Wilson "Pagro" Granger (pronounced Grawn-jhay) was born of predominantly Acadian and French ancestry in the farming community of Duralde, Louisiana on June 1st, 1921. His parents, the late Salas Granger ( from descendants of Acadie now known as Nova Scotia) and Ora Veillion Granger were sharecroppers who grew mostly cotton and corn, were taught to live off the land and raised Wilson along with his six other siblings, three brothers and three sisters. In 1925, the Granger's would relocate by traveling by horse and buggy to the Black Bayou area just south of Lake Charles, Louisiana to settle and began highland farming. Times were hard for the Granger family as it was for many in that era. As a young boy, Wilson would often hear his father whistle an old French tune every afternoon after returning from working the field, sometimes playing it on the fiddle. This tune ultimately would stick with him and would become instrumental later in his life. Wilson's father Salus played the fiddle, but never played at dances or social events, only on the front porch of his home. Wilson had an older brother named Sidney, who was sixteen years his senior and had been playing the fiddle for about five years and began to seek someone to play with locally upon their arrival at Black Bayou. Sidney met a family from the local area, the Credeurs. The group included Anatole (accordion), Levi (jug), Ada (triangle), Sidney Credeur (fiddle) and Theo Young (guitar). They also farmed and loved to play music on the weekends at the country dances and he joined with them to play at house dances. The group eventually graduated to playing at a local dance hall called Patins in Goosport, located in the north Lake Charles area. After sharecropping for awhile, the Granger family moved to another farm closer to Lake Charles near modern-day Lake Street and Tank Farm Road. As a little boy, Wilson's family would have many Bals de Maison (house dance) with other family members and friends. According to his son Ron, it was at one of these functions that Wilson picked up his nick name "Pagro," meaning "not big" in French. One of his uncles made him a fiddle from a cigar box and used metal strands of wire from door screen material to use as a string. He would be perched on a stool and would play along with the tunes as the others would sing, dance and encourage little Pagro to "get after it"! It was watching older brother Sidney play the fiddle that got the younger Wilson, who was four years old at the time, inspired to play. By the year 1930, just months shy of turning nine years old, Wilson had learned from Sidney how to play and the two began playing fiddle in unison at dances and continued to play with the Credeur family. Eventually, as Wilson was old enough, they graduated to performing at dancehalls including Luke Richard's (Cameron), Savan Roys (Grand Chenier), and Privat Miller's (Grand Chenier). Pay for musicians usually consisted of whatever they could take up when they passed the hat. They played tunes like "Jolie Blon", and "Chere Tout Tout". People back then would come to the dances by walking, horseback, or wagon. This was the during Great Depression era and very few people had cars. Music, for many families of that time period, was a great source of entertainment and a means of escape from the rigors of daily life. It was no different for the Granger family. The family didn't have a radio back then. They would sing and holler along with their fiddle playing. As a young man, Wilson went into the merchant marines where his ship would have to dodge enemy submarines while bringing critical fuel supplies to the navy shipyards. Upon completion of his service after WWII, he returned home to Lake Charles and started playing the fiddle not just for entertainment, but to help supplement his income, becoming a sideman who eventually would play with some of the most influential figures in Cajun music history. He initially started playing music again with Sidney Cradeur and his brother Sidney Granger. They would go back to playing the Black Bayou and Goosport area's of Lake Charles. By the late 1940's the music scene had changed. They played no more house dances. Sidney quit playing and began carpentry and gave Wilson his fiddle. Wilson struck out on his own to play. Being good friends with fellow musician Earl Demary, in 1948 they teamed up with Earl's group "Musical Ace's". The group became popular and were playing at numerous clubs including the Crystal Grill east of Sulphur, Louisiana, T-George's in Lake Arthur, Louisiana, and Baily's Fish Camp in Bridge City, Texas. Both were good instrumentalists and complimented each other. Although Demary could play the accordion, he could not carry a whole dance, so he would hire accordion players like Iry Lejuene when he wasn't playing with the Lacassine Playboys, which at the time was around the early 1950's, which featured the original lineup consisting of Ellis, Milton, Orsey, and Ivy Vanicor, and Asa Lejuene and occasional others before disbanding for some years. Demary's band would include Louis Fournerat on steel guitar, Wilson