The Balfa Brothers worked to sustain traditional Cajun music through the 1960s, an era when the style risked vanishing entirely. Three sons from a family of six grew up under a struggling southwest Louisiana sharecropper whose teachings conveyed the region’s longstanding lore and customs. Fiddler Dewey Balfa drew strong inspiration from J.B. Fusilier, Leo Soileau, Harry Choates, and Bob Wills. Alongside brothers Rodney on vocals, guitar, and harmonica, Will on second fiddle, Harry on accordion, and Burkeman handling triangle and spoons, the group first performed casually at family gatherings and neighborhood events throughout the 1940s. Their local following grew until they appeared at as many as eight dances weekly in area halls. Neighbor Hadley Fontenot later joined on accordion. In 1951 the ensemble issued its first recordings, “La Valse de Bon Baurche” and “Le Two Step de Ville Platte,” cut on a home recorder and pressed as a 78-rpm single. Dewey subsequently pursued solo work with numerous Cajun performers and released material on the Khoury, Kajun, and Swallow labels.
Dewey, Rodney, Will, Will’s daughter Nelda, and Fontenot assembled as the Balfa Brothers in 1967, carrying the Cajun sound to European audiences and U.S. folk festivals. The following year they performed at the Olympics Festival in Mexico City. Their initial professional session yielded the 1967 Swallow single “Le Valse de Bambocheurs/Indian on a Stomp,” which prompted the full-length album Balfa Brothers Play Traditional Cajun Music on the same imprint. After issuing a second LP, the group appeared in Les Blank’s 1972 documentary Spend It All, exposing fresh listeners to the energetic Cajun style. Also in 1972 they recorded The Cajuns for Sonet and The Good Times Are Killing Me for Swallow, the latter containing the soundtrack to the documentary of that title. While rooted in tradition, the Balfas explored updated Cajun material with a nightclub ensemble featuring Dewey, Rodney, accordionist Nathan Menard, fiddler Dick Richard, steel guitarist J.W. Pelsia, drummer Austin Broussard, and Rodney’s son Tony on bass guitar.
The band’s fortunes held steady until February 1979, when Rodney and Will died in an automobile accident. Dewey’s wife succumbed to trichinosis the next year. Despite these losses the Balfa Brothers persisted, with occasional lineup adjustments, even after Dewey’s passing in 1992, ensuring that his substantial contribution to Cajun music endures.
