Edward Poullard
Photo by Mark Marcin
Bio
Edward Poullard, a third-generation Creole musician, grew up in a large French-speaking family where his musical education began at the knee of his father, a sharecropper and prominent performer of "la la," a musical precursor of Zydeco.
Poullard was born in Eunice, Louisiana, in 1952 and the family moved to Texas when Poullard was a young child. While in Texas, he learned to play the guitar and drums, but quickly graduated to the accordion. By the age of 19 he was playing house parties and church dances in his father's band, the Poullard Family Band. Poullard went on to play with other notable ensembles, such as the Ardoin Family Band and BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet. In these later ensembles, he added vocals to his many talents, demonstrating his knowledge of the older French songs he had learned from his parents. After an injury to his right hand made playing the accordion difficult, Poullard turned his interest to the fiddle.
A grant from Texas Folklife Resources in the late 1980s allowed Poullard to pursue his studies with the late Creole fiddler Canray Fontenot. As a result of the apprenticeship, Poullard regularly played with Fontenot on the national folk festival circuit. This collaboration, which often included Poullard's brother Danny, continued until Fontenot's death in 1995. Poullard was also inspired by and shared the stage with Creole fiddlers such as Calvin Carriere and Ben Guillory, as well as the legendary Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa. Poullard recorded with many Creole musicians, including playing fiddle with Lawrence "Black" Ardoin on Tradition Creole (Arhoolie Records, 1984) and accordion on Canray Fontenot's Louisiana Hot Sauce (Arhoolie Records, 1992). He is also featured as a primary artist with Jesse Legé on Live! At the Isleton Crawdad Festival (Arhoolie Records, 2002).
As a further commitment to preserving the music, Poullard is also a master woodworker; he has specialized in accordion building since 2001. At that time, Poullard received a grant from Texas Folklife to study and build the ten-button diatonic accordion referred to as the Cajun style accordion. The single row of buttons and distinctive tuning give it a unique sound, and Poullard’s creations are in high demand.
In addition to mentoring musicians from his own community through apprenticeships and informal teaching sessions, Poullard has become increasingly active in passing on his traditions to others. He has taught Creole and Cajun fiddle and accordion styles at festivals and music camps throughout the United States and Europe, including the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia; American Fiddle Tunes at Port Townsend, Washington; the Folklore Village Dance Camp in Dodgeville, Wisconsin; the International Accordion Festival in San Antonio, Texas; and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC.