Luderin Lawrence Darbone (January 14, 1913 Cajun Music a Reflection of the People 1984 – November 21, 2008), was a

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

Western swing Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the Western United States, West and Southern United States, South among the region's Western music (North America), Western string bands. It is dan ...

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

player for the band

Hackberry Ramblers The Hackberry Ramblers (also known as the Riverside Ramblers), a Grammy Award-nominated Cajun music band based in Hackberry, Louisiana, formed in 1933. Since its heyday in the late 1930s it has become one of the most recognized names and influenti ...

Early life

Darbone was born in

Evangeline Parish, Louisiana Evangeline Parish (french: Paroisse d'Évangéline) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 33,984. The parish seat is Ville Platte. History The parish was created out of lands formerly be ...

. He was the son of Edvard "Eddie" Darbone. He credited his longevity and inspiration to his wife Mary Lou. Savoy 1984, p. 119. He was born in Evangeline and raised in Orangefield, Texas. His parents gave him his first fiddle at the age of 12 and he learned to play through a correspondence course.

Career

In 1930 he met guitarist

Edwin Duhon Edwin Duhon (11 June 1910 – 26 February 2006) was an Americans, American musician and co-founder of the Hackberry Ramblers, a band (music), band playing a combination of Music of Louisiana, Cajun music, Western swing, and country music. D ...

and together they formed the nucleus of a band they named the

in honor of their hometown. By 1933 they were on the radio and signed with

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

Bluebird Records Bluebird Records is a record label best known for its low-cost releases, primarily of kids' music, blues and jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. It was founded in 1932 as a lower-priced RCA Victor subsidiary label of RCA Victor. Bluebird became known ...

. In 1936, they recorded " Jolie Blonde", "Oh Josephine, Ma Josephine", "One Step De L'Amour" and "Faux Pas Tu Bray Cherie". Darbone and Duhon were the first musicians to bring electronic amplification to area dance halls, running a public address system off the idling engine of Darbone's Model-A Ford. Their eclectic repertoire included

Cajun music Cajun music (french: Musique cadienne), an emblematic music of Louisiana played by the Cajuns, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Although they are two separate genres, Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem w ...

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

and

, jazz music, and

blues music Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

. Due to a sponsorship deal with

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

, the band adopted the name "The Riverside Ramblers". In 2002, Darbone and Duhon received a prestigious

National Heritage Fellowship The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's h ...

from the Folk Arts Program of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. Darbone died on November 21, 2008, in

Sulphur, Louisiana Sulphur (french: Soufre) is a city in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. The population was 21,809 in 2020. Sulphur is part of the Lake Charles, Louisiana, Lake Charles Lake Charles metropolitan area, metropolitan statistica ...

References

External links

*
Luderin Darbone recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. 1913 births 2008 deaths Cajun fiddlers People from Evangeline Parish, Louisiana 20th-century American violinists National Heritage Fellowship winners {{US-violinist-stub

Early life

Career

See also

References

External links