, on that

00:40:54.209 - 00:41:11.479

heavy beat with the b just like you do with the, with the bass and the guitar or the drum or uh OK. Um And, and, and the same thing with your finger, if you're fingering and you're playing, uh I have the same thing in, in the,

00:41:12.620 - 00:41:32.770

you know, the feeling on the strings. You mean you press, you emphasize with your strength, that's why the rhythm is so strong. You do a little run maybe when you're doing the chick and the stress that I would just have the same feeling with the bone

00:41:33.449 - 00:41:55.909

uh on the string, on my fingers, on the string as I have with the bone all at the same time. And you learn, you learn to do that and that's the, that's the, that's the Cajun Cajun, the extension of, of rhythm. Well, would you say like

00:41:55.919 - 00:42:14.020

then you press harder on it when you press harder on your bow and then you loose, you lighten up a little when you're lightening up on your bow. Yeah. OK. OK. Say when you and will uh play together. Did you all harmonize or did one of

00:42:14.030 - 00:42:34.050

you actually s second? Just like a very few songs that would, would harmonized. But, and the few we did was not uh from learning from, from the parents. It was from learning from other, you and other people there. But, uh, like one of us would, would

00:42:34.060 - 00:42:53.439

lead either with, uh, one would lead. The other one would like, double stop. If you play in G, you double stop, you've got your G card and you got your bowing going just like, if you're bowing with guitar rhythm or, like, for instance, like I will

00:42:53.449 - 00:43:18.219

f, uh, I play, he will play his lead and I play like uh below, he plays a uh a higher pitch and I play instead of, instead of just seconding, I play the, like the big, OK. So those are the different choices you need. OK. Well,

00:43:18.229 - 00:43:37.149

that's that his foot could play the best player because I know that's what uh Mark's grandfather always told him too. He said, get your foot right first. He said, and then you might have, that's just what you're saying about the, um getting your hand and your

00:43:37.159 - 00:43:53.590

bow, the same as the hand of the guitar player and everything you use a month said, if he could play it, everything comes from the LA, you know, you gotta have that leg go and then everything else goes with that leg. Really? Anyway, you're not tapping

00:43:53.600 - 00:44:11.120

with your feet anymore. That's neat. OK. Describe for me, like, say you went to play dance in an old time dance hall. Describe an old dance hall the way it looked what was going on that people drank with their babies sleeping in the corner or was

00:44:11.129 - 00:44:32.639

that way before your time or? Oh, no, I remember those. Will there be a balde nasal or there would be Baldez? But there was also what it was known as dance halls. And you just, uh, imagine that you're walking into this big building and 90% of

00:44:32.649 - 00:44:59.649

the time there was no ceiling. You could see the, uh, the rafters and all along the walls, there were benches built all along the walls. Sometimes too high, sometimes too high. Like you would have beaches at school. And, uh, the, the, the mothers would escort their

00:44:59.659 - 00:45:21.649

daughters to the, to the dance hall and they would bring along the little Children. Ok. They would sit there on, on these leas as the, as long as the dents went on. And then as you walked in, there was a, there was a fence and like

00:45:21.659 - 00:45:38.340

a, like a gate. Like you walking into the yard, there was a small portion of the dance hall that, uh, you could come in and watch the people dancing, listen to the music if you didn't have any money to pay to go into the dance hall.

00:45:39.969 - 00:45:54.810

And, but she stayed there. So you didn't have to pay for the music, but you had to pay to dance, to dance. That's still the way it is today, isn't it? That's interesting. Usually, you know, in other parts of America, you have to pay to hear

00:45:54.820 - 00:46:11.820

the music and if you dance, you're usually not even allowed to dance, you have to pay you. Um That's one of the things, if I may say that's one of the things, Mark and I, I was, I was hoping that the people of this area would

00:46:13.169 - 00:46:33.189

learn to go to a concert and listen to music instead of just drinking and dancing and hopping around, you know, to show off. And that was the thing that we, we had hoped that would, but I think Mark is, don't give up about it in, in

00:46:33.239 - 00:46:55.409

an environment. Oh, I, I'll never give up, you know, but you see music, you see, like when you go to a dance and, and, and you don't really stop and listen to music, you don't know how beautiful music can be unless you sit and you play

00:46:55.419 - 00:47:18.459

acoustically and you listen to the function and the heart of the, the heart flowing of a musician through his instrument. Ok. At a dance you can't, you can't do that. But at a concert or if you, or, or maybe at, at a gathering where people just

