Amédé Ardoin / Dennis McGee

Amédé Ardoin, also, Dennis McGee. . , Amédé Ardoin 1898-1942 , Dennis McGee 1893-1989, Proud of his singing, accordionist Amédé Ardoin always carried a lemon in his pocket to keep his voice strong, clear, and true. Among the first Louisiana Creole musicians to have a professional recording career, Ardoin recorded 30+ songs from the 1929-1934 sessions, representing but a small part of his repertoire. Fiddler Dennis McGee, the Honorary Dean of Cajun Music at UL Lafayette (1982), called Ardoin, "une chanson vivante" or "a living song." Ardoin and McGee not only recorded together when others did not, they played regularly together for Black and White dances despite the strict Jim Crow segregationist climate of that time. Together they mingled the deep multiracial roots of Louisiana French music, laying the foundation for what we now experience as Cajun and Creole music. A racial assault later left Ardoin with a traumatic brain injury. He died in the Central Louisiana Hospital in Pineville, LA. This site honors these legendary Creole and Cajun musicians for their practice of inclusion and creativity, their brave, expansive sense of community, and their belief in the value of the clarity, strength, and power of the human voice.