He is an Acadian accordionist, singer and author born
near Eunice, Louisiana, and brought up on his parents' rice farm.He got an accordion when he was
twelve years old and when he was fifteen he began gaining an interest in
the workings of it when he needed to make a repair.This led to him being asked to do repairs
for other local accordionists too.After having been shown an accordion that had been built when he was
seventeen he decided to have a shot at doing it himself.This idea didn't materialise
straight away and indeed he would be 20 years old before he took the plunge
and built one for himself.Unhappy with that one, he burned it fairly soon after, but his next
attempts would accompany him when he was giving performances at local
dances and also when he made his first recordings.He was asked to build one for
someone else and soon he had began his own business in building accordions,
which led to him establishing his Savoy Music Center in 1966.Performing with many artists during
the course of his career, he has been heard with Dewey Balfa, Jimmy
Buffett, The Chieftains, D.L. Menard and Mike Seeger among others.He was also a co-founder of the
Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band with Michael Doucet in the mid-1970s and has since
recorded several albums with them. As an author he has written several works including Accordions
of Louisiana, History of the Acadian Accordion and Ponderings of a
Reincarnated Neanderthal.Nowadays he can be heard giving jam sessions at the Savoy Music
Center, playing at various music festivals on a national and international
level, performing with the Savoy Doucet Band and with two of his sons and
his wife in the family's Savoy Family Band. He has also been seen on television in the series American
Roots.Recognised
for his contribution to Cajun music he was awarded the National Heritage
Fellowship in 1982.
