September 4th, 1908 in Mamou, Louisiana of mainly French and Cajun ancestry. His father was Jules V. Landreneau and mother was Evelene Ardoin Landreneau. Adam grew up on a farm along with 12 other siblings, 8 sisters and 4 brothers. He was the youngest. Adam's father Jules came from descendants directly from France who originally settled in Avoyelles parish. There were two sons - one remained with their father, the other settled in the Duralde area. Jules was a sharecropper who farmed rice, cotton, soybeans, and raised cattle and chickens. The property bordered woods with a bayou running through it so they were able to hunt and fish for their own food. Adam grew up enjoying outdoor activities including hunting, fishing and camping with friends and family. He grew up in a family with musical talent. Both of Adam's Grandparents, Valery Landreneau and Marie Rougeau Landreneau played the fiddle and taught Adam's father Jules how to play as well. As a young boy Adam was fortunate enough to witness them play and entertain. Some years later after the passing of Adam's parents, the family was cleaning out their belongings. Adam was cleaning out the family barn and found a wooden box containing an old fiddle in rough shape. It had become tattered from years of wear and poor storage. It was the fiddle that had belonged to Jules, his father. The fiddle was to be auctioned by the family as part of his mother's estate, whom had passed some years later after his father. Adam bid against family members and purchased the old fiddle for $60. He then brought it to Duvix Fruge of Eunice, who repaired and refurbished it. From then on that fiddle was rarely let out of his sight. It became the subject of much envy in the community and elsewhere. Based on an article by Lisa McCauley of Bonnes Nouvelles magazine in 1998 and backed up recently by Adam's son C.J., with whom I had recently conducted a personal interview with, some years later a lawsuit was filed against Adam by another musician claiming it had been stolen from the Avalon Club in Basile. When sheriffs arrived to confiscate it, Adam refused to hand it over. The case was eventually dropped when the accuser got a better look at it and admitted it wasn't his. Adam was in fact lucky to have been able to play the fiddle at all. Twice, he severely injured his playing hand: first breaking it and causing the index finger to remain rigid, then later crushing it in the drive belt of a pump. The accident resulted in steel plates that remained in his arm for the rest of his life. Adam began to self teach himself on old tunes he recalled his father had played. As a young teen he would play music with Hadley Fontenot and played at many local Fais Do-Do ( House Dances). In Adam's early twenties he met and fell in love with a young lady named Ethyl Bass of Oberlin and the two were married on May 6, 1930. They would go on to have 4 sons, Clinton, Turner, Christopher, Hover, and 2 daughters, Emma Lee and Anadine. The family would settle in "Le sac de L'anse Johnson" (the tip of Johnson Cove) community. There they farmed peanuts, rice, corn, snap beans, cotton and also raised farm animals. In Lent season, Adam would catch and sell fish to his neighbors. Ethyl took care of the house and children, milked the cows and tended the garden. The older children helped out on the farm, picked cotton and helped with the daily chores. It is his daughter Anadine who recalls her father spending afternoon's teaching his much younger brother Edius Landreneau's best buddy how to sing Cajun tunes and play the fiddle when he came to visit. His name was Jimmy Newman. Jimmy would later abandon the fiddle experiment in favor of the guitar and eventually land a gig playing and singing in Chuck Guillory's band locally before moving on to Nashville, Tennessee and become a country music legend. Times were hard for the family during the Great Depression Era and Adam moved his family for some years to the Sulphur Mines marsh area near Sulphur, Louisiana to sharecrop with the Stegall family on their rice Farm. They had no electricity nor running water. They would later move to the Community of Edgerly near Starks, Louisiana on the Sabine River to farm with the Bright family. Some years later, Adam and his family would move to Gillis, Louisiana to farm before eventually moving back home to the Mamou area in 1953. Adam's son C.J. Landreneau recalls that same year there was an historic rain event in the fall season which flooded their home and many others in the area with up to 36 inches of water. For a stretch during some of those tough years Adam basically had to give up playing music at social events. But the music he grew up playing was begging him to return. Thank Goodness for Cajun Music! Adam played with some of the biggest names in Cajun music from that region. Men such as Dewey Balfa, Bois-Sec Ardoin, Sadey Courville, Ambroise Thibodeaux, Nathan Abshire, Amar and Jerry Devillier, Roy Fusilier, Preston Manuel, Savey Augustine, Isom Fontenot, John Delafosse, Rodnis McGee, Hilbert Dies, among others. Adam had a hunting camp in the woods near his home and it wasn't uncommon for several of these gentlemen to show up on any given weekend, play music, cook and and "passer un bon temps". (pass a good time). Jerry Devillier is quoted as saying "Adam was a really fine/smooth fiddle player who made it easy to play along with". But perhaps the name of a musician who was most key to his illustrious career was none