Louis Beaudoin, 1973 Ann Meuer photo cover photo - Philo 2000: Louis Beaudoin These poems, stories, songs, quote, and art have been gathered from all over the world, partly via FIDDLE-L, an online list for fiddlers and those who love fiddle music. dhebert@crocker.com

Louis Beaudoin by David Green / Philo 2000 liner notes Some of Louis Beaudoin's earliest memories are of his father playing fiddle at home and for parties and weddings in the French Canadian community of Lowell, Massachusetts. His father would frequently play music until late at night at friends' houses. When Louis was fifteen, he decided that he, too, would play the fiddle. His father would play tunes for him on the fiddle and his mother would sing melodies to him until he learned them. Many of the tunes his family knew were those popular in the French Canadian community. They also listened to French music braodcasts on CKAC Canada and to 78 rpm recordings of fiddlers Isidore Soucy, Joseph Allard, and Tommy Duschesne. Louis' grandparents emigrated from the Laurentian region of Canada to the U.S. like many other French Canadians of their generation who left their farms around the turn of the century to find work in the factory towns of New England. They brought with them a rich musical heritage. Louis was born in 1921 in Lowell, MA. In 1937, when the economy was recovering from the Depression, Louis' father thought he could find work in Vermont, and so moved his family to Burlington, where Louis lived the rest of his life. During World War II, he served in Africa and Europe as a member of General Patton's tank corps. He married the former Julie Lacourse and they had five daughters: Louise, Carmen, Sylvia, Nina, and Lisa. For many years, he was a member of the Burlington Police Force, and then he owned an operated an automobile radiator repair shop adjacent to his home. Like his family before him, Louis has passed on his love of the music. Three of his daughters play the piano. Sylvia accompanies her father on this record. The basic style that she uses is common to French Canadian dance music. She plays octaves in the bass with her left hand on each beat and three note chords with her right hand on the off beats. Louis' daughter Lisa can be heard clogging with taps on her shoes to "Growling Old Man and Cackling Old Lady." On most of the tunes on this record, you can hear Louis' feet as he clogs. He plays the fiddle while sitting down so he can tap his feet. He learned to clog from both his father and his maternal grandmother. He recalls his grandmother raising her floor-length skirts and holding her body still while tapping out complicated rhythms in time to the music with her high boots. Also accompanying Louis on this record is his brother Wilfred Beaudoin of Burlington, who plays guitar. They have played together since their youth. After World War II, Willy became a jazz guitarist and until recently (1973) had his own band which played in the Burlington area. Willy is an automobile salesman. Rod Fuller, a steel construction worker from North Hyde Park, VT, plays bones on this record. In one hand, he holds two pieces of ebony carved in the flat shape of beef ribs, and in the other hand, two actual beef ribs. Held loosely between the fingers, they are shaken rhythmically by turning the wrists. His father taught him how to play. Louis joined the Northeast Fiddlers' Association when it was founded in 1966. He discovered that the fellowship with other musicians renewed his incentive to play. Louis often performs in public. He has played for many social occasions, and for the Vermont State Legislature, the Vermont Historical Society, the Philadelphia Folk Festival. © DAVID GREEN: Philo 2000 - Louis Beaudoin