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        Larry G. Miller says that the accordion is a part of Cajun culture, his family heritage and the identity of Cajun music.  The diatonic accordion was invented in Vienna in 1828 (Ancelet, 1989), and the German immigrants brought the diatonic accordion to Louisiana as early as 1884 (Savoy, 1984).  Although Cajun music experienced the decay of the accordion during World War II, the accordion has played a very important role in Cajun music and Zydeco since it arrived in Louisiana.  There are many accordion builders in Louisiana, and Savoy lists twenty seven builders as of 1984.  Larry G. Miller, who is known as the craftsman of Bon Cajun Accordions, is one of them; according to Larry Miller’s current list, there are twenty four builders as of 2004.  Now many great musicians, such as Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin, cherish his accordions.  He is a Cajun, and he has ninety seven percents of French ancestors, but he has three percents of German ancestors also, and he inherits his family name Miller from the German ancestors.  Interestingly, Larry Miller, a Cajun who has ancestors of the German immigrants, builds diatonic accordions which were brought to Louisiana by the German immigrants.


        Larry G. Miller lives on the outskirts of downtown Iota, Louisiana, along Hwy 370 with his wife Jackie.  He built a gazebo in his backyard for jam sessions two years ago.  There is his workshop behind his house, and Cajun spoons are hung out to dry at the front of it.  He was born a son to a sharecropper planting rice and cotton, Abraham Miller and Algena Leger, on July 7th, 1936, about 300 yards away from his current house.  His father also was from the same area, but his paternal ancestors Miller family came to Pennsylvania from Germany in the late eighteenth century, and then they seems to have settled in Eunice area.  Her mother was from the outskirts of Iota, and she was from original Cajun family Leger.  Meanwhile, his father’s mother also was from original Cajun family Cormier.  Larry’s father played accordion and influenced him strongly, but his father passed away in 1961.  Afterwards he bought his own site, and he built the house on the property where he was born.
        Larry Miller remembers that house dances, bals de maison, were held in his childhood, and that music was still going on after he went to bed.  In his school age, commercial dance halls and night clubs were already established, and he often went to the venues to enjoy Cajun dance and later to Rock ’n’ Roll music such as Fats Domino.  His family often had supper and Cajun music jam session parties.  At the parties, several families got together, cooked gumbo, and sometimes butchered pig like boucheries, and he used to play Cajun spoon and washboard with his father and older brother who played accordion.
        As he speaks Cajun French and studied standard French a little on his own, he feels that French spoken in Nova Scotia is easier to understand than French spoken in France, Belgium or Quebec.  Since he learned French from his parents and grandparents in his home, his first language is French, and he had known only few English words before he began to go to school.  His family, parents and brothers, spoke French, but they spoke some English also, so they were bilingual.  Now he speaks French when he talks for French tourists and his grandchildren who learn French from him.  He realizes that the most part of speaking French among Cajuns is beginning to die out, and that only small percent of young people learn French in school and speak French because most of their parents can’t speak French.  However, he considers that Cajun musicians still stick to French for its lyrics.  Because young Zydeco musicians sing in R&B style, it is no problem that R&B style Zydeco is sung in English, but he feels somewhat out of place with Cajun music without Cajun French, and Cajun music without Cajun French is not Cajun music.  Ironically, from the commercial viewpoint, young people buy few CDs of Cajun music sung in Cajun French because they can’t understand French lyrics, and they buy more CDs of Zydeco sung in English.  However, Larry Miller says that Cajun French is the most important element to preserve Cajun culture.