00:47:18.469 - 00:47:36.489

sit and play soft music. It's, it's so, it's so much more beautiful than heart sounds and so on and so forth. Well, I guess when you used to go to dances they wouldn't have had, or would they have started? Well, I'm thinking, I don't mean when

00:47:36.520 - 00:47:53.000

you were little but, you know, when you were 22. Yeah. And all they had was, what was the band like? Tell me they would be, there would be, I can still see, uh the Hag Bear Ramblers. I can still see JB Fuss, still see uh le

00:47:53.139 - 00:48:17.590

rotate. And there was one mic, first amplification that they would, that was used was one mic and a lot of times they didn't have a mic stand, they had a wire that they would uh tie the, the, the microphone hanging from the, from the R and

00:48:17.600 - 00:48:34.580

there was 11 mic for the whole group, but the whole group was maybe three or four people to move, maybe a uh a fiddle and two guitars, sometimes a triangle. But they wouldn't use much triangle in Arles. And there was no accordion at all at that

00:48:34.590 - 00:48:50.120

time. Uh the accordion were there. But, but they had, you see, it was like, this was uh like the accordion had fade away. Oh, like this was sort of later there. It used to be, they're back in the thirties and stuff, right? And then it faded

00:48:50.129 - 00:49:10.469

away. And you're talking about when JVK and all them were playing, it was two fiddles, maybe two guitars or one fiddle, but mostly one fiddle guitars, guitars and then, then, then, then the accordion reappear. And when it, when it did, it was like uh Mr Bargeron,

00:49:11.340 - 00:49:35.110

the FF Bargeron, Nathan F the rig. Some of these people that had the, the biggest influence in bringing back the the squeeze box. I really showed where the seat in what time uh after World War two, this is at the same time with these other people

00:49:35.129 - 00:49:59.409

or no, this was after, this is after I read you talking or, or is he after what you're talking about? I just, uh wouldn't he be before them or would he be after he was after the, after the welcome? Ok. Um I still didn't quite get

00:49:59.419 - 00:50:16.649

straight win. Like, how did you come about getting your first? Like, did somebody get, you told me before you got it from a spal catalog or something? Well, first of all, I, uh first of all, I had uh I used uh dad and Will's fiddle and

00:50:16.659 - 00:50:33.830

then I bought a homemade fiddle which I, I wish I'd give a lot to, to have kept that feeling. Uh But then I, I started working out in the field at 50 cents a day and I will save my money till I till I save enough

00:50:33.840 - 00:50:57.719

money. And I ordered one from Spel 1750. I'll never forget that. Was it a natural or was it pain? It looked much like the fiddles mark gets from the Japan. Did it sound good? Good enough for you? I know. I don't know the difference. Too much

00:50:57.770 - 00:51:13.090

of it. I didn't know. Ok. Um When you were, you, did you, would you consider that you were kind of AAA dandy when you were young? Like, were you kind of a wild young man or were you a very serious, quiet sort of person or, or

00:51:13.100 - 00:51:30.760

were you a party boy? I was very a ladies man. You were, can I can, you're a Rambler? A bumble show? It's on you. Mm. Not too much drinking because we didn't have money. However I drink my share. You know. But I like to go, I

00:51:30.770 - 00:51:52.320

like to have fun. I like to be with people and, and I, like I said, I was gonna kind, did you like to dress up like a girl? Uh No, I, I never believed in that one when I would go with a little girl. You know,

00:51:52.610 - 00:52:13.209

I didn't mess around but you, you like to get fixed up nice. You still, do, you still have to look nice. I remember you and your hats and that uh thing. Those are some neat looking hats. Um OK. This is a real, pretty obvious question for

00:52:13.219 - 00:52:28.629

us but you know, for my book, it wouldn't be. What part did the French language play in your life? Um Was it spoken everywhere? And, and as a child, were you aware that there was all around you in your country? Nobody spoke French. Did you know

00:52:28.639 - 00:52:42.219

that? Like did you know you were part of America where everybody spoke English? And y'all were, I mean, in other words, Grand Louis was your world. You weren't aware of the rest of the United States beyond you. And that the people didn't speak your language. Oh,

00:52:42.229 - 00:53:01.750

there was a few people that spoke English but they were so few and far apart and they were called Americans and we were French. And uh did you, so you all really thought you, you all were French. It was, you were Frenchmen. You were not Americans.

