KENNETH E. HALL SEPTEMBER 6, 2018 HOUSTON
The 5pm news came on, and lead with all the murder and mayhem and nasty stuff that had taken place that day. After a seemingly endless string of commercials, and the sports and weather, also interrupted by more than just "a word from our sponsors," the program had arrived at the basement of the newscast. Here were five final minutes of airtime to be filled with dancing bears, psychic cats, and other fluff and stuff.
It was a perfect time to get a snack or to go to the bathroom before the venerable anchor man Walter Cronkite would come on for his half-hour to tell the country "the way it was," for that particular day.
As I got up to get some water, I heard the unfamiliar sounds of a Cajun accordion! I was curious, so I came back and watched in fascination how a Cajun master craftsman in Eunice, La. actually made Cajun accordions.
My new job at that time was that of salesman, and I covered the entire state of Louisiana, southern Mississippi, and the Alabama Gulf Coast. I had not really gotten to know "Cajun Country" and was eager to hear the anachronistic country dialect of French still spoken in its native environment. I decided I would visit the towns of Ville Platte, Mamou, and Eunice, for strictly business purposes, but in my off time, I thought I'd pay a visit to Savoy's Music Shop, where the magic accordions were made.
After a long day on the road at work, I made my final sales call on a small, antiquated lumber company in Eunice, La. By this time I had forgotten about the music shop and accordions, but I didn't have to rely on my memory: there it was, right on the highway, just ahead!
I walked into the store and at the counter stood Marc Savoy, the owner. I recognized his face from the news show. He greeted me as I walked in, and I said: "Hi! I'm Kenny Hall!"
Marc's eyes widened and a big grin came across his face, "Does your Dad play Bluegrass?"
I was flabbergasted by his unexpected question, and answered "Yes! Do you know him?"
He asked: "Does he play the mandolin?"
I told him "yes, some, but mostly he plays steel guitar and especially the Dobro"
"Um - wait - " Mark stammered "Is your Dad blind?"
"BLIND?" I asked, even more surprised than ever, "No - although he might've gotten blind-DRUNK a time or two in his day..."
"Oh, sorry" Marc said apologetically - I thought you were the son of Kenny Hall the Bluegrass mandolin player. We both had a good laugh over that mixup, and I explained that I was just getting into Cajun music and had seen a piece the local TV station did on his accordion workshop I was curious and decided that when I'd be in the area that I'd stop in and say hi.
Now this should have been pretty much the end of the discussion, save for perhaps a small cursory glance at the workshop - if I was lucky - and I hadn't even expected that much. What came next was the biggest surprise of all: Marc said they were having a Cajun Jam Session that evening, and would I like to sit in?
I instantly agreed, but told him my guitar was in New Orleans. He looked at me straight in the eyes and said: "Kenny, I run a MUSIC store - take your pick!" and he made a broad gesture showing off the long row of stringed instruments on display.
It was settled! I'd return in an hour after throwing my stuff into a nearby motel room and freshening up and changing.
When I returned, I instantly knew I was in good company: there was a crowd of some two dozen local folks who had come to hear the music, and a host of musicians were also filing in. There was. Marc on accordion - to nobody's surprise - and he was the only one in the place I knew. There were a few local musicians and to my surprise, two couples - one from Maine and the other from Washington State! I wondered what they were doing there, but I figured that they liked this kind of music just like I did.
Then in walked two very old gentlemen - most of the folks there seemed to know them well - we all sat down, tuned up, and then the soirée began.
I must confess something at this juncture: I am not a musician - not even an amateur. I am a very good listener, but my musical prowess was limited to rhythmical strumming of perhaps seven chords on a 6-string guitar. I had sat in on a Bluegrass jam session with my Dad, and would watch my fellow pickers for chord changes, and was able to play along without hitting any sour notes. Fortunately, most Cajun songs are limited because of the diatonic accordion that is an essential to this *"chank-a-chank" music.
We all faced the audience. The girls belonging to the two couples drew out fine fiddles and they took up seats next to each of the two old men, both of whom themselves produced fiddles that had been down the road a decade or two. Their boyfriends stuck to rhythm guitar like me, so I was covered if I messed up. One or two others sat in, and we got started.
Many of the songs we played I had never heard before, and it sounded quite different, too, almost a different type of music. I watched in awe as those venerable old gentlemen played Fiddle music that could have very well been born in some country villages of France two hundred hears ago. That was one wonder. The other was the two girls who were playing the fiddles: they were watching and playing alongside these two old men, carefully mimicking and learning from those old masters - measure-for-measure, note-for-note, they faithfully reproduced this wonderful music!!
So I think it is about time to introduce the two "old fiddlers": they were none other than the great musicians Dennis McGee and Wallace "Cheese" Read, two of the best-known fiddle players in Cajun music. Dennis McGee was born right there in Eunice in 1893, and the younger of the two, who went by the funny nickname "Cheese" was born in 1923 also in the Eunice area. There was no doubt that this was local music at its best. It was anything but modern - Dennis McGee, one of the earliest recorded Cajun musicians, learned to play the fiddle at the age of 14, from an old man. Like the two girls now learning from him, he practiced with his master until he had learned those old fiddle tunes. The tunes themselves were old when Dennis McGee's teacher was young. Doing the math, many of the songs I was listening to for the very first time were written and first performed in the late 1700's!!!
Add to that the dialect of French that also dated back to that time, and the music transported the listener to that time period - and perhaps to an even earlier time still!! There I was - in the unimaginable and privileged position of actually sitting in a band and listening to these two revered fiddlers play French music from the 1700's!!! What wonderful sounds came from all of those instruments - playing the music of a culture that was soon to nearly die out.
What a great cultural experience - getting to immerse myself totally into Cajun culture - yes, of course there was some AWESOME FOOD!! And there was lots of French spoken, bien sûr! And the pleasure of seeing this wonderful but dying art form being passed on to younger folks who had a true love for it was something extra.
It was a wonderful night there in Eunice. I went back and sat in at another jam session, a few up years later, but this time, mercifully to all concerned, I played the 'tit fer - the iron triangle - that gives many Cajun songs a *"Chank-a-Chank" sound from the rhythm. Large triangles were originally made from the prongs of pitchforks, and in my opinion, are much more preferable than a set of drums clattering and cluttering up the accordion-fiddle-guitar arrangement. Traditional Cajun music was originally acoustic, of course, but in many present-day Cajun bands, fiddles and accordions are plugged in and electric basses added, so a drummer doesn't drown out the band, it actually works with it.
One day, perhaps a quarter century later, I caught up with Marc Savoy on a flight to Paris. I told him about the soirée and the musicians - at first he didn't remember, and that was to be expected - but then he remembered the blunder he made about thinking I was the son of a blind musician. I thanked him again for the invite, and told him how much that evening meant to me, and that I had begun collecting and listening to Cajun music. I was happy that someone like Marc Savoy was going to France to perform for people who were just as curious about their heritage as I was.
Every now and then I'll play one of those old recordings of that ancient fiddle music, and my thoughts will go off to the Cajun village of Eunice, where I made a musical trip back two hundred years in time, when young men and women danced to the tune of a master fiddler, and they had fun.
Mais, moi aussi, Chère! But I did, too, Dear!
And the beat goes on!! Marc is still hosting his Jam Sessions, and loves every second of it:
For information on Dennis McGee, please see:
For information on Wallace "Cheese" Read, please see:
For information on Marc Savoy, please see:
The term "chank-a-chank" was once a derogatory term for Cajun music, but it has a more positive connotation Monday's thanks to Mulâte's Restaurant on Breaux Bridge, LA.:
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