The Makers and the Music

In workshops across South Louisiana, local craftsmen are shaping cypress and spruce into musical instruments that ensure the distinctive sound of Cajun music lives on.

These instruments aren’t merely tools for making sound—they’re vessels of culture, each one representing hundreds of hours of meticulous work and deep knowledge passed from master to apprentice. Here, we follow some of the makers and musicians who are not only preserving the past but also helping to create the future of Cajun music.

Restoring Tradition

In the heart of Arnaudville, a retired naval shipyard worker from Maine has found his calling among the fiddles and bows that fill his workshop. However, Tom Pierce’s journey to becoming a vital link in Louisiana’s musical heritage began far from the bayous.

While he was first introduced to live music as a ninth grader in 1966, it was a 1974 music festival in New Hampshire that changed his life.

“I heard Vassar Clements play a 20-minute version of the ‘Orange Blossom Special,’” Pierce says. “That is the day I fell in love with the fiddle.”

From that moment on, Pierce was compelled to play, but it wasn’t until 1999 that he gave it a try. After two years of struggling, he was convinced that he wasn’t going to play the fiddle like Clements or even be on the stage anytime soon. So he discovered a different way to serve the music he loved. “I was a wood person who liked to build things and wondered if I could learn how to fix them,” he says.

From 2000 to 2008, Pierce attended The Violin Craftsmanship Institute at the University of New Hampshire. After retiring from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and marrying in early 2005, Pierce moved to Lafayette that April. He soon met a local duck carver, painter and violin maker by the name of Mark Taylor, and the two friends opened Cajun Fiddles in downtown Arnaudville in 2006. When Taylor left the business to focus on post-hurricane home repairs in Sunset, Pierce continued to run the shop under the name Tom’s Fiddle & Bow.

To begin the restoration process, Pierce carefully consults with each customer. “I usually provide two options and estimates, do the job the right way, or repair what we can get away with, which will cost a lot less but still be a well-restored [instrument],” he says.

His most challenging project came in March 2019 when he restored an old violin for Louis Michot destined for museum display. “It was in lots of pieces,” Pierce says. “It took me about three to four months to finish [with] lots of re-gluing ribs to the body, repairing several cracks and resetting the neck to the body.”

Pierce’s partnership with renowned Cajun fiddler Blake Miller, which began around 2010, has become crucial to his business. The two developed a rating system to evaluate instruments. Miller plays and rates every instrument, contributing to pricing and quality control.

Among Pierce’s clients are some of Louisiana’s most respected musicians, such as the Michot family, Cedric Watson, Michael Doucet and Joel Savoy.

Tom Pierce has been restoring and repairing stringed instruments since 2006 in his Arnaudville workshop, Tom’s Fiddle & Bow.

While Pierce restores the fiddles that carry Cajun melodies, Andre Michot builds the instruments that drive the music’s rhythmic heart. Son of Tommy Michot, Andre began his journey into accordion making in 2006, learning from Randy Falcon after encouragement from friend and accordion player Ray Abshire.

“Ray encouraged me to learn how to tune accordions from Randy Falcon because he had a specific way of tuning the Cajun accordion that, for the most part, wasn’t being done anymore,” Andre says. “Shortly after that, he saw I was interested and began teaching me how to build them. I finished making my first accordion in 2007.”

For Andre, building accordions combines three lifelong passions. “I have always enjoyed working as a carpenter and musician by trade, and as a mechanic on my own cars and trucks,” he says. “There are a lot of mechanics involved in the way an accordion functions (as with auto work) plus, of course, the woodwork and the sound that comes from specific building techniques.”

Under the name Michot Accordions, Andre has made, repaired and restored hundreds of accordions over the years. “Some challenges have been making close replicas of 120- to 130-year-old accordions and making ‘Frankenstein’ accordions that use a combination of old and custom-made new parts,” he says. “These instruments have the functionality of a new accordion with an old-world sound.”