or Ernest Fruge on fiddle, Alfred "Duckhead" Cormier on drums, Eldridge "Coon" Guidry on bass and Earl himself would play guitar. Atlas Fruge was also known to play the steel guitar with them at times. Demary and Granger recorded several tunes, played at clubs, and appeared on KPLC radio with the Pine Grove Boys. It was these two and led by none other than Nathan Abshire, along with other group members Coon Guidry and Ernest Thibodeaux that would play gigs around the lake area. It was around this time period that the band Pine Grove Boys consisting of the bands original lineup featuring Nathan Abshire, Will Kegley, Oziet Kegley, Roy Broussard, Jim Baker, Earnest Thibodeaux, and Atlus Fruge were regularly playing at a popular dancehall called the Avalon Club in Basile, Louisiana. Apparently, a heavy dispute between the band and the Club's owner Quincy Davis, caused them to get fired by him, supposedly because of the band's excessive drinking and fighting. It was Earl's band that replaced them at the club and would come to record Nathan Abshire's signature tune "Pine Grove Blues" along with "Kaplan Waltz" by Virgel Bozeman of the O.T. label, which was recorded in the KPLC studio located inside the beautiful Majestic Hotel in Lake Charles in May of 1949. The record became an instant regional hit selling over 3000 copies. Eventually the tune was on every jukebox and the band was the biggest draw in Southwest Louisiana. The record was an attempt by bar owner Quincy Davis, who bankrolled the recording, to get new found attention on another dancehall of his, which was the struggling Pine Grove Club, which was successful for several more years. There has been some discrepancy through the years over whether it was indeed Wilson or Will Kegley, as to who was the fiddler for the initial recording of Pine Grove Blues. This is not unusual since there were sparse, vague records kept in the history of Cajun music recordings as far as to the actual musicians who participated in many of the old recordings. I wish to note that regardless, it does nothing to diminish from Will Kegley's career accomplishments, as he has established his place in Cajun music history. Many well known Cajun writers and historians note that it was indeed Wilson who stepped in for the fired Kegley. Wilson himself in an interview in 2005 with Ron Yule, stated that it was himself along with the Musical Aces who were the first to cut the record. Record producer Eddie Shuler also backs this story up as well in interview. There is a popular photo of the group with Wilson from a newspaper archive and several books depicting the moment. What is also known is there have been several re-recordings of Nathan on different labels of that song in following years. For the record, Wilson's oldest son Ron, an accomplished musician himself, has noted that he has listened to the original recording over the years and recognizes his father's distinct sound and has no doubt it was him on that first original recording. It was also around this time frame in 1949 that Wilson sang the lead for the song "Bayou Chico Waltz". Nathan became adept to letting either Wilson or Ernest Thibodeaux take the lead singing. The song, as it turns out was the little tune that Wilson's father Salas would whistle when returning from the field when he was a little boy. Will Kegley (considered one of the best Cajun fiddle players ever) and the other original Pine Grove Boys were eventually re-hired by Davis at the Avalon Club and was re-named Nathan Abshire and the Pine Grove Boys before the last parting of ways with the owner, supposedly a disagreement for the naming rights of the bands name. Nathan would then move on and form the "Musical Five" consisting of Kegley, Atlus Fruge, Jim Baker and Shelton Manuel. Wilson would move on and eventually would teach his song "Bayou Chico Waltz" to another great Cajun accordion player and recording legend, Iry Lejuene, whom he would play with during the late 1940's through the early 1950's. Wilson whistled the tune to Iry and he made up some words right there on the spot. Although Iry originally wanted to play his fiddle for the tune, Wilson convinced him not to since it was he who had heard his dad whistle the tune. Iry made some minor changes to the song and with Wilson backing him up, they converted it into the well-known "Duraldo
Waltz" (misspelled instead of Duralde) for Eddie Shuler's Goldband label out of Lake Charles, Louisiana around 1953. The song was known to have been recorded in the kitchen of Iry's home. The song was unique in that it was the only recording of Iry that didn't feature an accordion. It also includes a well-timed bark by Lejuene's fox terrier in the background. The other band members on the recording featured either Crawford Vincent or Robert Bertrand on drums , Alfred 'Duckhead" Cormier on the acoustic guitar,