        Larry Miller bought his first accordion from Shine Mouton in 1978 when he was forty two years old.  Then he began not only to play accordion and but to build accordions, and he visited Shine Mouton to learn to play and build accordion.  At first, he learned to play accordion from his older brother and Shine Mouton.  He visited other musicians also, such as Nathan Abshire, and he used to go to the Bearcat Lounge in Basile to learn to play accordion.  In addition, he sponsored a jam session at a country bar near Iota on Saturday nights.  The jam session was the acoustic style in a circle, and sometimes four or five accordion players got together there.  He used to watch other accordion players to learn their finger patterns.
        Before he began to play accordion, he knew a few Cajun songs.  His older brother played accordion well, but he would never sung.  His father sang and played, and he sang a little with his father or other musicians when he was a teenager.  However, mainly he has learned Cajun songs from 33 rpm albums, cassettes and later CDs.  The yellow book “Yé Yaille Chère!: Traditional Cajun Dance Music” written by Raymond E. Francois also helped him to learn Cajun songs.  His favorite musicians are Walter Mouton, Corey McCauley, Marc Savoy and Paul Daigle, and his favorite song is “La Bouillie de Peau de Lapin” which tells a kind of joke about making rabbit skin stew.
        He loves to dance so much, and he tells the story of the dance contest delightfully.  He obtained permission from his wife, and he asked Sue de Mamou of Fred’s Lounge to take part in the Cajun dance contest in Lafayette with him.  He says that his wife can dance well, but Sue de Mamou was an outstanding dancer, and as a result, Larry Miller and Sue de Mamou won the two-step category of the contest.
        He had a Cajun band Moulin Rouge which consisted of members from Church Point and Sunset.  The band had played for twelve years, but it discontinued playing in 2000.  The band left a recording on cassette “Le bal est cassé”, and it contains a song composed by him.  Moulin Rouge made four trips to France, a trip to Quebec and a trip to Brunswick to play Cajun music, and they often went to festivals and wedding parties in United States.  He humbly says that the band was on a good amateur level, but it couldn’t compare with the bands of Steve Riley or Walter Mouton.
        Now his next generations are active in Cajun music scene.  His grandson Blake Miller is very talented as a musician.  Blake started to play a Hohner accordion at the age of ten, and then he began to play Bon Cajun accordion at the age of eleven.  He already began to teach accordion last year at Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia.  Larry’s another grandson Jay has a right hand and a left hand accordion, but he plays drums better.  Both Jay and Blake help their grandfather Larry Miller to build accordions in Larry’s workshop, and they have a Cajun band named New Pine Grove Boys with Blake’s father Bruno.  As Bruno plays guitar and sings, Larry says that Bruno is a good singer who knows Cajun songs well.  New Pine Grove Boys often plays at D.I’s restaurant between Iota and Basile.
        Concerning the current situations of Cajun music, he considers that fiddle players are in short, and moreover singers, who sing Cajun lyrics and who pronounce words accurately, are getting short.  In addition, Cajun music scene has a problem of CD sales slowdown because people can’t understand French lyrics, and Cajun dance halls which have played important roles in Cajun communities are disappearing.  Therefore, he is worried that Cajun music starts to go down a little bit.


        Before Larry Miller became an accordion builder, he was a high school math and science teacher, and then he became a K to twelve assistant principal and K through six school principal.  After serving for twenty two years, he retired from educational institution in 1980 when he was forty four years old, and he was engaged in business with his brother.  Eventually, he became a full-time accordion builder in 1988 when he was fifty two years old.
        He began to build accordions at the same time when he began to play in 1978.  At first, he began to build accordions as a hobby, and he had build as a part-time amateur of accordion building for ten years.  He visited accordion builders, such as Shine Mouton of Mouton accordions, Marc Savoy of Acadian accordions, Randy Falcon of Falcon accordions and Charlie Ortego of Master accordions, in order to learn to build accordions.  Now he usually builds eighty five accordions a year, and he repairs from two hundred to two hundred and fifty.  By the way he built ninety two accordions this season.  He says that he is not sure, but he seems to have built from eight hundred to one thousand accordions until now.  His dream as an accordion builder is to supply the best musicians with his accordions, but he already has had many great customers, e.g. Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin and his family, Sheryl Cormier, Geno Delafose, Rosie Ledet, Jesse Lege, Lee Benoit, Corey Lil’ Pop Ledet and Goldman Thibodeaux.  Moreover, he has not only domestic but foreign customers, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and countries in Western Europe.
        His original brand name is “Bon Tee Cajun” which means “Good Little Cajun” in English.  “Tee” in Cajun French means “Little” in English, and “Tee” of “Tee Mamou” is the same meaning.  However, he gave up the original brand name because “Tee” is not standard French, and he faced a hail of questions about “Tee” from France, Belgium and Quebec.  Thus, he changed his brand name from “Bon Tee Cajun” to “Bon Cajun” four years ago.
        He participates in about twelve festivals a year as an accordion builder, e.g. Festival International and Festivals Acadiens.  He promotes his accordions, and sometimes he teaches to build accordion at the festivals.  He says that it is very hard work to prepare for festivals especially the big festival like New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.  He usually goes to the festivals with his wife Jackie Miller.  Since she is a great Mardi Gras costume maker, she also often has her booth of Mardi Gras Costumes, such as caputions, screen masks and suits.  In the meantime, she is a great Cajun cook too.  She published a cookbook “Jackie’s Collection”, and she teaches Cajun cooking at the festivals.
        Bon Cajun accordions contain his original ideas.  The finger board has a little more distance between buttons and the edge of the finger board, and the bass box is narrower and taller than the other brand accordions.  These ideas make accordion more comfortable to play.  Furthermore, his ideas, which are applied to reed block areas, help to improve sound quality.  He says that the most difficulties of his accordion are the slides to open and close the holes of reeds, and the rocker arms of the buttons on the finger board.  However, he enjoys completing the finger boards best.  He obtains some parts from Italy to build accordions, and he imports plastic buttons from Carini Di Carini, and bellows from Galassi Bellows and reeds from Binci Reeds.  However, he makes everything else except some screws and shanks which are special made for him.


