This book is a method book with a collection of 14 songs by the masters of Louisiana Creole fiddle music, and an instructional online video with supplemental performances. The songs were chosen because they are either the first ones people tend to learn, were written by a master and have many possibilities for variations, or cover related styles. The method covers the technique step-by-step along with tricks necessary to perform the music. This volume is a rich sampling of core material from Louisiana roots music. Canray Fontenot is the best known Creole fiddler, and much of this book is infused withhis legacy, including five of his compositions and a video clip. Mr. Garnier hasincluded two of his own tunes, and the rest are by pioneer Louisiana fiddlers ofthe past - Amede Ardoin, Bebe Carriere, and Dennis McGee, along with zydecofavorite Boozoo Chavis. The method part of the book explains Creole fiddle technique, including bowing, cross bowing, fingering, double stops, and scratching, helping the reader learn to play in a Louisiana style. Along with learning to play solo, information is included on working with accordion players, a second fiddle, guitarists, starting a tune in a group and other tips about working with bands, and amplification. The accompanying online video shows how the songs are played on fiddle and guitar, and gives you options to turn off either instrument once you're ready to play your part. Includes access to online video

Beginning with a section of easy arrangements of popular Cajun tunes, this book progresses to more difficult solos based on the playing of various fiddlers includingDewey Balfa, Michael Doucet, Doug Kershaw, and Rufus Thibodeaux. Cajun stylings, rhythms, double stops, slides, turns and trills, bowings, and tunings are discussed throughout the book. Fiddle and guitar are used in demonstrating the tunes in this book. Comes with access to online audio including recorded versions of most of the pieces in the book. The recorded versions are played at a slower tempo than typical performance speed to allow the listener to pick out details of the Cajun style

Sara Le Menestrel explores the role of music in constructing, asserting, erasing, and negotiating differences based on the notions of race, ethnicity, class, and region. She discusses established notions and brings to light social stereotypes and hierarchies at work in the evolving French Louisiana music field. She also draws attention to the interactions between oppositions such as black and white, urban and rural, differentiation and creolization, and local and global. Le Menestrel emphasizes the importance of desegregating the understanding of French Louisiana music and situating it beyond ethnic or racial identifications, amplifying instead the importance of regional identity. Musical genealogy and categories currently in use rely on a racial construct that frames African and European lineage as an essential difference. Yet as the author samples music in the field and discovers ways music is actually practiced, she reveals how the insistence on origins continually interacts with an emphasis on cultural mixing and creative agency. This book finds French Louisiana musicians navigating between multiple identifications, musical styles, and legacies while market forces, outsiders' interest, and geographical mobility also contribute to shape musicians' career strategies and artistic choices. The book also demonstrates the decisive role of non-natives' enthusiasm and mobility in the validation, evolution, and reconfiguration of French Louisiana music. Finally, the distinctiveness of South Louisiana from the rest of the country appears to be both nurtured and endured by locals, revealing how political domination and regionalism intertwine.

Louisiana Fiddlers shines light on sixty-two of the bayou state's most accomplished fiddlers of the twentieth century. Author Ron Yule outlines the lives and times of these performers, who represent a multitude of fiddling styles including Cajun, country, western swing, zydeco, bluegrass, Irish, contest fiddling, and blues.Featuring over 150 photographs, this volume provides insight into the fiddlin' grounds of Louisiana. Yule chronicles the musicians' varied appearances from the stage of the Louisiana Hayride, honky tonks, dancehalls, house dances, radio and television, and festivals, to the front porch and other more casual venues. The brief sketches include observations on musical travels, recordings, and family history.Nationally acclaimed fiddlers Harry Choates, Dewey Balfa, Dennis McGee, Michael Doucet, Rufus Thibodeaux, and Hadley Castille share space with relatively unknown masters such as Mastern Brack, Cheese Read, John W. Daniel, and Fred Beavers. Each player has helped shape the region's rich musical tradition.

A collection of simple traditional Cajun tunes presented in the keys of A, D and G. Songs use mostly quarter and half notes. the CD includes spoken instructions by the author. Each piece is played exactly as written, then played again with a Cajun swing rhythm. Book includes all fingerings.

Presents an introduction to the fiddle, explores how musicians incorporate the instrument into different genres, and offers instruction on playing standard songs.

If you are looking for exciting and challenging fiddle solos by one of America's hottest fiddlers, this book is for you. Contains Craig's outstanding fiddle arrangements on: Dueling Fiddles; Rocky Top; Black Mountain Rag; Tennessee Waltz; Faded Love; Cajun Fiddle; Jole Blon; Gardenia Waltz; Draggin' the Bow; Granny Does Your Dog Bite?; Black-Eyed Suzie; Wabash Cannonball; and many more. Presents 60 great fiddling tunes! the CD is sparkling stereo listening recording featuring Craig Duncan backed up by a top Nashville country rhythm section!

Beginning with a section of easy arrangements of popular Cajun tunes, this book progresses to more difficult solos based on the playing of various fiddlers including Dewey Balfa, Michael Doucet, Doug Kershaw, and Rufus Thibodeaux. Cajun stylings, rhythms, double stops, slides, turns and trills, bowings, and tunings are discussed throughout the book. Fiddle and guitar are used in demonstrating the tunes in this book. The recorded versions are played at a slower tempo than typical performance speed to allow the listener to pick out details of the Cajun style. Due to the 1 hour capacity of a CD a few of the tunes in the book had to be omitted from the companion recording included in this package (songs are Eunice Two-Step, J'Ai Vu Le Loup, Je Va T'Aimer Quand-Meme, Johnny Peut Pas Danser, Le Vieux Boeuf Et Le Vieux Charriot, Les Veuves De La Coulee, Ninety-Nine Years Waltz, Quo Faire, Vieux Crowley).

In 1946, Harry Choates, a Cajun fiddle virtuoso, changed the course of American musical history when his recording of the so-called Cajun national anthem "Jole Blon" reached number four on the national Billboard charts. Cajun music became part of the American consciousness for the first time thanks to the unprecedented success of this issue, as the French tune crossed cultural, ethnic, racial, and socio-economic boundaries. Country music stars Moon Mullican, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, and Hank Snow rushed into the studio to record their own interpretations of the waltz-followed years later by Waylon Jennings and Bruce Springsteen. The cross-cultural musical legacy of this plaintive waltz also paved the way for Hank Williams Sr.'s Cajun-influenced hit "Jamabalaya." Choates' "Jole Blon" represents the culmination of a centuries-old dialogue between the Cajun community and the rest of America. Joining into this dialogue is the most thoroughly researched and broadly conceived history of Cajun music yet published, Cajun Breakdown. Furthermore, the book examines the social and cultural roots of Cajun music's development through 1950 by raising broad questions about the ethnic experience in America and nature of indigenous American music. Since its inception, the Cajun community constantly refashioned influences from the American musical landscape despite the pressures of marginalization, denigration, and poverty. European and North American French songs, minstrel tunes, blues, jazz, hillbilly, Tin Pan Alley melodies, and western swing all became part of the Cajun musical equation. The idiom's synthetic nature suggests an extensive and intensive dialogue with popular culture, extinguishing the myth that Cajuns were an isolated folk group astray in the American South. Ryan André Brasseaux's work constitutes a bold and innovative exploration of a forgotten chapter in America's musical odyssey.