Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin

Alphonse " Bois Sec" Ardoin ( born November 16, 1915 in Duralde, Louisiana, † 16 May, 2007 Eunice, Louisiana) was an American zydeco musician.

Life

Ardoin was considered one of the masters of the Cajun accordion. His birth date is disputed, the sources vary between 1914 and 1916. Nicknamed " Bois Sec" (French for dry forest ), he should have already received as a child, because he was always the first one at the onset of rain in the dry forest to safety brought.

The son of farm workers earned his livelihood also by farm work. At 12, he learned to play the accordion by his cousin Amédé Ardoin, with whom he performed well. Unlike Amédé however Bois Sec was not a professional musician - his mother was strictly against it.

Bois Sec Ardoin From 1948, joined with the fiddle player Canray Fontenot as the " Duralde Ramblers " on. Your success even led to a participation in the prestigious Newport Folk Festival in 1966. During the same year she published her best-known album Les Blues de Bayou. In 1986, Ardoin and Fontenot with the " National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship the " excellent, the highest U.S. honor for traditional art.

In the early 1970s Ardoin was the frontman of the band "The Ardoin Brothers Band ", which in addition to his sons Morris, Gustave and Lawrence also Canray Fontenot belonged. After the accidental death of Gustave in 1974 Bois Sec seemed to lose much of his passion for music, and he appeared only sporadically.