a FRENCH MUSIC article

Cultures of Acadiana
a look at the French, Cajun, Creole, and Native American cultures of south Louisiana
(a project of Carencro High School - 721 West Butcher Switch Road, Lafayette, LA  70507)

Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, December 29, 1998

McGee, Courville played together

Twin fiddle style came from early Acadian music

by Jim Bradshaw

Dennis McGee was born Jan. 26, 1893, and grew up in the l'Anse des Rougeaux area near Eunice. He played his Cajun fiddle for more than 75 years, most of them alongside his brother-in-law Sady Courville. Their style of twin fiddles singing and responding to each other came from the earliest days of Acadian music in Louisiana.

By the time Joe Falcon made the first Cajun record in 1928, Dennis and Sady were firmly established musicians in south Louisiana and they were quick to follow Falcon and others into the recording studio. Their first recorded songs were "Madame Young" and "My Creole Sweet Mama."

Like many Cajun musicians, the brothers-in-law quit playing music from time to time because they had to find another way to make a living. Both men eventually moved to Eunice after farming in the nearby countryside. Sady worked as a salesman for a furniture store and then opened a furniture store of his own. Dennis went back and forth between farming and barbering, finally opening his own one-chair shop in front room of his home in Eunice.

Dennis also played with accordionists such as Angelas Lejeune, Iry Lejeune and J.B. Fuselier, and made several records in the 1930s with Amédé Ardoin and McGee and Ardoin played together regularly for dances both black and white.

McGee talked about how he and Amédé began to play in an interview with Barry Jean Ancelet published in "The Makers of Cajun Music."

"Amédé and I worked together," McGee said. "We worked for the same people. We were both sharecroppers. He played the accordion and I played the fiddle. And the boss liked music, so at night he would have us get together to play some. ... Oscar Comeaux was the boss's name.

He lived in Choupique. He really liked our music. That's when Amédé and I started playing together. We kept on playing together after that. Every once in a while, we would play for a dance in the neighborhood. Then, when Oscar went broke and quit farming, Amédé left to come live in Eunice, and I came to live here, too. That's when we really started playing seriously. We started playing all over the area. We would go as far as old Mr. Leleux's dance hall in Bayou Queu de Tortue. And for Dumas Herpin. We brought so many people to Dumas's place that they climbed upon the little fence that they had to protect the musicians from the crowd and they broke it. They came rolling in like balls. It was really funny to see. ... We were making good music in those days."

Sady Courville was born in Chataignier on Nov. 15, 1905, and died on Jan. 3, 1988. Dennis McGee died in 1989. Shortly before his death, he was named Honorary Dean of Cajun Music at USL.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).