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SELECTED AUDIO
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An impassioned ambassador for Cajun music and culture, fiddler and singer Dewey
Balfa ( 1927-1992) was a driving force in the revival of traditional Cajun music. Together with his brothers Will, Rodney, Harry, and Burkeman, and later his nephew Tony and daughter Christine, Balfa introduced the vibrant sound of Cajun music to countless people around the world and used his role as a musical ambassador to reawaken a deep and abiding sense of pride in Cajun music amongst his fellow Cajuns.
Dewey was one of nine children born into a musical family in Grand Louis, Louisiana, a small farm town in rural Louisiana not far from the slightly larger town of Mamou, 125 miles northwest of the great port city of New Orleans. In terms of culture, Louisiana is one of America's wealthiest states, and the Balfa family had inherited the rich legacy of songs, tunes, tales, and traditions of Louisiana's French-speaking Cajun community.
The history of how the Cajuns came to Louisiana is long and complex. It begins with immigrants from western France who settle the Arcadia or "Cadie" region of New France in the 16th and early 17th centuries. After Arcadia came under British rule in 1755, its new owners renamed the colony Nova Scotia and forced many of the French-speaking Arcadians to leave. Like many others, the Balfa family eventually made their way down America's eastern seaboard to the Spanish colony of Louisiana, where they were welcomed and able to join an already established French community. As the Arcadians adapted their culture to Louisiana's prairies and bayous, and as they...
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