The Sundown Playboys are an American Cajun music band in Louisiana, United States.
The band was founded in 1945 by accordionist Lionel Cormier, and has been performing almost continuously throughout the United States. After the death of Lionel Cormier in the early 1970s, Lesa Cormier decided to carry on the tradition of his father's band. With the help of two other band members and his own son, the tradition of the Sundown Playboys continues.
Over the years, several accordion players have played in Lionel Cormier's place, but three core members of the group have continued playing. Lesa Cormier has played drums since the beginning with his father. He was seventeen when he started. Wallace "Red" Touchet plays the fiddle and Larry Miller plays the steel guitar. After leading a band of his own, accordionist August Broussard joined the band in 2000. In the 1980s, Lesa's son, Danny, joined the band as a bass player and sometimes steel guitar, but now plays steel guitar with Jackie Caillier and the Cajun Cousins. Danny's son joined the band as bass player. Brian Cormier is a fourth generation member of the Sundown Playboys.
James Robert Wills was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing.
Cajun music, 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 with the Creole-based zydeco music. Both are from southwest Louisiana and share French and African origins. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music, and have influenced pop culture through mass media, such as television commercials.
Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys are an American Cajun band from southern Louisiana. The band formed in 1988 and has since recorded 10 albums, nine of which are on Rounder Records.
Ira "Iry" LeJeune was one of the best selling and most popular Cajun musicians in the mid to late 1940s into the early 1950s.
Kingfish was an American rock band led by Matthew Kelly, a musician, singer, and songwriter who plays guitar and harmonica. Kelly co-founded Kingfish in 1973 with New Riders of the Purple Sage bass player Dave Torbert and fellow San Francisco Bay Area musicians Robbie Hoddinott, Chris Herold (drums), and Mick Ward (keyboards). Ward died in a car accident later that year, and was replaced by Barry Flast, another keyboardist from San Francisco.
Geno Delafose is an American zydeco accordionist and singer. He is one of the younger generations of the genre who has created the sound known as the nouveau zydeco. His sound is deeply rooted in traditional Creole music with strong influences from Cajun music and also country and western. His father was the fellow zydeco accordion player, John Delafose.
The Cajun French Music Association is an association dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Cajun music and culture.
Cajun music has its roots based in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada, and in country music.
Ida Lewis "Queen Ida" Guillory is a Louisiana Creole accordionist. She was the first female accordion player to lead a zydeco band. Queen Ida's music is an eclectic mix of R&B, Caribbean, and Cajun, though the presence of her accordion always keeps it traditional.
Lee Benoit is an American Cajun musician from Rayne, Louisiana.
Warren Storm was an American drummer and vocalist, known as a pioneer of the musical genre swamp pop; a combination of rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun music and black Creole music.
The Balfa Brothers were an American cajun music ensemble. Its members were five brothers; Dewey on fiddle, Will on fiddle, Rodney on guitar, harmonica, and vocals, Burkeman on triangle and spoons, and Harry on Cajun accordion.
Jean Batiste "J.B." Fuselier was a Cajun musician most remembered for his tune "Ma Chere Bassette". He played for many years with the group J. B. and His Merrymakers.
The Strangers were an American country band that formed in 1966 in Bakersfield, California. They mainly served as the backup band for singer-songwriter Merle Haggard, who named them after his first hit single "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers". In addition to serving as his backing band, members of the Strangers also produced many of Haggard's records, sang lead vocals on select tracks, and co-wrote many of Haggard's songs with him, including the No. 1 singles, "Okie From Muskogee" and "I Always Get Lucky with You".
David Greely is a professional fiddler from south Louisiana.
John Irvin Delafose was an American French-speaking Creole Zydeco accordionist from Louisiana.
Andre Thierry is an American Zydeco musician. He leads the band Zydeco Magic.
Sidney Brown was a Cajun accordion builder and accordion player. In the 1950s, he recorded with his band, Sidney Brown and the Traveler Playboys. He would eventually be recognized as the first person to build Cajun accordions after World War II in Louisiana. Eventually, other Cajun musicians would play Brown's accordions, including Jo-El Sonnier, Boozoo Chavis and Marc Savoy.
Sheryl Cormier is an American Cajun accordion musician. She began playing the accordion when she was 7 years old. She is "one of the few women to establish herself in Cajun music" and is the first professional Cajun accordion female musician.
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