Edward Poullard

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.

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Edward Poullard

Third-generation Creole musician Edward Poullard talks with host John Floridis about the family and community traditions that shaped his music.

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Transcript

John Floridis: Welcome.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellows, recipients of the nation's highest honor in folk and traditional arts.

I'm John Floridis.

For this podcast, we're going to visit with Creole musician Edward Poullard, Ed's musical journey began with drums, then guitar, then bass, and finally to the 2 instruments he is most identified with, the fiddle and the accordion. He's also a passionate and skilled singer of
Creole songs as well.

Edward Poullard grew up in a large French speaking family, initially in Unice, Louisiana, but primarily in Beaumont, Texas. Both his grandfather and father were musicians, and it was with his father, a sharecropper and prominent performer of the precursor of Zydeco called Lala, who was his biggest musical influence growing up. He began performing on several instruments with his father's group at churches and house parties in his teens.

Later, while working for UPS, a random accident during one of his deliveries led to an injury to his left ring finger, which kept him from playing accordion for some time. During this period, he turned his attention to adding the fiddle into the musical mix.

Ed continued to embark on a very successful career in performing and recording creole and Cajun music, and also found time to become a master wood maker specializing in accordion building, which he has continued since 2001.

He is also a devoted educator and mentor passing on the traditions to his community, and has also taught Creole and Cajun fiddle and accordion styles at festivals and music camps throughout the United States and Europe.

Here's my conversation with Edward Poullard.

Ed, let's start with this. One of the things that I came across in doing research for this was a quote from you that this music that you're so well known for, the Creole music. It's the music of your family.

Edward Poullard: Well, my dad played accordion and my grandpa played fiddle. There's uh, accordion players. My mom's brothers played accordion also, so it it's kind of like coming from both directions.

John Floridis: Yeah, I was gonna say.

Edward Poullard: Nobody played what would be considered professionally. Uh, my dad used to play house dances when he uh, first started and, you know, continued through his, his younger years. And my grandpa kind of did the same thing. And just kind of put it aside when when he had to go to work, you know, so, yeah, that's that's what I mean, essentially. Because it's coming from both both mom's side and dad's side. So it's kind of like a double whammy. Yeah.

John Floridis: Well, let me ask you something real quick. I think I know what house dances are, but for any listeners to this podcast who don't know what a house dance is, can you explain that a little bit?

Edward Poullard: Back when, uh, you know, no, no, early in 1900s and 1920s and 30s, the farming communities were pretty much dominant in the area where we lived. My dad was a sharecropper and just as all uh, sharecroppers, they would work sun up to sundown and and uh, Monday through Saturday was pretty much work days. What they would do every now and then, one of the residents would give a party. I mean, I'm, it's a
house dance, but, and they would invite just a few friends. Because their housing was not by any means luxury housing. It was really small compact houses, so they would give parties and the people that attended…If the crowd was bigger than the space allowed, what they would do, they
would rotate going in and dance in a few rounds with the ladies and then go out and let somebody else come back in. But it was basically just a house party, By the sharecropping folks that were involved. You know, it kind of rotated around the community, but they would have those parties and get whoever were the local musicians to play.

John Floridis: Is it Eunice, Louisiana where you were born?

Edward Poullard: Yes it is.

John Floridis: Just take us to Eunice, Louisiana. I know you moved to Texas eventually.

Edward Poullard: I didn't stay after my birth. I didn't stay in Louisiana very long.

John Floridis: Okay.

Edward Poullard: My parents moved to Texas when I was 9 months old.

John Floridis: And remind me, where in Texas.

Edward Poullard: I'm 35 miles inside the state line. In a town called Beaumont.

John Floridis: That's where you moved right after you, I mean, when you were a young boy.

Edward Poullard: Yeah, I mean, I was 9 months old. I was infant. Oh yeah, yeah.

John Floridis: Yeah for sure. All right. Okay, so let's let's kind of do another left-hand turn there and let's talk about Beaumont, Texas a little bit.

Edward Poullard: I know you heard the term oil boom.

John Floridis: Oh, yeah.

Edward Poullard: This town was born as a result of the oil boom. In 1901 there was an oil well here that struck, and it put Beaumont on the map. Many attempts were made to try to bring this well in over 15 years, I think, to try to get this well to produce.

The last attempt. The oil came in that time. That's what put this place on the map.

John Floridis: Here's something I wanted to touch on, Ed. If I understand correctly, from a community standpoint, Creole music really started with black farming communities. Is that correct?

Edward Poullard: Yes. Another situation that I never mentioned in any of the other videos was the genre called Jurey.
I don't know if you ever heard that term.

John Floridis: I think I heard you talk about it.

Edward Poullard: That was a call and response type, I guess, it started out, I think, religious based, heavy, heavy singing was involved. A lot of those tunes that they used to sing were incorporated over to musical instruments like the fiddle and that's all lost now. It's a shame, but there's still some of those floating around somewhere, but I don't have access to them.

