Canray Fontenot

Canray Fontenot
Canray Fontenot and Bois Sec playing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966.
Background information
Born	(1922-10-16)October 16, 1922 L'Anse aux Vaches, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	July 29, 1995(1995-07-29) (aged 72) Welsh, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres	Creole Cajun
Instruments	Fiddle

Canray Fontenot (October 16, 1922 – July 29, 1995) was an American Creole fiddle player, who has been described as "the greatest Creole Louisiana French fiddler of our time."

Canray Fontenot was born in L'Anse aux Vaches, near Basile, Louisiana; his family was from nearby Duralde. Fontenot, who grew up working on a family farm, inherited his musical skills from his parents, who played accordion; his father Adam, known as "Nonc Adam", played with Amédé Ardoin. Canray first played a cigar-box fiddle that had strings taken off the screen door of his home. His bow was made from the branches of pear trees and sewing thread.

Canray stated: "So, we took some cigar boxes... In those days, cigar boxes were made of wood. So, we worked at it and finally made ourselves a fiddle. For our strings, we had no real strings ... we took strands off the screen door. We made fiddles out of that stuff, and then we started practicing." He visited a neighbor "to see how he tuned his fiddle. He would sound a string, and then I would try mine, but I couldn't go as high as his fiddle; every time I tried to match his pitch, I'd break a string.... But then when he would break a string, I would take the longest end. Then my fiddle sounded pretty good. And that's how I learned. It's just a matter of having music on your mind."

By 1934, Fontenot had begun performing with Amédé Ardoin, who wanted him to play on a recording session with him in New York; however, his parents would not allow him to travel. In the late 1930s, he formed a string band with George Lenard and Paul Frank, playing boogie woogie, western swing and jazz as well as traditional tunes, but after a few years Fontenot established a more lasting partnership with accordionist Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin (a cousin of Amédé) from nearby Duralde. In 1948 the pair formed the Duralde Ramblers, who became highly popular in south west Louisiana and made many radio broadcasts through the 1950s, notably on KEUN in Eunice. He also began writing songs. His most well-known original songs are "Joe Pitre a Deux Femmes," "Les Barres de la prison" and "Bonsoir Moreau", which have become standards in the Cajun music and Zydeco music repertoires. Fontenot was never a professional musician; he was a rice farmer for many years, and also worked as a labourer in a feed store in the town of Welsh.