Floyd LeBlanc- Roseland Two Step

Floyd LeBlanc was born on September 17, 1924 in Mermentau, Louisiana. His father Lessin, played accordion and fiddle while his mother, Merillia, played guitar and sang. In the early 1930's the family moved to Cypress Point, where Floyd and his brother began making homemade instruments because the family coundn't afford real instruments. Floyd was influenced first by Luderin Darbone of the Hackberry Ramblers, who were popular in the area.

While Floyd's playing was similar to Harry Choates, he  added a Cajun sensibility to the post war Cajun swing music of this era. During the peak of Cajun music resurgence, he recorded several of his own French fiddle tunes.

His biggest break came when he joined Bennie Hess and his Oklahoma Tornadoes and recorded sides for the Opera label in the late 40's. The band traveled around playing their mixture of country music. Floyd also contributed to the label by introducing them to Iry LeJeune. In 1949 he recorded for Virgel Bozmen's O.T. label but in 1950, he quit playing for a while opening his own business and focusing on his family. He opened Floyd's Net Shop on Fontenot Road in Lake Charles and worked as a carpenter and fished commercially during this time. 

Floyd's ability to adapt to Cajun and country music styles is evidenced by his numerous recordings during his career. His smooth fiddling style has gone unappreciated it seems, along the years. Many musicians that heard him play recall his style and remember hearing him on the radio and being in awe.

After a departure from recording Cajun and focusing on other genres, Miller was back in the game in the late 50's. Was he jealous of the success of Swallow Records? No one is quite sure the exact reason. Miller's Cajun Classics was his first label focusing on Cajun music after the Feature label in the late early 50's. Miller's Cajun Classics and Kajun label provided artists a label to record for after the Khoury's label folded.


Floyd's talent was known well around Lake Charles and he was always asked to return and play dances. By the mid-fifties he relented and began playing with Sidney Brown. In the mid 1960's he started back playing at clubs and local shows with Bobby Leger, Robert Bertrand and Jo-El Sonnier. He also played with Dorris Matte on KPLC-TV's "Saturday Night Down South". In 1967, Floyd recorded "Roseland Two Step" again at the Modern Sound Studio in Crowley for Miller's Cajun Classics label. He recorded five songs in all for the Cajun Classics label in April of 1967.

In 1964 Floyd and Oday Boudreaux formed the Louisiana Playboys, one of several bands Floyd headed. The group played dances and also had a Saturday morning slot on KIKS radio in Sulpher. In 1973 he resurfaced on the O'Day label out of Sulpher, recording as Floyd LeBlanc and his Magic Fiddle. He returned to play also with the Orange Playboys, Lake Charles Playboys, Louisiana Ramblers, Pineywood Playboys, Traveler Playboys and the Lake Charles Playboys. He also recorded on two lp's in the 1960's with Joe Bonsall. 

At the time of Floyds death, he and the O'Day label were making a album, which was never completed. Crawford Vincent once said that Floyd wanted to make a tribute album to Luderine Darbone, but never did because Luderin told him that he couldn't make a tribute album of his music until he was dead.

Resources
Ron Yule- Cajun Dancehall Heyday
Ron Yule-Louisiana fiddlers

Release Info:

LH 3207 Roseland Two Step ] Cajun Classics 2001

LH 3208 Tolan Waltz ] Cajun Classics 2001

Robert Bertrand- Tee Maurice

Robert Bertrand was originally from Hathaway, Louisiana; but in 1952, his family moved to Lake Charles. His father, Jake, was a Cajun fiddler and had played with the Elton Playboys. Robert followed in his father's footsteps and learned the fiddle as well. He was a fast learner and soon he and his father were playing at dance halls near Eunice by late 1950.

While living in Lake Charles, Jake and Robert joined accordionist Bobby Leger and played together. They formed the Lake Charles Playboys around 1955. Robert being the better vocalist, provided vocals for the group. Together the group recorded several records at J.D. Miller's studio in Cowley.

Robert played as a sideman playing with numerous local bands in the area. He played drums with Iry LeJeune in the mid 1950's and also played with Sidney Brown.  He played drums, fiddle, and guitar with Joe Bonsall and Phil Menard as well.

In 1965, Robert formed the Louisiana Ramblers. They recorded a couple sides for Miller's label then started recording for Eddie Shuler's Goldband Records. The bulk of Robert's recording output was with Goldband between 1966 and 1970. Jo-El Sonnier played accordion with the group for a while the first year, recording a couple sides for the label.

Around 1967, accordionist John Oliver started plating with the group. John Oliver was born June 18, 1915 in Mowata, Louisiana. In the early 1950's he recorded for the New Orleans based label Meladee Records and recorded one record with them. He moved to Lake Charles in 1962 and by 1967 he was recording with Robert and the Ramblers.

In 1968 the Louisiana Ramblers recorded "Tee Maurice" for Goldband in their Lake Charles studio. It would mark the first recording of Oliver on accordion with the group. The group borrowed the tune as a cover of Oran "Doc" Guidry's recording of "Le Nuevo Tit Maurice". Originally it was recorded by Happy Fats and Doc for RCA during a 1946 session. It was also recorded in 1952 by Terry Clement and his brothers.

John would continue playing with the Ramblers until around 1970. Afterwards the group would use Geno Thibodeaux and Ervin LeJeune to play accordion on recordings sessions. By 1970, Robert had became a standard musician at Goldband Records and Eddie Shuler would use him on other artist's records.

Chris Strachwitz, of Arhoolie records, regretted the day when he told Shuler that the Goldband recordings lacked "bottom" due to the primitive studio conditions.  Thereupon, Eddie proceeded to reissue many of his pristine 1950s recordings, sacrilegiously, with plodding bass guitar and fiddle overdubs. The bass track overdubs were allegedly done by Jo-El Sonnier and Robert Bertrand overdubbed fiddle and guitar on some recordings.

