Program

Legends & Lore®

Subject

Folklore

Location

205 Rue Iry Lejeune, Church Point, LA 70525, USA

Lat/Long

30.406088, -92.215533

Grant Recipient

Center for Louisiana Studies

Ira “Iry” LeJeune is considered one of the all-time greatest Cajun accordionists, singers, and composers. At a time when the fiddle had come to dominate Cajun music, thanks to the influence of western swing bands, Iry’s music sparked the Cajun accordion renaissance, restoring its role as a lead instrument and renewing interest in old-time Cajun music.

Iry was born nearly blind in the rural Cajun farming community of Pointe Noire, Louisiana in 1928. Because he could not contribute as a farm boy, he studied music with his talented family, full of accomplished fiddlers and accordionists steeped in Cajun musical heritage. Most influential was his uncle, Angelas LeJeune, a professional accordionist. Angelas introduced Iry to the accordion and to the records of his friend Amédé Ardoin, an influential African American accordionist of Cajun and Creole music, whose style inspired Iry.

Music gave the nearly blind Iry a means to earn an income and support his soon-to-be large family. As a young man, he was known to carry his accordion in a burlap flour sack, headed in whichever direction a crowd might pay for good music. Iry and his accordion became regulars in dance halls throughout Cajun Country. At the same time, he became a successful recording artist, cutting the popular “Love Bridge Waltz” and “Evangeline Special,” two of only two dozen or so songs he would ever record.

In 1955, Iry’s life was cut tragically short in a freak accident on the side of a Louisiana state highway. On the way home from a gig in Eunice, having stopped to change a flat tire, Iry was struck and killed by a fellow motorist. He was just twenty-six years old and left behind a wife, five children, and an astounding music legacy.

Despite his brief career and small discography, Iry’s reputation looms large over the Cajun music scene. His “Love Bridge Waltz” remains one of the first songs aspiring Cajun accordionists learn; his songwriting and accordion style influenced the continued development of Cajun music; and to this day, his songs can be heard in regular rotation throughout Southwest Louisiana and wherever Cajun music is played.