00:53:01.760 - 00:53:15.699

You were Frenchmen in this part. You didn't say you were in this country, you were in this country and you were aware that you were in a country where you all were another, um, segment of people, right? You all felt that you were a special group

00:53:15.709 - 00:53:32.360

of people that spoke French and you all were separate from these Americans. That was another, yeah, it was, it was, uh, you see, back, back when I was young, I can remember, I don't know if wi remembers that but, you know, very few French speaking people

00:53:32.370 - 00:53:51.629

would marry and, uh, somebody didn't speak French or the same thing would be religious and religious faith. You know, very few Protestant would marry a Catholic or cat, you know, vice versa because, uh, I don't know why. Well, it just wouldn't be very good for making

00:53:51.639 - 00:54:07.290

your family strong. I think that's why a lot of the people are all related in my. Yes. Really? I guess so because it was so small in here because you could find in a small, small area, not really in a small area, but compared with everything,

00:54:08.199 - 00:54:30.120

I think. That's why a lot of the occasionally people, rich people all r, some part now. Yeah. Well, um, like as a young man, what were your attitudes about life? Like, can you relate back to that as a, as a mature adult now? Like, as a

00:54:30.129 - 00:54:50.060

young man? How did you see yourself in the world? And, like, what, what was your kind of philosophy of life or did you have one? Oh, it's hard to explain because like we, we worked in the field all day and maybe on, on Saturdays or Sunday

00:54:50.070 - 00:55:12.429

afternoons or Sundays, uh, the family would come, the cousins on or the neighbors and we'd go hunting with the slingshots or, uh, we couldn't afford to buy shells or anything like that. But, uh, we'd go out and hunt and we'd bring maybe, uh, a little bit

00:55:12.439 - 00:55:30.260

of salt and pepper and whatever we killed. We just camp and, and cook what we had to eat there. Like when you were a little boy or when you were a young man, I was even when I was, where are the team? This is fun? And,

00:55:30.270 - 00:55:53.060

uh, and II, I knew that I always knew that we were very, very poor because we had very little or nothing. And I can remember when I first started, uh, working out awake when I moved away, I can remember like seeing people with automobiles, how lucky

00:55:53.070 - 00:56:12.620

they were to, to have an orthoped. And I thought that I would never, never, never own an automobile because I could never get over the hump to accumulate money. Buy an normal. So you, at that time you felt your future looked in how you thought you

00:56:12.689 - 00:56:31.939

were gonna work. I thought that I was gonna live like I was brought up, you know, very is now the law would bless me. Well, like how, so you went to school and you became educated and how did you get into your next job? What was

00:56:31.949 - 00:56:45.840

your next job? Well, then you went to the merchant marines. When did you start selling insurance? How did that come in? 52? Was that your first job or your uh well, after the ship yard. Yes, it was a no, after we married after Hill and I

00:56:45.929 - 00:57:11.040

hired uh a form for three years, two years and then the third year when I was selling insurance. Uh Well, I did a little work uh in the osteo maybe border on and I guess that's the extent. So that was so that where do you find,

00:57:11.439 - 00:57:27.000

where do you think that you um well, I wanna say made your fortune but you know, and what did you find was the way you made your best living, making your insurance? Some insurance. Well, insurance was very good to me. However, I had, when I first

00:57:27.010 - 00:57:51.959

started, things were uh so bad that I could not have made a living just with insurance. So I fall back on my music, my music was, was very, very good to, to me and my family because it always gave us the, uh, spending money for the,

00:57:52.360 - 00:58:07.899

for Hilda and the Children. Monday morning, I'd go work on Sun Saturday and Sunday, maybe Friday. But Monday morning we had money and if I didn't, a lot of the times we didn't have money, we couldn't, uh, she couldn't have gone, bought what she needed for

00:58:07.909 - 00:58:28.209

the Children, for the house because the job I was just barely surviving with the insurance job too until I got started. You see, that took about three or four years before I got the ball rolling. We struggle. No, I bet. Ok. Uh, ok, we say time

00:58:28.350 - 00:58:41.080

is we have a few more questions for you. Um, describe your mom and sort of like, what were her tasks at home? And did they work in the fields with you or did they do the things in the house? Because I know there was an enormous

00:58:41.090 - 00:59:02.989

amount she works. I tell you what my mama has. I've not to my knowledge she has never laid a hand one of her child. She was, if there was an argument uh, among the Children or among uh the neighbors or she was always one to say,

00:59:03.000 - 00:59:19.939

well, you should forgive, you should take your time. Don't get mad. But, and she was like, she'd get up, she would fix breakfast for us. And then after she had done that. She would come and work in the field with daddy and, and, and trust you.

