Ervin LeJeune & Jake Bertrand with the Calcasieu Cajuns- "Lacassine Breakdown"

                                       

It was only natural that Ervin Lejeune follow in his father's footsteps. He remembered as a small child that his father would put him on  his lap and let him play his accordion. Being his father was Iry Lejeune, it would be only a matter of time before people started asking him to play.

Ervin grew up exposed to Cajun music and musicians. At the age of 9 he began playing at dances where the band would let him sit in with them. In 1963, Ervin played at a tribute to his father in Bridge City at the Sparkle Paradise. By 1963, he moved to Sulphur for work and began playing with musicians in the area. One of those musicians he met was Jake Bertrand. 

Jake was playing in a group at the time called the Calcasieu Playboys. The group was started in 1947 by Louis Lopez from Elton. Louis never had a set group of members for his group and sometimes use a pick up band.

 By the late 1960's, the group had members that included Garland Domingue, Atlas Fruge and Lenis Lapoint. The group would play clubs though out southwest Louisiana including the Blue Moon and The Shamrock. Sadly, Louis never made any recordings with the group and passed away in the 1970's. It seems when Jake took over the group they changed the name to the Calcasieu Cajuns.

But it was in the late 1960's when Ervin met up with the group and started playing with them. Buck Records was a early label of Clinton "C.E." Diehl out of Jennings. It was around this time that the Calcasieu Cajuns with Ervin recorded one 45 rpm record for the Buck label. The record seems to be the first recordings of Ervin.

At Diehl's studio in Jennings, the group recorded a cover of one of Iry's first recordings called "Lacassine Special" and titled it "Lacassine Breakdown". 

Ervin's accordion playing on the record shows a eerie resemblance to his father's playing. On the recording with him was Jake Bertrand on fiddle, Atlas Fruge on steel, Lennis Lapoint on guitar, Elwell Brashear on bass and Tan Benoit on drums.

As for the Calcasieu Cajuns, the group disbanded after Jake Bertrand became ill and passed away. Ervin had been playing with Jake's son Robert and would join him in the Louisiana Ramblers.

                                    

Session info:

ERWIN LEJEUNE, JAKE BERTRAND + THE CALCASIEU CAJUNS

V/acdn, Jake Bertrand (fdl), Atlas Fruge (st-g), Lenis Lapoint (g), Elwell Brashear 

(b), Tan Benoit (d)

C.H.Diehl Studio, Jennings LA 1971

SH 1575 Calcasieu Playboys waltz Buck 501

SH 1576 Lacassine breakdown Buck 501

Resources

Ron Yule- Iry Lejeune- Wailin the Blues

Ron Yule- Cajun Dancehall Heyday

with thanks to Jesse Lege and Jo El Sonnier

Jesse Lege and the Jeff Davis Ramblers- Jeff Davis Ramblers Special

                        

Jesse Lege was born north of Gueydan in 1951. He was the fifth of nine children and he grew up listening to Cajun French at a young age. He recalls listening to a old battery radio that sat in the window; his chair was not ever far from it.

He had a cousin that would come by and bring instruments, which they would play outside. He loaned him a Truetone box guitar and Jesse picked on it learning from a hand printed sheet with chords on it. Soon he bought a harmonica from Western Auto and play on it and his cousin's accordion whenever he could.

His cousin, Elson Mier, came by one weekend and Jesse played his accordion for him. Elson was impressed and told Jesse's father he should get him one. But the sharecropping job and side work his father was doing was enough to get by; not much else. Elson ended up loaning him one to learn on.

 

He started a family band at 17 and they had a few light playing gigs. Blackie Fruge stopped in one night at their show at Henry's Cafe in Midland to watch them play. Blackie's brother was looking to get the Moonlight Serenaders back together and they needed a accordion player. Jesse joined on but still played with his band as well.

From the Moonlight Serenaders, he played with Ronnie Fruge and the Cajun Kings, then Hicks Wagon Wheel Ramblers. When Joe Bonsall went into brief retirement, Jesse took his place. The band became the original Jeff Davis Ramblers, but most all of the members changed out.

Circle D Records was run by Clinton "C.E." Diehl. He ran a TV service in Jennings but also ran the Circle D, Buck and Wagon Wheel labels. Jesse had met him when he was with the Cajun Kings years before. C.E. wanted Jesse to record for the Circle D label and Jesse had some songs in mind.

It was in 1987 when Jesse and the Ramblers entered the studio to record "Jeff Davis Ramblers Special". Jesse modeled the song from Adam Hebert's "My Rope and Spurs". Joining him on the recording was Ed Credeur on fiddle, Atlas Fruge on steel guitar, Frick Laove on guitar and Morris Newman on drums.

Resources

Conversations with Jesse Lege

Photo -Wade Falcon

Nick Leigh-  Cajun Records 1946-1989

Session info

V/acdn, Ed Credeur (fdl), Atlas Fruge (st-g), Frick Laove (g), Morris Newman (d), C.H.Diehl Studio, Jennings LA: c1987 LH 25004 Memories in my heart Circle D 1008 LH 25005 Jeff Davis special (instrumental) Circle D 1008