CAJUN ACCORDION: Blackie Forestier / Lewisburg Waltz / La Louisianne 8137 / c1975

Blackie was born October 28, 1928, in a community in St. Landry Parish known at that time as Coulée Croche; later renamed Cankton, Louisiana. In 1930 the family moved to an area Northwest of Jennings, Louisiana, known as Pine Island. Blackie grew up there on a farm growing cotton, corn, sweet potatoes, etc.

There always was an accordion in the house belonging to Blackie's oldest brother (14 years his senior) who played well. He was not allowed to touch the instrument but wanted to play very much. A family tradition was that every Christmas all four brothers with wives and children would spend the day at their parents’ house to enjoy good food, drinks and the brother would play the accordion.

[text above and below from: https://www.cajunfrenchmusic.org/docu...]

Coming out of military service in 1954, at the next Christmas gathering, when Blackie's brother put the accordion down for a break, he picked it up and started making noise on it which must have been pleasing because as a result Blackie was allowed to use the accordion for two weeks. After two weeks, Blackie played a couple of songs over the phone for his brother. He said there was a friend of his that had an old Sterling accordion for sale and he would buy it, have a pick up installed on it for $125. Blackie told him he did not have that much money but he said he could pay later.

In 1957, Blackie played his first job in Houston, Texas, for money for an oil company. Some musician friends helped and that was the start. The oil company wanted a name for the band for advertisement, so Blackie came up with the name, “Blackie Forestier and the Cajun Aces” and the name remained. His share of the money earned for this first job was more than enough to pay for his accordion. Throughout all the years Blackie enjoyed playing, making many, many friends and he contributed much to the Cajun Culture and Cajun music.

[Lewisburg Waltz, Blackie Forestier, La Louisianne 8137, recorded c1975]
The flip side of this disk is Louise:    • CAJUN ACCORDION: Blackie Forestier / Louis...  
My Accordiana Playlist:    • Accordiana