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October 1938. "Cajun orchestra for fais-do-do near Crowley, Louisiana. Having intermission with drinks." View full size. Medium format nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration.
The fellow on the right side is playing a metal-bodied National Duolian resonator. You can tell by the "Frosted Duco" finish.
This group is not the Hackberry Ramblers, although some photos of them from that era do exist.
All best,
Ben Sandmel
So there have been a lot of posts of various musical groups from Crowley and even some other places around Cajun Country, and I've been wondering if any of them identified the artists.
I suspect that one of the pictures may contain a picture of the Hackberry Ramblers, one of the most famous Cajun musical groups ever. I was recently at Festival International in Lafayette, Louisiana (Crowley is in the metro-area of Lafayette), and Luderin Darbone, lead fiddler of the Hackberry Ramblers, came out with the Lost Bayou Ramblers and told stories of his 95 years on this earth and how in 1935 his group was the first Cajun band to use electric instruments. I just wonder if one of the fiddlers shown in any of these photos is a young Luderin.
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