other than his cousin Cyprien Landreneau, from the neighboring community of Duralde. This duo would forever shape Cajun music and perhaps not only help to preserve it but popularize it around the world. In 1957, Cajun music consisting of Adam, Cyprien, Shelby Vidrine and Alton Landreneau and made its 2nd live debut outside the Louisiana border and for the 1st time since 1937, at the National Folk Festival in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Perhaps the biggest event took place in 1964, when Adam, Cyprien and Jerry Devillier were playing on Revon Reed's live radio program one Saturday at Fred's Lounge in Mamou on KBON broadcast. A man named Ralph Rinzler, a talent scout and assistant secretary for the Smithsonian Institute was driving through the Acadiana region and was nearby when he heard the trio playing their last number of the program. This was the authentic sound he was looking for instead of the more popular western string sound that had became infused in Cajun music at the time. He eventually made contact with Revon Reed and Paul Tate who were the area promoters of the program. Because of prior obligations, the three musicians were unable to be a part of the Cajun Band's debut at the Newport Folk festival in 1964. The 1st trio to be picked to attend was Vinus Lejuene, Gladney Thibodeaux and Wallace Lefleur. Lefleur backed out at the last minute and was replaced by a young Dewey Balfa. The group was named "The Eunice Playboys". Despite a lot of skepticism the trio was a huge success. Dewey would return home and vow to make Cajun music prosper which he was hugely responsible. The following year in 1965, a group named the "Mamou Cajun Band" or sometimes referred to as "The Cyprien Landreneau Band" consisting of the trio of Cyprien Landreneau on accordion, Adam Landreneau on fiddle and Jerry Devillier on the triangle and harmonica (sometimes simultaneously), made a stop in New York City to perform in Central Park's Delacourte Theater as a tune-up before their Newport Folk Festival debut and again both were a huge success. At Newport, with such acts as Peter, Paul, & Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Gordon Lightfoot, etc., the trio managed to upstage them by being the only act to receive two standing ovations and two encore's. The audience refused to let up and didn't want the Cajun Band to leave the stage. The stage manager becoming frantic had to request the audience to please quiet down so the other performers (mentioned previously) could have their turn on stage. From there the Cajun music Renaissance Era really started taking shape. Throughout the mid to late 1960's, Adam and Cyprien along with different musicians would tour many National and International festivals. Throughout the U.S. they performed at large venues such as the 1965 Wolf Trap National Folk Festival in Arlington, Virginia, 1965 National Folk Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida and the 1965 Denver, Colorado Festival. In 1966, the group comprised of Cyprien, Adam and Revon Reed made Cajun music history by being the 1st Cajun music group to travel abroad to perform on a three week tour of Europe and ended with the Berlin Jazz Festival in Germany, made possible by the efforts of local attorney Paul C. Tate. Also in 1966, they performed at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Delacourte Theater in Central Park, New York City. In 1967, they performed at the Jewish Community Center in Houston, Texas. 1968 was a big year as the trio of Cyprien, Adam, and Dewy Balfa performed at the Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico, the Kiel Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri, and the New Orleans Jazz Festival. In 1969, Adam accompanied a group of musicians comprised of Edius Naquin, Isom Fontenot, Shelby Vidrine and Cyprien Landreneau, along with members of the Mamou Mardis Gras Association to re-enact an early era Mardi Gras event at the National Folk festival held in Washington, D.C. The list of places above they traveled to play is astonishing and is by far incomplete. In a recent interview I had with Adam's son C.J., he tells an interesting story. Following one of the festivals (most probable the 1959 National Folk Festival in Nashville, Tennessee or the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island) after a rehearsal a gentleman, upon hearing Adam playing his fiddle approached him and told Adam he was impressed with his fiddle playing and really liked the sound of his instrument and offered to purchase it for an amount of $1,000 and another fiddle of his choice owned by him. That was a substantial amount of money back then. Adam was by far not a wealthy man but politely told the gentleman he wouldn't part with it for "no amount of money". The man happened to be none other than Country Western music star Bill Monroe. In the 1998 interview with Lisa McCauley of Bonnes Nouvelles Magazine, Adam's son Chris claimed another offer was made by a Canadian videographer some years later for $10,000. Adam still refused to part with it, for no amount of money could pry it from his hands. The fiddle still exist today and has been passed down to a younger family member hopefully to keep in the family for future generations. Adam's son C.J. goes on to share several funny stories. The 1st was an incident that supposedly happened during a tour of New York City. As the story goes, Adam and Cyprien were riding for the 1st time in an