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Home/Acadiana/Cajun Music’s Accordion Master
closeup of Steve Riley's hand on accordian playing Cajun Music

Cajun Music’s Accordion Master

For 30 years, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys have been advancing the art of Cajun Music. But due to COVID, it’s been a year since the grammy-nominated band’s last performance. Steve Riley is now grooming The Family Band.

playing Cajun music with Steve Riley plays guitar, son Dolsy plays drum and son Burke plays accordion
Cajun music man Steve Riley with sons Dolsy and Burke – The Family Band

Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys played their last gig on Mardi Gras 2020. There will be no performances for Mardi Gras 2021 due to restrictions with the COVID pandemic. But Riley is determined to keep Cajun music alive. So he enlisted his two young sons, 11-year-old Burke and 8-year-old Dolsy, and created the Steve Riley Family Band.

cajun music live online

Watch Steve Riley Family Band perform Cajun song La Pointe Aux Pins

The Family Band has become a regular online, performing live on the Riley Family Band Facebook page. When you hear them play, it’s clear that Riley has taught his sons well. They switch-off instruments, alternating between accordion, guitar and drum. Their online audience is treated to a songbook of some of the most popular songs in Cajun music.

Watch 11 year old Burke play accordion on Jolie Blonde

In June of 2020, Grammy-winner Steve Riley and his sons performed in a Homegrown Concert by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. The half-hour concert streamed live online. Riley introduces the Cajun songs as he and his sons swap instruments.

Watch 8 year old Dolsy take the lead on La Danse De Mardi Graz

Riley says his sons have always shown an interest in Cajun music, and have taken advantage of the many instruments they find around the house. “We’ve done a lot of rehearsing, a lot of learning new songs,” Riley says. “And at this point they just come to me and they’re like, Dad, I learned this song. Can you help me finish it?”

A cajun music tradition

Pre-COVID, it was easy to find a weekly Cajun music jam session at a number of places across southern Louisiana. The older musicians would sit side-by-side with younger players who learn the notes and the French vocals of traditional Cajun songs. That’s how the music has always been passed down from one generation to the next. Riley says, “this is a perfect time to take advantage of the time we have together”.

growing up with cajun music in mamou

Steve Riley had a similar experience growing up in the small Cajun prairie community of Mamou. There were frequent house parties and dances in the community where a young Steve listened to older relatives perform Cajun music. They taught him how to play the accordion and sing the popular traditional songs.

Steve Riley tells how he learned by play the Cajun accordion

Riley is now considered one of the best players of the Cajun accordion. Steve Riley was awarded a Grammy in 2012 with The Band Courtbouillon. He has been nominated six more times for work with various bands including the Mamou Playboys.

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        Written by:
        Dave McNamara
        Published on:
        February 9, 2021
        Thoughts:
        3 Comments

        Categories: Acadiana, Featured

        Reader Interactions

        Comments

        1. Patricia woods

          February 10, 2021 at 12:33 am

          These boys amaze me. They get better every few weeks and are fortunate to have a father that can teach them so much. My heart goes out to y’all having no Mardi Gras this year.
          Keep it up and tell Burke he’s too handsome so smile…lol

          Reply
        2. Catherine A. Pacheco

          February 10, 2021 at 2:36 am

          Have been a fan of Steve’s since I first saw him at Mulatte’s in Breaux Bridge in 1993. The child played way back then, like nothing I had ever heard before. Clear, bright, clean music coming out of his accordion with a little something je ne sais quoi extra. To have watched him grow over the years was been an ongoing blessing. To see him now, in the almost weekly broadcasts. playing with his sons, I sometimes tear up at the happiness and joy on his face.
          As I am more than old enough to be his mother, I suspect I will never get to hear Steve live, in person, again. So, I am very thankful to the Heart of Louisiana for making this broadcast. God bless you for having done so.

          Reply
        3. victoria Megowan

          February 11, 2021 at 6:31 pm

          I heard of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys from Jim Garrison, an advanced accordian player who would play at the Elmira Grange, Central Grange Hootenays held on the 2nd Tuesday of the month and for seniors at YaPoAh Terrace in Eugene. I believe he started loaning me copies of old Steve Riley Cd’s he had and that was it! I was taken.This all took place in Eugene and in the communities of Elmira and Veneta close to Eugene, Oregon.

          I was so taken by the music that I’d take my guitar and do the best I could to follow that accordian. This was probably back in 2012 I believe. He would encourage me to learn the accordian thinking, a girls group would be fun to incorporate seeming how I was playing for seniors in an all women’s group we had back then in various senior centers and homes.

          I later on took up fiddling as I was a member of Oregon Old Time Fiddler’s anyway and thought it would be a good instrument to learn but was so taken by the Dewey Balfa style, that I got exposed to, that it became the driving force behind working with a fiddle.

          In Oregon, Cajun music is not as popular and there’s a resistance to hearing songs in “french” much less attempts to sing in “Cajun french” due to it being difficult to pronounce even if one might have taken french.

          After Jim Garrison left, and some of us seniors got together to play with another advanced Cajun accordian player, John Alexander in Oregon, we started playing Cajun songs at various households. My fiddle was enough of an instrument to handle and I found that accordian too intimidating to touch. So, had plenty of excuse not to even try to learn. It was only more recently, that after Jim Garrison moved to Texas, that I realized how much I missed hearing the Cajun accordian that I was driven to buy a “beginner Cajun accordian” and saved later on for a Marc Savoy C accordian.

          I find The Riley Family Band such an exciting event being shared with the whole world about how this music, culture, food,language,lifestyle, etc.is shared from one generation to another and can’t believe how Dolsy and Riley are such prodigies,musically speaking and how this family has held through the hard times.

          Every time I watch a concert that I hate to miss,I’m always trying to let other musicians be aware of what is transforming “live” before ones very eyes. It’s so incredible and such a heart-warming thing to see unfold before one’s very eyes in FB of all things!

          Love the determination that Steve Riley and Katie Riley have to keep the tradition alive! Thanks to the Riley Family Band for their enormous contribution to making this world a better place to live in!

          Vicki Megowan, Eugene Oregon

          Reply

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