Cajun RV Festival 2024 - day 1 - education session

Friday was our first full day at the Cajun RV Festival, 2024, at Isle of Iberia RV Park in New Iberia, Louisiana. 

The morning started with a "Martin Accordion Experience". It seems that, at past rallies, the group has been able to go to the Martin Accordion Workshop to hear about the history and building of accordions. However, JR (maybe Junior?) Martin, patriarch of the family, is getting up in years, so they aren't doing group tours at this time. So, instead, his grandson, Joel Martin, came with "friends" to talk with us about accordions, Cajun and Zydeco music, and Cajun life and to share Cajun and Zydeco music.

The fellow on the right is (I think) Kurt Richard (ree-chard in Cajun, rih-cherd "north of I-10"). The fellow in blue is Joel Martin (accordion), then Larry Menard (violin) (son of D.L. Menard who wrote "The Back Door", which is one of the most famous Cajun songs), and Eliot Richard (Kurt's son).

Our group listening and learning

The stage area with audience -- note also multiple instruments on the bar area that we could examine.

Host of the rally, Don

The pavilion area is right by the swimming pool.

Joel shared so much interesting information. How many accordions does he have with him? Answer coming up later!

These comments are from the notes I took during the presentation, which obviously may have mistakes.

Prior to World War II, most accordions came to the US from manufacturers in Germany. There were three main manufacturers -- two were good, one was "okay". During the war, the factories of the two good ones were bombed.

Acadians, French speakers who were relocated from Nova Scotia to this area of Louisiana, adopted accordions into their music in the late 1700s. ("Acadian" became "Cajun").

These are "diatonic" accordions -- the reeds inside make a different tone on the "push" versus the "pull" of the instrument. This is unlike the "piano" accordions that you may have seen played such as on Lawrence Welk, that make the same tone push or pull, and which are much heavier (Lawrence Welk had his accordion on a stand).

Accordions are built to different keys. Before World War II they were all in the key of D - which Joel said meant that it required singing quite high (for men) and it would sound like they were screaming. Now accordions are made in different keys, and the accordion player has to change the physical instrument he is playing based on what key a song is in... I remember that when we were in Newfoundland, the accordion player had a couple of different accordions and would change which one he played between songs - now it makes sense because of a different key in the song. This is unlike, say, a guitar, that can play songs in any key.

Joel's grandfather, JR (Junior?) Martin, started making accordions about 40 years ago. Now his shop both creates new accordions and repairs accordions - a lot of their business is doing accordion repairs. Accordions can get damaged from many factors: moisture, being scraped by a belt buckle, or heat --  putting an accordion in the trunk of a car can melt the wax that attaches the reeds to the box. The reeds would then need to be re-attached and re-tuned. I think Joel said that his aunt does all the tuning of the accordions at the shop. Once tuned, they do not need to be re-tuned - the person playing the accordion does not tune it. All of the Martin accordions are custom-made and Mr Martin has not caught up on outstanding orders in 40 years!

In the 1950s, country singer, Hank Williams, brought country music and Cajun music together, and brought Cajun music more to the "masses" -- e.g. "Jambalaya".

Zydeco is an offshoot of Cajun music; the name may have been born from a misunderstanding on the name of a song (from https://pelicanstateofmind.com/louisiana-love/zydeco-music-closer-look-sound-louisiana-culture/):

The term “zydeco” is widely thought to be attributed to the late famous musician Clifton Chenier.

Chenier was a French-Creole-speaking native of Leonville, Louisiana, just outside of Opelousas. This genre of music that Chenier and others played was at first unnamed—arbitrarily referred to as just Cajun and Creole music.

One of Chenier’s most popular songs titled “Les Haricots Sont Pas Salés” derives from an old French-Creole expression similarly written, which directly translates to “the snap beans aren’t salty.” Today, the expression has taken on the idiomatic meaning “the times are hard.”

“Les haricots,” the French-Creole translation of snap beans, is pronounced “lay-zarico,” which when sung in rhythm, sounds something like “zydeco.”

Zydeco often uses the "scrub board" -- a percussion instrument like a washboard hung over the player's shoulders and played with a metal slide or spoon. 

It takes 140-160 hours to make an accordion. There are 1000s of parts.

So, how many accordions did Joel bring with him?

I see 4 in this picture that I included above (marked them with red arrows).

If you'd like to hear some of the music we heard during this session including "The Back Door", "Cherokee Waltz", and "Jambalaya", please check out this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/bRNkI82xUeY

View of our group enjoying our education session!

We're going to learn a lot about Cajun culture, music, and food during this rally!