Dewey Balfa

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Dewey Balfa (* 20th March 1927 in Grand Louis / Louisiana ; † 17th June 1992 ) was an American Cajun musician ( fiddler and singer).

Live and act

Balfa was one of ten children of the tenants Charles Balfa and Amay Ardoin Balfa . His father and his ancestors for generations were fiddle players. In their youth, he and his brothers Will (fiddle), Burkeman (triangle and spoon ), Harry (accordion) and Rodney (guitar ) formed a band with their neighbor Hadley Fontenot (accordion), who performed at dance events. Dewey himself was heavily influenced by the Cajun fiddlers Leo Soileau and Harry Choates and the western swing fiddlers Bob Wills and Cliff Bruner .

In addition to his appearances as a musician, Balfa pursued various jobs. He worked as a farmer, truck and school bus driver, selling cars, insurance and furniture. During the Second World War he was a shipyard worker in Orange / Texas, and in the mid and late 1940s he also spent several years in the merchant navy.

Cajun music was largely unknown until the early 1960s. Recordings by Joseph Falcon and Cleoma Breaux , Amédé Ardoin , Dennis McGee , Lawrence Walker , Nathan Abshire and Mayuse LaFleur were only successful in Louisiana. This changed when Balfa was invited to the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 with Gladius Thibodeaux , Revon Reed and Louis LeJeune and performed in front of 17,000 listeners. From then on he was active in the festival environment, in 1967 he also performed here with his family band Balfa Brothers . With the support of scholars and filmmakers, he initiated Tribute of Cajun Music in Lafayette in 1974 , which later became the Acadiens Festivals .

From the 1960s until his death, Balfa made numerous recordings (including the double album The Balfa Brothers Play Traditional Cajun Music ), but also several albums with Marc Savoy and DL Menard . He also worked in documentaries and was committed to the care and maintenance of Cajun music and culture. In 1982 he was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts . The Balfa Brothers were active until the death of Will and Rodney in a traffic accident in 1978, after which they performed with Dewey's daughter Christine and his nephew Tony Balfa . They shaped the next generation of Cajun musicians like Michael Doucet and Marc Savoy.

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personal data
SURNAME Balfa, Dewey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Cajun musician (fiddle player and singer)
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Grand Louis
DATE OF DEATH 17th June 1992