Joe Bonsall- "I'm Leaving"

 Joe Bonsall took up the accordion at age eight after his mother. But his father wanted him to play the fiddle, so he switched to that. By age 11 he was playing professionally with Lawrence Walker and Joe Falcon. Later in 1952, he formed the original Orange Playboys.

By the 1960's, the Orange Playboys had went through many personal changes. Joe Bonsall had quit for a while when his oilfield job was busy. Around 1961, Morris Cailler hired various musicians to play at the BO Sparkle Club in Bridge City. Billing themselves as the Orange Playboys, they played four nights a week. 

While Andrew Cormier, Dallas Roy and Rodney LeJeune were in this band lineup; they soon left to form the Rambling Aces. Joe took over the Playboys and hired Haywood Doucet, Bobby Caswell, Wilson LeJeune and Joe's twelve year old neighbor named Ivy Dugas. They played at the BO Sparkle and broadcast over KOGT in Orange around this time.

Ivy recalls the session were rushed, but for their first recordings at Goldband, the band recorded "I'm Leaving" in 1962. Joe handles the vocals on the track and the recording has the rawness of the early Goldband studio recordings.

While the studio time was free, the band had to buy the records at Eddie Shuler's cost and sell them to make a profit. No one got royalty payment from the records. Even one musician was known to tell Eddie:

"Eddie you so crooked, when you die they gonna have to screw you down, because there's no way you could lay flat."

Over the next couple of years, the Orange Playboys recorded numerous sides with labels. They would record for Goldband until 1963. In 1965 Morris sold the club and the Playboys began to play bookings all through southwest Louisiana and east Texas. Joe and the Playboys would spend twenty years recording and playing. The band would record extensively for the Cajun Jamboree and Swallow label.

                                         

Resources:

Conversation with Ivy Dugas

Ron Yule Dancehall Days

Band photos- Johnnie Allan: Memories

& HIS FRENCH ACCORDIAN (1123, 1126)

V-1/acdn, Bobby Caswell (v-2/g), Wilson LeJeune (v-3/st-g), Hayward Doucet

(fdl), Ivy Dugas (d)

Goldband Studio, Lake Charles LA: 1962

-A I’m leaving-1 Goldband 1123