Joe Bonsall was one of 11 children and was born in Lake Arthur, La. He learned to play music at his mother's knee; Theresia Theriot Bonsall, was an accordion player. While the name Bonsall is not French, it is English. His ancestor was rescued from a shipwreck off the coast of Louisiana according to family accounts. The survivor was adopted by the Cajuns, became immersed in the Acadian culture and fell in love with a local woman of French descent.
Joe was inspired by Lawrence Walker and Joe Falcon growing up. In 1937 his family moved from Lake Arthur to the Gum Cove area north of Vinton in Calcasieu Parish. He was known to play house dances during this time with "Moot" Harrington. The original Orange Playboys were formed by Joe around 1952-53 when Moot Harrington retired from performing. Over the next couple of years a steady stream of musicians played with the Orange Playboys.
John Lloyd “Tee Bruce's” Broussard's parents moved to Port Arthur, Texas around 1924 from Carencro, Louisiana and there February 25, 1929, “Tee Bruce” was born. After graduating from High School in Port Arthur he spent two years in the Air Force and worked for a Texaco refinery for 38 years. During that time he frequented the Twilight Club in Port Neches, Texas every Saturday night listening to Cajun music. This is about the time he got interested in the accordion and bought one and learned to play. He didn't consider himself a good accordion player, but played for his own amusement. He played in a band for a while and made accordions for about eight years. “Tee Bruce” answered the telephone for Huey Meaux's Cajun show on KPAC Radio station and later at KOLE Radio. He then was able to start his own Cajun show on KOGT Radio in Orange, Texas. For 14 years he hosted “Tee Bruce's Cajun Jamboree.”
Joe and the Orange Playboys first made their mark on the recording scene when they recorded for Goldband Records in 1962. In 1963, Joe Bonsall contacted John “Tee Bruce” Broussard and asked him to produce recordings and help promote Joe Bonsall and the Orange Playboys. The group released a couple sides on Floyd Soileau's Swallow label at first.
Floyd Soileau recalls the association:
"Tee Bruce originally pushed him onto me and I did their recordings in my studio, the last studio I had. But later on, he developed his Cajun Jamboree label and he was recording and trying to sell some records and tried to make money on it, and later he sold me the masters on his Cajun Jamboree stuff. But they came in and did a couple of records in my studio."
By 1965 Joe and his band were releasing records Tee Bruce's Cajun Jamboree label. The second record they released on the label was a spirited version of a Iry Lejeune classic that the band made into their own and called it "Bayou Pon-Pon Two Step". The band at the time consisted of Joe on accordion, Bobby Caswell on guitar, Russell Quebodeaux on fiddle, Tilford McClelland on steel guitar and Rayford Quebodeaux on drums.
The songs goes back further than Iry's version of course. Iry's relative, Angelus LeJeune, recorded it in 1929 as "Bayou Pom Pom One Step" and a earlier version of the melody was recorded by Joe Falcon as "Osson". Early Cajun music researcher, Wade Falcon, writes that Bayou Pon Pon (spelled either "Pon Pon" or "Pom Pom") is a mythical town, somewhere in Lafourche Parish, in which comedian Walter Coquille would use as the basis for his 1929 satirical recordings on Brunswick records.
Session info:
Gold Star Studio, Houston TX; 1965
6946 (LH 2275) Over the waves-1 Cajun Jamboree 803,
6947 (LH 2276) Bayou pon-pon two step-1 Cajun Jamboree 803
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
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
Joe Bonsall was born in 1921 in Lake Arthur, La. He began playing music at the age of nine, playing the tit-fer while his mother played the accordion. He soon learned the accordion, guitar, and violin. At age of 14, he played with Lawrence Walker and Joe Falcon. In 1937 his family moved from Lake Arthur to the Gum Cove area north of Vinton in Calcasieu Parish. He was known to play house dances during this time with "Moot" Harrington.
The original Orange Playboys were formed by Joe around 1952-53 when Moot Harrington retired from performing. Over the next couple of years a steady stream of musicians played with the Orange Playboys. They recorded numerous sides for Eddie Shuler's Goldband, T-Bruce's Cajun Jamboree, and Floyd Soileau's Swallow records. They played the southwest and East Texas from the Lakeshore Club outside of Port Arthur to the Rodair Club in Port Acres, Tx. In 1963 Joe Bonsall and the Orange playboys were one of the most popular bands in East Texas. "Petite Ou Grosse" originates from Joe Falcon's 1929 recording of Arcadian One Step and Dennis McGee's "Adieu Rosa". Leo Soileau reworked the tune into, "Petite Ou Gros" for his Bluebird recordings in the mid 1930's. Joe Bonsall and the Orange Playboys's 1965 version of "Petite Ou Grosse" was recorded at Gulf Coast Studio in Beaumont, Tx. Playing with Joe on the recording is Bobby Caswell, Russell Quebodeaux, Wilson LeJeune, Ivy Dugas and Cliff Newman. Joe described his music:
"We were originally classified as a French band..but I was pretty aggressive in my style. I like to play country/western, rock and roll- even played some German and Bohemian music in my time." His music reflects this theme. In 1965, Joe started recording for T-Bruce's Cajun Jamboree label until the 1970's. Most of the Cajun Jamboree releases were re-issued by Swallow in 1971. In 1975, Joe had heart surgery and quit for a while. He played off and on until the 1990's. He passed away in 1996 at the age of 75, but left behind many contributions to the Cajun music heritage.
Resources John Broven- South to Louisiana Ron Yule- Cajun Dancehall Heyday