and even Eddie Shuler himself on guitar. This group still calling themselves "The Lacassine Playboys" would go on to have several prominent recordings together. ( Iry Lejuene's Defenitive Collection) Tragically at the peak of his career, Iry was killed a few years later in 1955, after being struck by an oncoming speeding vehicle while accompanying fellow musician J.B. Fusilier, who was changing a flat tire on the side of state highway 90. The two had just finished a performance at a dancehall in Eunice, Louisiana. Both men were struck, Fusilier severely injured with a broken leg and collarbone, Lejuene died at the scene. Iry was considered ahead of his time when it came to his performance and playing style and many still consider him the greatest. Wilson would continue to play through the years with a number of bands and was the primary fiddler for Virgil Bozeman's Hot Rod record label recordings including "The Iowa Two-Step" collaboration with talented Cajun accordionist Tan Benoit. He continued to enjoy playing his fiddle through the years and enjoyed playing alongside many musicians from the Lake Charles area and surrounding region, according to his son Ron and popular regional musician Jimmy Higginbothem. Throughout the 1970's he began to play in fiddle contests at the urging of fellow Cajun fiddler Herman Fontenot and was considered a formidable competitor. In the 1980's, he joined Cajun music pioneers Tonice Lafleur, Dudley Rozas, Pierre Crader, Ned Melancon, and others to play at nursing homes as the Old Timers Band. He would also perform with other acts at the Liberty Theater in Eunice and at various area festivals in the Acadiana region. Wilson was married twice. He first marriage was to the late Dorothy Gossett Pellerin and would have two sons together, Ron and Darrell. He would later remarry to Anna Toups and together would have one son, Wilson Jr. along with two daughters, Judy and Linda. Wilson made a living through the years also by servicing electronics. He would eventually own and operate Granger's Radio & TV Repair for many years until his retirement. He passed away on September 3rd, 2005 at his residence in Big Lake, south of Lake Charles, Louisiana. He was inducted into the CFMA Lake Charles Chapter's Cajun Music Hall Of Fame. Wilson was a true Cajun fiddle playing Pioneer and his humble nature allowed him to be a sideman for two of the best players in Cajun Music History in both Iry Lejuene and Nathan Abshire. Special thanks to the contributors of his story go out to his son Ron Granger, Author Ron Yule for his book entitled "Cajun Dancehall Heyday", Cajun Historian and vintage record collector Wade Falcon for his blogs "Early Cajun Music", Author John Brovin for his book "South to Louisiana", Author Ryan Brasseaux for his book entitled "Cajun Breakdown: The Emergence of an American Made Music", Authors Lyle Ferbache and Andrew Brown for their book "Louisiana Music Vol. #1 The story of Nathan Abshire and the Pine Grove Boys". CFMA Lake Charles Chapter, KPLC of Lake Charles, Eddie Shuler of Goldband, Virgil Bozeman of O.T. and Hot Rod and George Khoury record labels. *NOTE: Dedicated to Ron and the family of Wilson Granger. Composed by Neal P Granger
Left to right: Earl Demary on acoustic guitar, Wilson Granger on fiddle, Eldridge "Coon" Guidry on bass, unknown, Nathan Abshire on accordion and Ernest Thibodeaux on electric rhythm guitar gather to lay down the original recording of "Pine Grove Blues" at KPLC studio located in the former Majestic Motel in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Photo courtesy of Eddie Shuler of Goldband Records collection.
Far left is Wilson Granger's older brother Sidney, who was instrumental in teaching his younger brother in playing the fiddle.
Wilson was the primary fiddler for the Hot Rod record label including this popular song with Tan Benoit on the accordion.
Wilson in 1950's. Photo courtesy of Ron Granger
Late 1990's - Early 2000's Wilson provided fiddle for Iry Lejuene many recordings such as Grande Bosco.
Pictured on the album cover from left to right: Wilson Granger on fiddle, Iry Lejuene on accordion and Alfred "Duckhead" Cormier on guitar. The album Producer Eddie Shuler was also known to sit in with his guitar during the sessions. The recordings were by Virgil Bozeman. Cut out of the picture to the left was drummer Robert Bertrand. The majority of the recordings were done in Lake Charles and Lacassine, Louisiana with two songs, "Love Bridge Waltz" and Evangeline Special featuring Floyd Leblanc on fiddle done in Houston, Texas.
Back cover of the LP denotes the front cover photograph crediting Wilson Granger, Iry Lejuene and "Duckhead" Cormier.
Left to right Duckhead Cormier, Wilson Granger, Iry Lejuene, and Jimmie Vanicor? Photo from Ira Lejuene Collection.
Pictured on the album cover from left to right: Wilson Granger on fiddle, Iry Lejuene on accordion and Alfred "Duckhead" Cormier on guitar. The album Producer Eddie Shuler was also known to sit in with his guitar during the sessions. The recordings were by Virgil Bozeman. Cut out of the picture to the left was drummer Robert Bertrand. The majority of the recordings were done in Lake Charles and Lacassine, Louisiana with two songs, "Love Bridge Waltz" and Evangeline Special featuring Floyd Leblanc on fiddle done in Houston, Texas. 