elevator and upon ascending swiftly up the Empire State building, someone riding along with the two noticed they were holding hands in terror with their eyes closed and seemed to be praying . One can only imagine what was going through the minds of these two Cajun prairie flat landers. Another story was a time when Adam and Cyprien were camping in Adam's old hunting cabin. After a party with several other's it had gotten late so the two decided just to sleep it off there. In the middle of the night the mosquitoes were horrible since there was no air conditioning and they had to open the windows with holes in the screens to let some Louisiana spring time air in. Adam remembered he had a can of mosquito repellant and got the can of spray to get rid of them. He proceeds to spray Cyprien and himself. Unfortunately it was dark at the time, and it wasn't until the next morning that they discovered it was not a can of mosquito repellent, but indeed yellow spray paint! The two would continue to point fingers at each other. Adam enjoyed telling jokes and always told people he and Cyprien were really brothers. He also enjoyed telling the story how he refused to wash his truck, insisting that it wouldn't run well afterwards and that the mud held it together. Adam was very involved in the Mamou Mardi Gras as a committee member and a participant for many years. In 1965, as part of the 200th Acadian Anniversary celebration that was organized by Paul Tate and Revon Reed, Adam along with Cyprien, Alton Landreneau, Ernest Young, Wallace "Cheese" Read and Jerry Devillier were the music providers as part of a group of 60 plus Mamou area horseman, clad in traditional Clown outfits (including several of my uncles and cousins) while riding through St. Martinville, Louisiana. Of personal interest to me is that my grandfather Estillie Granger along with Arsemus Dupre sang the theme song "Mardis Gras" on horseback. I sure wish I could have witnessed that! Adam, along with Cyprien would continue to be regular participants for many years in the traditional Mamou Mardis Gras festivities as featured musicians. The duo had an extensive recording career as well. There are too many single songs to list but most of these songs appear on various compilation albums such as Cajun Sole, Cajun Fais DO-DO, Cajun Champs, Louisiana Cajun and Creole Music Newport Field Recordings and Louisiana Cajun French Music of the Southwest prairies 1964-1967. In 1968, Adam along with Cyprien, Revon Reed and Paul Tate was awarded with the prestigious WHO'S WHO in America honor, which is given to a handful of people each year. In 1965, the Mamou Cajun Band comprised of Adam, Cyprien and Revon Reed (In place of Jerry Devillier who had a conflicting job schedule as a teacher) after performing at Newport appeared on a live television broadcast as part of the Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest program. The trio performed several songs and was interviewed by Seeger about their style of music, their Cajun culture and lifestyle. At one point a proud Adam is seen taking out his wallet and showing Seeger pictures of his family adding a personal touch. Adam, along with Cyprien, was also featured in several Cajun music documentary films such as "Spend it All" by Les Blank in 1972 and "Dedans le sud de l Louisiane. He was featured in a 1970 article on Cajun culture by Time Life magazine, performing a "Cajun Boucherie" at the Alcee Landreneau farm along with Cyprien Landreneau, and Savey Augustine. The day long process involves the butchering, processing, and roasting of a pig the old fashion Cajun way, complete with singing, eating and celebration in the community. Adam was a member of a group of men that was called the Mamou Supper Club. They would get together on a regular basis with cooking and entertainment. Sadly, Adam unexpectedly passed away on December 28th, 1972, but his legacy lives on. In 1988, Adam was a Mamou Cajun Music Festival Honoree. He is on the KVPI Fred's Lounge Wall of Fame. He is on live recordings at the Dupre Library on the ULL campus in Lafayette, Louisiana. Several recordings that are interesting is of Adam being accompanied by Dewy Balfa on vocals and the t-fer (triangle).*This upcoming November 7, 2021 Adam will be inducted into the CFMA's Lake Charles Chapter's Cajun Music Hall of Fame, where he will be joining his counterparts Cyprien Landreneau and Jerry Devillier, the both having been previously inducted. A very deserving recognition for his many accomplishments, being one of the most highly decorated Cajun fiddlers of all time and one of a handful responsible for the Cajun music renaissance. Thank You to those who provided the resources to enable me to write this article. Bonnes Nouvelles magazine article written by Lisa McCauley, The Eunice News archives, Evangeline News archives, Opelousas Daily World archives, CFMA Lake Charles Chapter Hall of Fame (especially Rhonda Istre), Marc Savoy of Savoy Music Center in Eunice, Louisiana for his articles on the Newport Folk Festival, Flat Town Records, Arhoolie Foundation, Adam's son C.J. Landreneau, Adam's daughter Anadine and musician Jerry Devillier for their time and interviews. *Dedicated to the family of Adam Landreneau. *Update: Adam Landreneau is now an official member of the CFMA Lake Charles Chapter's Cajun Music Hall of Fame. Congratulations to the surviving members of his family. Composed by Neal P Grangr
Footage from a well known Cajun Music Documentary
