Iry LeJeune

Ira "Iry" LeJeune (October 27, 1928 – October 8, 1955 Selling the release from the trunk of his car to record shops and jukebox outlets, the disc did remarkably well in the area. As a result, Shuler rushed LeJeune back to the station to cut "Teche Special" and "Te Mone." Suddenly, the fiddle was on the way out of Louisiana and the accordion was back in. Accordionists Lawrence Walker, Aldus Roger, Sidney Brown and Nathan Abshire would soon follow with their own records, but they couldn't touch LeJeune in terms of popularity or sales.

LeJeune assembled a crack band, the Lacassine Playboys, which at one time or another featured Crawford Vincent or Robert Bertrand on drums, Alfred "Duckhead" Cormier on guitar, Wilson Granger on fiddle, R. C. Vanicor on steel guitar and even occasionally Shuler on guitar. The Playboys were known for their casual appearance on the bandstand as LeJeune, never further than an arm's length from a cigarette and a cold bottle of Jax, often looked like he'd just arrived from a day of fishing. Attire aside, LeJeune continued to accumulate a phenomenal body of work. Shuler continued to record LeJeune at KPLC and later at LeJeune's home in Calcasieu, LA, setting his tape recorder on the kitchen table. From LeJeune's kitchen came the beautiful "Duraldo Waltz," a song that featured no accordion, but did include a well-timed bark by the LeJeune family's hog dog, Rain. Another classic was "I Made A Big Mistake," a J.D. Miller composition accentuated by LeJeune's bluesy vocals and crying accordion.

Death

Sadly, at the peak of his career, LeJeune was killed at the age of 26. LeJeune and fiddler J. B. Fuselier were returning home after playing at a dance at the Green Wing club in Eunice on October 8, 1955, when tragedy struck. "They were coming home on old Highway 90," recalled Shuler. "They had a flat where they were widening the highway and they couldn't pull off. They were trying to change the tire when a guy came along going about 90 MPH. He hit him (LeJeune) and knocked him into a field. That was the end of Iry."

LeJeune left a wife Wilma, and five children including Eddie LeJeune and Ervin LeJeune, who would follow in their father's musical footsteps.

Legacy

LeJeune's complete body of work consists of fewer than 30 songs. Frustratingly for Cajun listeners, unless you were lucky enough to possess some of his original 78s or 45s, until a few years ago, you couldn't hear LeJeune's undoctored masterpieces. When assembling LeJeune's material for reissue on LP in 1970, Shuler overdubbed an electric bass on all the tracks. This was undone when Ace Records in England assembled Iry LeJeune: Cajun's Greatest — The Definitive Collection using original discs and master tapes as sources.

Iry LeJeune with the Oklahoma Tornadoes: Love Bridge Waltz Iry LeJeune with the Oklahoma Tornadoes: Evangeline Special

Both Love Bridge Waltz and Evangeline Special were inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2009.