Andre’s approach focuses on each musician’s preferences. “It’s important to me to make the accordion play and sound like the player wants,” he says. “Some people like accordions that are loud and can be played really fast, and some look more for dynamics in volume and a smooth, warm sound.”

His clients include his father Tommy Michot, Corey Ledet, Scott Pelton, Juliane Mahoney and Régine Chassagne.

Since finishing his first accordion in 2007 under the guidance of Randy Falcon, Andre Michot of Michot Accordions has made, repaired and restored hundreds of accordions, including the instruments his father Tommy Michot plays with Les Frères Michot.

Tommy Michot now plays primarily on accordions made by his son — diatonic accordions tuned in B♭ and C keys. His path to the accordion began unexpectedly in Lafayette after graduate school. “One of my coworkers came into the office one day with an accordion that he had just bought,” Tommy says. “I told him that I play harmonica but that I had never tried to play an accordion. He told me, ‘If you can play harmonica, you can play this! It’s the same thing.’ So he let me try it and, sure enough, I started playing a song immediately.”

Using instruments made by his son creates a special connection to his family’s particular style of Cajun music. And Tommy’s musical journey reflects broader family traditions. In elementary school, he sang in the Cathedral Boys Choir alongside his brothers and classmate Zachary Richard. “There we sang liturgical songs in Latin, many written by famous composers like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel and Mendelssohn,” he says. “Through that experience, I learned about the basics of sight reading and musical notation, the basics of harmonies (we often used four-part harmonies) and the value of discipline, practice and hard work in becoming musically proficient.”

For Tommy, preserving the tradition takes precedence over innovation. “For me, my overall goal has been to play the music as it has been played since 1928 [the year of the first Cajun music recording],” he says. “I do not necessarily want to push the music into a new direction; I just think that it should be preserved in the way it was played 100 years ago.”

For Andre, the work represents something larger than individual instruments. “As people that I’ve learned from have passed on, it’s made me realize how fortunate I am to have learned firsthand from their experiences building and playing Cajun accordions,” he says. “I’m glad to be able to facilitate keeping those sounds in the music. It’s constantly evolving —incorporating what has been passed on to me as well as what I’ve learned through personal experience.”

A professional musician since age 12, luthier Chris Segura has built 17 violins from scratch over the past 15 years, thereby enhancing Louisiana’s evolving Cajun music scene.

New Voices

Meanwhile, in a small workshop in Lafayette, Chris Segura carefully shapes wood to a tenth of a millimeter, continuing a violin-making tradition while serving Louisiana’s evolving Cajun music scene.

“I started taking violin lessons when I was 4 years old,” he says. “I took weekly lessons, started going to jam sessions and eventually joined up with Chris and Michael Stafford when I was 12.  We formed Feufollet together. I’ve been playing professionally ever since.”

Segura’s path to building instruments began in 2007 when he received an Apprenticeship Grant through the Louisiana Division of the Arts. “Starting in late 2007-2008, I started spending two to three days a week at Anya Burgess’ workshop in Arnaudville where I built my first violin over the course of two years,” he says.

That first violin tested his determination. “It was frustrating every step of the way,” Segura says. “There were moments where I wasn’t sure that I wanted to continue, but the mental image of having a violin that I made from start to finish made me push through.” The precision required was extraordinary. “You’re training your eyes to spot problem areas, learning how to use and control your tools, and working wood to the tenth of a millimeter. The joints in the plates, the neck sets, bassbar fit, etc., require literal perfection.”

What Segura thought might be a one- or two-instrument project became an obsession. “I’ve now been building on my own for about 15 years,” he says. “I’ve made 17 violins from scratch and have two more currently in progress.”

Two of Segura’s instruments have found homes with rising stars: Cameron Fontenot and Justin Leger.

Fontenot commissioned his violin from Segura in 2023, receiving it in March 2024. “I was amazed at how big of a sound and warm tone it had for being a new instrument,” Fontenot says. The instrument is Segura’s 15th violin, a copy on Antonio Stradivari’s Betts model.

