Martin's Accordion--Lessons in Cajun Music

Abbeville, Louisiana
Betty's RV Park

We sat outside this morning and enjoyed the beautiful day.  Betty made reservations for about a dozen people to tour the Martin Accordion factory this afternoon and told us where to stop for lunch.

We all piled in the truck to head to Maurice for lunch.  

When we walked into the Villager Restaurant we were told to wait on the porch while they got a table ready for us.

We followed Betty's recommendation and found the Villager without any problems.

Bill and I both had a shrimp po-boy.

Even though we were full our waitress talked us into trying beignets.  There were four and when we were done, there were none.

We all enjoyed our meals and the fine service we received.

After our lunch we headed to the Martin Accordion shop.  We were almost an hour early but we had time to look around.

It wasn't a large place but there were probably about 40 people for the tour.  

These were cajun accordions.  They have buttons instead of keys.

This is Junior Martin who started the company.  He used to be in construction and made cabinets in the shop.  He began making accordions about 33 years ago.  He's 79 and loves working.  We also learned that he makes his own golf clubs.

His daughter, explained the difference between Cajun and Creole music.  This business is entirely run by the Martin family.  

The grandson, Joel, is the accordion star.  He told the story of when he was 7 he took piano lessons and when he turned 8 he wanted to learn the accordion.  Cajun accordion is played by ear only.  There is no written music.  It is passed down by families.

Daughter, Father and Grandson started playing and giving examples of Cajun versus Zydeco.  We learned that Cajun is sung in French but Zydeco is French and English.  

These accordions sell for $2700.00.  They never have to be tuned like a piano.  

It's not a fancy shop and I wondered how old that stool was.  It takes 154 hours of work to make an accordion.

They offer a huge selection of wood and they can dye some of the woods.  They use food coloring to dye the wood.




It was after 5:30 when we went through Abbeville town square on the way back to Betty's.  We were told that they had music in the square but parking the truck seemed impossible.  We talked about going back and getting a jacket and our chairs, but 5 minutes later, we all decided we'd done enough for the day.  

Happy hour was still going strong at Betty's but Bill and I just went back to our coach and vegged.  

Turtle Safely..........