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1922 - Canray Fontenot was born on this day. He was a Creole fiddle player, and was born in L'anse Aux Vaches, near Basile, Louisiana. He has been described as "the greatest black Louisiana French fiddler of our time." He had begun performing with Amédé Ardoin, then in the late 1930s, he formed a string band with George Lenard and Paul Frank. He was awarded the NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 1986, in the same year as he and Alphonse Ardoin were appointed adjunct professors at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and known as last of the old style. He died in 1995 after a long bout with cancer at 72. |