For Fontenot, the difference between handcrafted and factory-made instruments runs deep. “A handcrafted instrument has more detail and attention to it,” he says. “A luthier gives an instrument character and is very meticulous in their work.”

This particular violin also has improved Fontenot’s playing. “The intonation is perfect, and it has helped me better with pitch,” he says. “The tone is amazing, and it cuts well especially in an acoustic setting at a jam session.”

Justin Leger received the 16th violin that Segura built. “I waited for years on his list,” Leger says. “When my time came, I let Chris do what he thought best picking the wood and finishes. I trust him more than I trust myself. I don’t know enough about the craft of building these instruments to say that Chris does things better than other builders, but I do know Chris’ playing. He approaches our music with this incredible blend of traditional rhythms and textures, with a subtle and surgically technical attack that is his own.”

The instrument exceeded expectations and also transformed Leger’s approach. “The fiddle Chris built me sounds unlike anything I’ve ever owned,” he says. “Playing it next to my factory-made fiddle I’ve played since high school, there is no comparison. The factory-made fiddle sounds muted or dead in comparison to this bright, full-sounding, present and alive, loud, accordion-killing machine. I find the tone of this fiddle, its presence, hearing everything, makes me much more thoughtful in my attack with the bow, the things I come up with in my left hand — all my playing changes.”

Leger took the instrument on tour with Beau Cheval immediately and has already recorded four songs for release. The relationship mirrors the traditional accordion culture he grew up with. “With local instrument makers, we were always in accordion builders’ shops as kids,” he says. “Certain brands were preferred by certain players and families; accordions custom built for loved ones by people in their own community. It’s a special thing. Didn’t think I’d have that with a fiddle until now.”

Fiddlers Cameron Fontenot and Justin Leger both play violins handcrafted by Chris Segura. Fontenot’s instrument — Segura’s 15th violin — is a copy of Antonio Stradivari’s Betts model, while Leger plays the 16th violin Segura built.

For both players, supporting local makers carries importance beyond personal preference. “It’s extremely important in my opinion,” Fontenot says. “It’s a dying breed here in Louisiana, and, if you can afford it, and like what the luthier is doing, I’d suggest supporting locally.”

The experience of working directly with the maker has proven invaluable for Fontenot. “It’s a treat to talk to and work alongside a local luthier one on one,” he says. “Chris would constantly send me updates on what he would be working on for my fiddle, which I believe educated me to know more about what goes into building a fiddle and the amount of man hours it takes.”

Segura’s other clients include Zachary Fuselier, Blake Miller and Forest Huval. “I love when I pass by a local festival stage and know that it’s one of my fiddles being played,” he says. “There’s something very satisfying there.”

For Segura, the work connects directly to Louisiana’s cultural heritage. “I grew up tagging along with my parents when they would visit older makers like Lionel Leleux, Lee Bruce McGee, Leo Abshire, Adner Ortego and Jessie LeJeune—we would spend hours with them,” he says. “Looking back, I’m sure that all of those visits had a huge impact on me.”

His role extends beyond building though. At the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Segura digitizes old recordings and makes them accessible to researchers and musicians. “I feel like that’s where I’m able to do the most to ensure the survival of the music of South Louisiana,” he says.

Ultimately, Segura sees his contribution modestly. “I’m doing my best to give musicians access to nice, handmade instruments that they love to play,” he says. “I just hope that my instruments, or instruments that I work on, make their time spent playing music a little more pleasant.”

And as Fontenot advises, it’s important to treat these handmade instruments like a newborn baby. “Clean it, and, if something doesn’t feel right, bring it to the doctor [a luthier],” he says. In workshops across South Louisiana, craftspeople like Tom Pierce, Andre Michot and Chris Segura serve as those doctors — ensuring that Cajun music’s distinctive voice continues singing through instruments built with skill, care and deep respect for tradition. ⚡