00:59:20.629 - 00:59:40.179

And at a certain time, like maybe 1030 11 o'clock, she would leave the field to go cook dinner and, and then she was like, when we started, we, we got grown up, like I remember Harry and I, we, we played dances every night, every night, every

00:59:40.189 - 01:00:00.239

night. But a matter of fact, we played eight gigs a week. We played Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, one another. And we wore nothing but white shirts, white shirts with a, with a, with a little, uh you know, those little gamblers, black t uh and she would,

01:00:00.780 - 01:00:27.429

she would every night, every night, every afternoon went to leave. You had your white shirt on your pants, was on your socks, your handkerchief, boy, I don't see how they did it. I have such admiration for that, you know? Ok. And she would never, never say

01:00:28.229 - 01:00:48.149

it's hard. Never, I don't want to drive it. It breaks your heart too far. Think about your mother and to think of the life that must have been, you know, and she never complained and we're such spoiled women now, you know, like the things that I

01:00:48.159 - 01:00:59.760

don't do compared to what she did, you know, and to think like I grew up all the time, I know. You know, that's what Mark said. He said, he said we are we humans even the best, the better we've got it. He said we have, we're

01:00:59.770 - 01:01:16.919

not happy unless we have something to complain of. You know, you and I were talking and, and I told him, my daddy ran in there wolf and he advanced the foremost by a year. And most of the family then they, they all had 1012 here and

01:01:16.929 - 01:01:35.000

the bills would never run more than 45 and $27 for the year. That was for the whole year for the whole thing. I remember one time he, he wore glasses, you know, and, uh, some of the people now there, rich people who come, but he advanced

01:01:35.010 - 01:01:54.560

them people up to $35. But that was fertilized. And at the end, he started looking over the glasses when they would get around 30 $35. But, you know, he had to pick up a few nickels earlier, be able to survive and advance if you had maybe

01:01:54.590 - 01:02:12.909

100 100 and 50 farmers. And he was back in the whole year. That, and that was, you had to raise everything home and then you survived with 25 or $30 per year. You were hoping that you could pay the life of the farmer has always been

01:02:12.919 - 01:02:27.300

so hard. I mean, just hard, hard, hard, but you always had the satisfaction of actually making your own food, you know, which is to me, the purest kind of life. I mean, it's such hard and it's the odds are against you, you know. But it's really

01:02:27.310 - 01:02:43.379

hard d that's you. That's been a wonderful interview. I can't wait to, I'm gonna write it down to give you a copy of it because it ought to be real neat. Put together. Did I forget anything important in your life that we need to talk about?

01:02:43.389 - 01:02:59.860

I, I didn't talk about your recent life really much about Hilda. And like, when, like, what age were you when you got married and named the Children in your family? You were 22 and what was called as maiden name? And like, what are the names of

01:02:59.870 - 01:03:24.370

the people in your family? My Children, the oldest, there's an elder and then Robert Norma and we had uh Dey Junior and then, uh, Christine. So you had a fairly large family too and your married life, you play music and you still have insurance. Uh Yeah,

01:03:24.409 - 01:03:45.459

I see. Like I said, I've formed for two, well, two years, actually about three years and then I went to sell an insurance and uh I couldn't, I couldn't provide for my family just with the insurance. So I played music on weekends and I did that.

01:03:45.469 - 01:04:04.719

I just drunk all my life and then 15 years ago is when I decided to got that scope that right? And then the world is going on and brought you all over the world since the sixties or 64. The first, the first trip I made was

01:04:04.729 - 01:04:37.270

1964. You've got a, who was it? Who, uh, had found you? Was it Ralph Prince there? And then, then we've traveled a lot all over United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico. Oh, I have often said we were a big family. We had a lot of love. We

01:04:37.280 - 01:04:59.239

had a lot of closeness. We didn't have any money and had daddy left me or left us, uh, the money to travel and see. But so much of the world as we have, I would have never bought, probably never bought the first Earth Fair to fly

01:04:59.250 - 01:05:25.850

to New York to Paris or to Juneau, Alaska or Mexico City. And I may have spend it foolishly but, but he left me, uh, musically, nobody can steal it from me. Nobody can get me out of it. And I think this is one of the most

01:05:25.860 - 01:05:55.899

wonderful things that he could have left me because no matter how much money he would have left me, I could have never bought the knowledge of music that we have. Find that too. No, I don't say I wouldn't mind having money enough. Yes. That doesn't hurt

01:05:55.909 - 01:06:03.110

at all. 50 cents a week.