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Cajun Hall Of Fame
Chris Hall has been central to all things swamp- inspired in the UK since way back in the last century. Jamie Renton meets up for a chat.
people from the UK. More often than not, this prejudice is borne out by musical experience. But not always. And when it isn’t, it’s very likely that Derby-based squeezebox player and singer Chris Hall is involved somewhere.
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A relaxed, friendly 60-something, Hall’s been pursuing the Cajun muse for more than three decades now. Even if his name doesn’t ring any bells, you’ll probably know at least some of the projects he’s been involved with: R Cajun & The Zydeco Broth- ers, Champion Doug Veitch and more recently The Cajun Roosters. Not to mention Derby’s legendary Swamp Club.
here are exceptions to every rule. I’ve long held the view that Cajun music can only be made properly by people from Louisiana. And certainly not by
Originally from Sheffield, Chris didn’t come to music until comparatively late. He went to Uni in Leeds, getting to hear lots of bands through his role on the Entertain- ment Committee, but didn’t play a note until the ripe old age of 26. By then he’d moved to Derby and got to hear the single- row accordeon for the first time via Derby - shire folk legend Tufty Swift. “It was just instant,” Chris recalls. “I heard this tone and something inside me made me want to do what he was doing. The thing that motivated me was the sound of this instru- ment and I didn’t really care what I played. I played Morris tunes, Irish tunes, Scottish tunes. I tracked down folk musicians who played single-row accordeons. But also musicians from Soweto… I was just trying to find out all of the different things you could do with it.”
When Tufty played him a Balfa Brothers tune featuring Nathan Abshire, it was love at first listen and that was it! Mr Hall was a man on a mission to discover more of the Louisiana accordeon sound. This was back in the mid-1970s, when such music was near impossible to unearth on this side of the pond. Chris travelled down to London to hoover up any Cajun albums he could find in Colletts, Dobells and other much-missed record shops. “It was learning by studying the front cover of a record,” he says of his Louisiana musical education. “Looking at the way the guy was holding the accordeon. Dropping the needle on a record, slamming it down to half speed, so you could try to play along with it. Just attempting to work it all out by ear.” Today’s YouTube genera- tion of youngsters really don’t know how easy they’ve got things.
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