book – Made in Louisiana: The Story of the Acadian Accordion, by Marc Savoy

Description

Made in Louisiana: the Story of the Acadian Accordion, by Marc Savoy. (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, hardcover, 125 pp.)

Upon seeing a Louisiana-handmade diatonic accordion for the first time in 1957, a teenage Marc Savoy began a quest that arguably no one has come closer to achieving: to build the perfect Cajun accordion. Told in Marc’s own words, Made in Louisiana is the story of the evolution of his Acadian brand accordions—but it is also the story of how an instrument once known as the “German-style” accordion became the iconic image of Louisiana’s Cajun culture.

Born in 1940, Marc Savoy grew up in a rural French-speaking community outside of Eunice, Louisiana, and started playing the accordion at age twelve. By age twenty, he was building and selling his own Acadian-brand Cajun accordions. In 1966, he opened the doors to the iconic Savoy Music Center in his hometown. Today, he is revered as one of the finest builders and players of the instrument in the world.

“Marc Savoy, in his own inimitable way as a crusty, creative perfectionist, has given us a book that is at once a history of the accordion globally as well as in French Louisiana in his and his ancestors’ lives. A master accordion-maker and Cajun music virtuoso, Savoy engages the complex evolution in Cajun culture from a lived point of view—family, touring, and running a small, but influential business from Eunice, Louisiana. He forcefully asserts that Cajun and Creole music is the ‘glue’ that will hold French Louisiana culture and communities together into the future. The Savoy family of musicians, producers, writers, and educators are living proof.”

—Nick Spitzer, producer of American Routes, professor of anthropology, Tulane University

“This is a “heavy” book with dimensions of ca. 10 ¾” X 10 ¾” X 3/4” – kind of like 2 or 3 oversized 10” 78 rpm shellac records and weighing over two pounds each! Gorgeously laid-out and designed with almost every one of its 125 pages filled with full color photos of accordions and/or black & white photos of people and places which all help tell Marc’s story as to how he got involved so passionately with this instrument, its culture and people from early childhood all the way to the present! It is also printed in Canada on heavy paper ideal for reproducing photos to perfection! It is the unique story of a man who starts on page one with: “I fell in love with all things Cajun at a very early age.” And he has never let go of that enjoyment of not only improving his own playing but then building the instruments as well as gaining respect and wider recognition for the music and the Cajun culture as he first perceived, encountered and loved it. In his wonderful flowing style of telling a story he takes you along for a fascinating ride and I GUARANTEE you will enjoy it!”

– Chris Strachwitz