Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, December 29, 1998

Abshire played in public at 8 years old

Accordionist was among first to be recognized nationally

by Jim Bradshaw

Playing the accordion ran in his family. His father, his mother, and at least one uncle played. At the age of 6, Nathan was already getting in trouble for sneaking his uncle's accordion away to practice. By the time he was 8, he had become accomplished enough to begin his long career as a regular musician, first at house dances in the neighborhood, then in public dance halls throughout the area.

According to John Broven's book "South to Louisiana: Music of the Cajun Bayous," "In 1936 he recorded for Bluebird, backed by the Rayne-Bo Ramblers, but a decade of obscurity followed the disastrous decline in the popularity of the accordion. For a while he took up the fiddle, as did many other aspiring accordionists. ... After a spell in the service, Nathan began to build up his career through a one-day-a-week booking at Quincy Davis' famous Avalon Club in Basile."

Within a few years, his acclaim as an outstanding accordion player had spread across southwest Louisiana. He was in such demand at one point that he was performing seven nights a week at the Avalon Club, eventually bringing him to settle in Basile.

Although Nathan made more of a living from his music than most Cajun musicians, he could not depend on it entirely. He worked at many odd jobs throughout his life and finally became guardian of the Basile town dump. In his cluttered front yard, he collected used objects to sell, and his front porch became a cultural salon where he held forth daily on Cajun music.

Besides his own family, Abshire was, like almost all of the accordion players of his generation, influenced by the legendary black Creole musician Amédé Ardoin.

Abshire told to Barry Jean Ancelet in an interview, "Every Saturday afternoon, we used to go to John Foreman's saloon. I'd see Amédé Ardoin coming full-stride down the way. He'd say, 'Abshire, you've got to come help me tonight.' 'Oh, well,' I'd say. 'Amédé, I can't help you.' 'Oh, yeah,' he'd say, 'we're both going to play. I'll play for a while, then you'll play for a while.' I'd say, 'I don't feel much like going, Amédé,' but I'd go. And we sure did make some music."

John Broven calls Abshire "the best known accordionist of modern times," and credits his hit recording of "Pine Grove Blues" with much of that notoriety.

According to Broven's account in South to Louisiana, "Pine Grove Blues was a record of considerable importance; it kept the Cajun bandwagon rolling ... and helped to reestablish the accordion following .. Iry Lejeune's breakthrough with Love Bridge Waltz. "

Abshire was one of the early representatives of Cajun music on the national scene, accompanying the Balfa Brothers to Newport in 1967. His dramatic style immediately made him a favorite performer in college towns and festivals throughout the United States and Canada. He declined several offers to go to France because he disliked flying.

"When we first started going on trips," he remembered, "I was playing with the Balfa Brothers, with Dewey and Will and Rodney and their group. We liked it a lot. We had never seen things like that, thousands and thousands of people at once who were clapping and screaming at the top of their lungs , because they liked our music so much. It was strange, but you can imagine how much we appreciated that."

Nathan Abshire died May 13, 1981 in Basile. He recorded for several labels during his lifetime, including Swallow, Folkways, La Louisianne, and Kajun.. Probably, his most famous recording was Pine Grove Blues.