BJ... that's right Mandolin, yep.

As I think of it, Brave Blair's husband Steve also plays Mandolin on occasion. While Steve's primary is fiddle (in her band he also plays guitar and more). We would jam on weekly basis (back when Danny Poullard was alive) whereby Steve would shift to Mandolin on rare occasion because there were so many fiddles.

Talking with him once re: mandolin, he also has what he called a banjomandolin (?) or banjolin or some such contraption for what I thought was unusual.

Good call there BJ.... yep mandolin it works.

Al berard plays amazing cajun mandolin as did Tommy Comeau with Beausoleil. Faren Serettes's harmonica is a worthy of the tradition of Isom Fontenot masterful tunes.I love the hammond B-3 organ break on Eddy Raven,s "La Belle de La Louisiane" Instrumentally, I believe cajun music has unrecognized depth and diversity and yet-to be-explored potential.

The harmonica, at least to me, could probably be considered pretty traditional. It has been relatively common for quite a while, even if not in recordings. Chris Miller does it great justice by adding it to at least one song.

The banjo is the one that surprised me. I only heard in two songs, one posted here, and one on the cd "Les Haricots Sont Pas Salé", and I thought it really made a nice addition.

You dont hear the saxophone much, but it can also be made to compliment Cajun music well.

Eddie Raven, wow. I didn't think anyone else even had that album. "La Belle de La Louisiane" is one of the first songs I learned to sing in French.
Jude

I was doing some work on accordions for a group in B.R. who were supposed to start useing a metal resonator guitar but the storm interupped the sceme so for now I don't know just when they may get back together. I always thoght that would sound good with a cajun accordion.

I've been playing my metal body resonator guitar at Augusta and elsewhere for about 3 years. Seems like a good match to me. Ther's a pic in the Augusta brochure from a couple of years ago.

In one of the Hand Made Music segments, Ann is playing a metal body resonator. Cleoma, of course, played a resonator guitar at times, so I don't know if that qualifies it as traditional.

Ever heard Cajun music played on a mountain dulcimer? At Augusta there
is a woman (Lois Hornbostle, I believe, is her name) who plays with us
at almost all porch jams. She's a very well known dulcimer player/
teacher. She played one year in concert with Jesse Lege'. She's a great
player and a fun person to jam with.

P.S. Another reason to be at Augusta every summer! This year's catalog
is out, by the way.

Gene

Hey Doctor Gene..

Yes, I remember Lois. A delightful lady that seemed to have a fine time on the porch sitting in with the Cajun Jams. I thought it somewhat odd, but yep you're right, she not only had fun with the night owls, but took a dandy lead on that mountain dulcimer now and then for what is an unusual instrument to this genre.

One of the things I loved about that huge old porch, was you on a variety of instruments.... accordion, guitar and especially stand up bass... I like the vibrational sound of accoustical bass it grabs me!

Always good to see your post Doc Gene, it has been a while.

Nonc D

Dave,

In the early days of Cajun Music, I thought that the concertina was used as opposed to say,the 1 rows.

Salut.

Claude.

The harmonica is a natural...I've played it with guitar
and neckpiece to some cajun tunes. I think Neal has some
harmonica tunes by Isom Fontenot on his MP3 site

yep
harmonica
from playing accordion, you already understand
how to play 2 notes from one hole/button
in fact most of the harmonica holes correspond
to accordion buttons exactly

wle.

I am a newbie on Cajun Accordion but a 30 year veteran on the Harmonica. i am finding harmonica experience to be invaluable to learning Cajun Accordion!The melodies come easy but it is that left hand that still eludes me. I have mastered 5 good tunes on the Box and whenever i have played them on gigs the crowd goes wild.

That never happened.

The concertina that is.