        Larry Miller has taught to play accordion actively.  At first he made a “push-pull pattern sheet” to teach.  He taught on the community education program of Acadia Parish for a couple of years, and then he taught in Lafayette, Eunice, e.g. Saturday workshop at Acadian Village.  He published a text book “You Can Play Cajun Accordion” with audio cassette in 1984 with the cooperation of his son Mike who plays accordion.  Furthermore, he has learned Cajun culture from books, his folklorist friends and his own experiences, and he calls himself a self-taught folklorist.  He teaches not only accordion building and playing but Cajun culture at some festivals now.  Incidentally, he has a collection of antique accordions such as the accordions made in nineteenth century.
        He has participated with many other cultural activities.  He organized Goldman Thibodeaux’s CD recording, and he advised on the products and the contacts with people at the recording.  As the church in Iota has a large proportion of Cajun population, he and his wife organize a Cajun French gospel choir.  They collaborated with the choirs of Lake Charles, Church Point and Eunice.  Their choir will sing at a historic old wooden church in Nova Scotia on August 8th, 2004.  He occasionally acts as emcee for weekly radio & TV show “Rendez-Vous des Cajuns” at the Liberty Theater in Eunice in place of regular MC Dr. Barry Ancelet.  Larry Miller had devoted for long time to help to establish Cajun French Music Association (CFMA), and he is one of twenty six founders of CFMA.  He was the early president of Acadiana Charter Chapter of CFMA, and moreover, he has helped to establish other chapters. 　Now he is a representative of Acadiana Charter Chapter, and a head of CFMA Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Eunice.


        Sad to say, in the middle of the interview, he states that he will retire as an accordion builder two years later at the age of seventy.  He will continue to build and repair only few accordions, and he will close his Bon Cajun workshop.  He seems to want to be free from a busy sixty hours’ work week, troublesome sales tax forms, etc.  I would like to express my thanks to him for his twenty-six-year accordion building, and I hope he will be more active as a self-taught folklorist henceforth.  When I first met with Larry Miller in September, 2000, he and his Bon Cajun accordions were so enchanting I could not help ordering my Bon Cajun accordion.  When I asked him for the interview, he was very busy preparing for festivals.  However, he said that he couldn’t say “No” to people who come to him in order to learn his heritage, and he willingly accepted the interview.  He told the stories of the accordion and of himself courteously like a high school teacher during the interview.  Afterward we went to Nick’s in Eunice to participate with a jam session.  His turn was last, and his accordion and singing was so exciting that everybody was entertained with him.  Although he decides to retire as an accordion builder, many musicians not only in Louisiana but in the world will keep cherishing his accordions, and they will keep the sound of Bon Cajun accordions alive with Cajun music and Zydeco.



        Ancelet, B. J. (1989). Cajun Music: Its Origins and Development. Lafayette, LA: University od Southwestern Louisiana.
        Boudreaux, A. & Hatano, J. (2004, April 13). [Interview with Larry G. Miller, accordion builder].
        Savoy, A. A. (Ed.). (1984). Cajun music: A reflection of a people (volume I). Eunice, LA: Bluebird Press.

        Go to Books and Videos Page (English)
        Go to Books and Videos Page (Japanese)

        The official web site of  Bon Cajun Instruments


        This research paper was written for Dr. Ancelet's Cajun Music and Zydeco class as a final project.

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©2003 Jiro "Jireaux" Hatano