Ervin recalls Robert borrowing Iry's fiddle to record at Goldband studio and notes that most fiddle recordings by Robert in the late 1970's were recorded with Iry LeJeune's fiddle; Robert like the sound the instrument made.

Resources
Early Cajun Music Blog- Wade Falcon
Ron Yule-Cajun Dancehall Heyday
Nick Leigh-Cajun Records 1946-1989
Mitch S. for Bertrand pictures

Release info
Robert Bertrand with John Oliver 
V/fdl, John Oliver (acdn), Ed Gary, T-June Benoit, Wallace Derouen (g), Garland
Domingue (d)
Goldband Studio, Lake Charles LA: 1968-1969
-1 (9060) Tee’ mamou blues Goldband 1199
-2 (9061) Tee’ Maurice Goldband 1199

Jo-El Sonnier and the Duson Playboys- Tee Yeaux Bleu

In the summer of 1957, Floyd Soileau left radio broadcasting to focus on his record business. He was selling alot of Cajun music, mostly from George Khoury. He would get a order list from Khoury of what was available and every time the list kept getting shorter and shorter. Floyd knew someone had to start making Cajun records or there wouldn't be any. Floyd started his own label with the first two artists he put out were Milton Molitor and Lawrence Walker on his label out of Ville Platte.

Jo-El was born in Rayne on October 2, 1946. As a baby he was put under the wagon while the rest of the family picked in the cotton fields. His mother surprised him with a makeshift accordion to keep him occupied. He became obsessed with the instrument learning to play from hearing others. He recalls hearing music off the AM radio, listening and learning from the music of Iry, Nathan and Lawrence. By age 8 he was playing radio shows and meeting those he heard on the radio such as Nathan Abshire.

Jo-El and a group of friends who lived around Duson, starting a band playing together. Nelson "Shorty" Sonnier and his brother Henry were in the band with Jo-El and Gerald Forestier, calling themselves the Duson Playboys. They played and practiced working on their sound and eventually made their way to Swallow Records in Ville Platte. By the time Jo-El and the band made it to Floyd's, Soileau had put out eleven records on Swallow. The band had one song which Jo-El had wrote for his mother.

While Lawrence Walker had a song called "Tit Yeux Noirs" out around this time, Jo-El's song for his mother was "Tee Yeaux Bleu". They arrived at the studio not knowing anything about how records were made; they just knew what they heard on the radio. At this time, Floyd's studio was just a small room at the back of his record store in Ville Platte. They recorded the song and were breaking down their equipment and Floyd told the group they had to have another song for the flipside of the record. The group followed Jo-El's lead  and made up a instrumental on the spot and called it "Duson Playboys Special." 

"Heh, mes tits yeux bleu, tu m'as quitte
pour un autre.
Regarder donc, comment j'va faire?



J'su moi tout seul a la maison dans les
miseres.

Heh, mes tits yeua bleu tu va brailler,
brailler pour moi.
Regarder donc, comment j'va faire?
J'su moi tout seul a la maison dans les miseres."

The reaction to the record was good and the band began receiving request to play shows. The first club they played was the Triangle Club and they played the Jolly Rogers afterwards. But the group went their separate ways due to day jobs. Jo-El continued recording on a independent label then moved on to record with Robert Bertrand on Goldband.

Resources
John Broven-South To Louisiana
Conversations with Jo-El Sonnier
Wade Falcon
lyrics by Jules Guidry

Robert Bertrand and Jo El Sonnier- "Memphis"

Robert Bertrand was influenced growing up by his relatives playing music and started playing at a young age. He played with Iry Lejune and was a member of Nathan Abshire's Pinegrove Boys.  He soon joined Bobby Leger's group, The Lake Charles Playboys. After a while he started his own band called "The Louisiana Ramblers". They recorded for J.D. Miller's labels, Fais Do Do and Cajun Classics.

 Jo El was influenced by Iry Lejune growing up.  He won many  accordion contests before recording with Swallow at 13 years old. When he finished school, he moved to Lake Charles where he joined Bertrand's Louisiana Ramblers.

Miller started his record label after the success of Harry Choate's "Jole Blon". He started the Fais Do Do label in 1946 and continued it until 1949. He then recorded Cajun Music on Feature Records from 1950-1954.



In the late 50's, Miller started recording Cajun music again. Although he stopped using the Fais Do Do label in 1949, he mysteriously brought it back in 1959 for a Robert Bertrand release. He then used it once more in 1965 for a recording of Bertrand and Jo El Sonnier.










The 1965 recording with Jo El doing a cover of Chuck Berry's "Memphis"  backed with "Mother's Day Waltz" was more successful. This time around it was the new group; Robert Bertrand and His Louisiana Ramblers. Around this time, Rock and Roll and Swamp Pop dominated over Cajun Music. Some of the musicians mixed  Cajun music with Rock and Roll to create some truly interesting results. Just as Johnnie Allan mixed the accordion with Chuck Berry's "The Promised Land",  Sonnier and Bertrand added Cajun accordion and fiddle to compliment this unique cover.

On the 1965 recording of "Memphis" and "Mother's Day Waltz",  Jo El sang the lead backed by Bertrand, Hilrae Mott, Herman Rhodes, Dusty Rhodes, and  Garland Domingue. In 1966, Jo El would go on to record with Bertrand on Goldband after these recordings . Afterwards Jo-El would start his solo career on Goldband. Robert Bertrand would have a string of recordings on Goldband through the 70's.

Resources

John Broven- South To Louisiana

Lyle Ferbrache-Acadian All Star Special