# Music by Genre > Old-Time, Roots, Early Country, Cajun, Tex-Mex >  Cajun mandolin

## mandocaster

I have been playing guitar in a new Cajun band lately. None of us are Cajuns, and we usually play Celtic music. I've noticed there aren't very many Cajun mandolinists. I've learned about 10 tunes from the Mel Bay Cajun fiddle book and I listen to YouTube videos of real Cajun bands. It is doable to transfer to mandolin. It's been fun. Anybody play a little Bayou Pon Pon or such like?

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## EdSherry

Tommy Comeaux used to play mandolin with Beausoleil.  He wrote a column on Cajun mandolin for Mandeocrucian's Digest for a number of years.  You may be able to get back issues from Niles Hokkanen.

Search this site for "Cajun Music Resources" for a thread on the topic.

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## Jeff Hildreth

Why not contact the bravenet  Cajun Accordion Discussion Group..
plenty of experience and talent there.



http://pub21.bravenet.com/forum/stat...mid=16&msgid=0

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## mandocaster

The Cajun Music resources thread was interesting.  The accordian forum looks cool.

Clearly there is a huge almost unexplored country out there.  Niles was there before anyone.

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mandocrucian

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## journeybear

I've been known to go there pretty often. I play in a seasonal Cajun-country-bluegrass band, have done for ten years now. Our fearless leader plays in a Cajun band from New England, and winters down here. She recruited me and a bass player to knock around and play odd gigs, and while fiddlers have come and gone, for the last five years we have had an excellent pedal steel player, who is also from New England. Obviously, this is not really serious traditional Cajun music - despite fearless leader having Acadian roots and learning from Dewey Balfa and Geno Delafose (whose mom taught her how to make gumbo) and having been at it for 25 years,   - and the pedal steel has skewed us more toward country. But we hold our own. I learned how to incorporate Cajun rhythms into my playing, and mimic (as much as I can) what accordion and fiddle do. For two-steps I play chords in 16th note patterns, slightly emphasizing the third beat. It usually works pretty well. I also learned a bunch of well-known melodies note-for-note, particularly waltzes. And yes, we do "Bayou Pon Pon." Got to!  :Mandosmiley: 

I'll bet that if you do an advanced search on "seasonal" and "Cajun" you will turn up plenty more yakety-yak from me on the subject.  :Wink:

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Jan Viljoen

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## Jim Nollman

There are a few contra dance tunes that are either of direct Cajun origin, or are French Canadian and so seem to lend themselves to Cajun rhythm. Reel San Antoine and La Bastringue are two examples that come to mind. In our band, the cajun sound is held entirely by the mandolin player (myself). I dig in to the Cajun counter-rhythm after sitting out the first verse to let the piano establish the dance rhythm and the fiddle establish the melody. Adding that syncopation by a combination of double stops and woof gets the dancers into overdrive every time.

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## journeybear

Someone requested I post an example (honestly!) of what I meant in my previous post about my strumming pattern for Cajun two-steps. This a pretty good example, I guess, though you have to suffer with my singing. It's a bit sloppy, being live, and with a few extra players for our annual Mardi Gras gig at The Green Parrot. My time in the spotlight comes around 2:40. Right after my solo the second fiddle takes a lead, and since his violin is a bit low in the mix you can hear the rhythm pretty well. This was shot by the club manager, who used to own a Gibson A years ago (sad story about that, not relevant here), and he got nearly all of the song in. He had some kind of fish-eye lens on his camera. I'm really much better-looking and skinnier than this.  :Wink:  BTW, the tune is called "Lacassine Special" with new lyrics by Norman Blake.

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Carol White, 

Jon Hall, 

Misty Stanley-Jones

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## Capt. E

The current Cajun/Creole band is generally an Accordion, Fiddle, Guitar trio. A "full" band will also have Drums, a Bass and perhaps a steel guitar. In the late 1940's during what is called the "string band era" when accordions were not seen in a cajun band, mandolins did appear from time to time. I have tried playing mandolin in cajun jams from time to time, but generally find mandolins do not blend well. They seem to have trouble being heard, the accordion and fiddle just drown the mandolin out. Perhaps amplification would make a difference.  Even so, Fiddle and Accordion are the core of a cajun band. If you want to go way back to the origins of cajun music, you'll find the fiddle is where it all comes from. Accordions didn't appear until the early 20th century. If you ever have a chance to hear two cajun fiddler's playing together, don't miss it. Wonderful stuff.

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journeybear

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## mandocaster

I recorded Calinda this afternoon.  Pretty rocky, but I had fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k07SWm2hnyo

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## Jan Viljoen

Nice piece of Cajun mandolin. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVG62Hj700E

 :Mandosmiley:

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## journeybear

Just thought I'd embed these for everyone's ease ...





... though some may question whether, with mandolin and flute, rather than fiddle and accordion, it really IS cajun music.  :Whistling:  Well, as mandolinists, we tend to stretch the boundaries of convention all the time.  :Mandosmiley:

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Jim Nollman

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## kaintuck

I live in cajun country and have seen several cajun bands, but only one that had a mandolinist. It is Lee Benoit's band. He has been awarded the world's greatest accordion player award twice. He plays at a local dance hall here once a week. On most of the album versions of his songs, the fiddler/lapsteel/ second guitarist usually plays mandolin, but one of his daughters usually plays in his shows because the studio mandolinist is playing the fiddle. I have a cd i bought from lee and several songs has mandolin on it. Here's a video of his band with his daughter playing a mandocaster (although lee is not playing because of an injury, and had a friend play and his wife sing.) http://youtu.be/xqNY15Zt-6A?list=UUW...sKsgVHoVtBf6Eg (sorry if this doesn't work, im new here and im not sure how to imbed videos). When his daughter plays, she often uses the mandocaster, but when the fiddler plays he often uses a acoustic with a piezo

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Jon Hall

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