So a lot of that that farming community is, is what you're talking about is where that originated from. Uh, it, it, it originated, like faith based. And just carried it over as things carry over, I guess.

John Floridis: Yeah, yeah.

Edward Poullard: Uh, when, when, when people, more people get involved, there are more ideas. And more ideas tend to change things faster. Then a lot of times we like them to change, but, uh, for the music, it it changed. It only improved it, you know, from where it started.

The people that play the original, uh, Creole style, uh, are almost gone. There's only a few are still around. Preston Frank, myself, I still play accordion and that's what I play most of the time. There are a lot of Cajuns that play the Creole style also that are exceptional. That's what really brought that music to light was the fact that younger people were playing it and recording it.

Now, it's so well known. It's hard to go somewhere and be involved in, say, like a music festival or something, and that's not included.

John Floridis: Ed, getting into your musicianship specifically, you started with the drums, then guitar and bass, and then accordion and fiddle. Do I have that right? Because that's really what you're known for, mostly is accordion and fiddle. But you kind of took a circuitous route. You kind of did your own little route to get to uh, to get to those two main instruments.

Edward Poullard: Oh yeah. I started off…I was a kid. I mean, around nine, 10 years old, and I wanted to play the drums. I used to go spend time with my uncle. He was the drummer with Bois Sek and Kenray for 20 years. The more I played, the better I got, because I really wanted to play, you know, I got good quick, and he started hiring me to play with him.

But, of course, a lot of those places he played…I couldn't go, but he had to go get permission for, for my mom and dad, for me to go in those, those, uh, establishments. Because they serve alcohol, you know? When I went in there to play with him, I couldn't leave behind the drums. I had to be escorted to the bathroom or, you know, to stay within the law.

John Floridis: Sure.

Edward Poullard: But I've been playing ever in them joints ever since I was...Or about 11, 12 years old. My dad started playing accordion again and he would, if he had a gig to go do, he would go get my my cousin. We would sit and practice for a couple of weeks before the gig. He is the one that actually got me interested in playing the guitar.

He started teaching me guitar when my dad was at work, We’d work on guitar, and then when he got off, we'd work on accordion and bass, and, you know, I didn't start playing accordion until I was almost in the 11th grade, maybe? And that was just, you know, learning what I could when my cousin was here.

And when my dad would play in the evenings and stuff, when he'd get off work, if he'd come home and get cleaned up, take a bath and go in the back room in the house, and if he felt like playing, he'd go back there and just play for a couple hours. So I got a chance to hear and watch him play a lot. And that's what started me to get me interested in the accordion and shoot…Within a year and a half, I was, I was playing really well so well that I fooled him. On a recording. He thought it was him playing.

John Floridis: Oh really!

Edward Poullard: Oh yeah, it was me.

John Floridis: Oh, man!

Edward Poullard: He couldn't believe it.

When I got out of school, I left and went to the military and then came back, got married, started working for UPS. This is where the fiddle comes in.

I'm working at UPS. I pull up to a business, not far from where I live, in, in a little town called Nederland, Texas, and I come bailing out of that truck, and I got hung up by my ring finger, on my, on my left hand. I almost pulled my finger off.

I'm not… yeah. Anyway, it was a class ring, so the ring wasn't going to break. So I stood hanging there until somebody come out the door of that business. The business was a hospital. Thank goodness. And, and, yeah,,,

John Floridis: That was fortunate!

Edward Poullard: Yeah.

John Floridis: Oh my gosh!

Edward Poullard: And I was at the back, like the rear entrance to the emergency room. Not where the general public comes in…That’s where the employees went in. So they got somebody to come out there and get me off of that thing I was hung up on…

John Floridis: Oh, my God.

Edward Poullard: …And bring me inside. They had to cut that ring off. Because it was lodged in my, you know, skin and everything else. I could not play accordion for a long time and I wasn't ready to quit playing music, not accordion or anything else.

My grandpa. Was still alive then, and during that time, when all that happened, he passed away, and his fiddle was a gift from my grandpa's timely passing, and I was able to get that fiddle and and use it to learn how to play on. My daddy let me use it. He had it fixed from a local guy here.

That's how I learned the fiddle...is teaching myself in the back room with my mama telling me, “you playing too much on the high notes, playing on the lower notes”, you know, I knew how the songs went because I played the accordion.

So the melodies were burned in my head. It’s just trying to hunt and peck them on that fiddle neck.

John Floridis: I've never heard that term before, “hunt and peck.”

Edward Poullard: Oh yeah, I was lost.

John Floridis: It makes total sense. That's how I learned how to play guitar. Hunt and peck.

Edward Poullard: I had to sit in front of my daddy and watch his hands while he was playing 100 miles an hour for me to pick up the accordion. When I did get a chance to sit with somebody to learn the fiddle… They did the same thing. So it's just been uphill ever since, you know?

I've had other accidents with my hands that prevented me from playing. And I'm not going to lie. I'm lucky I can still play from injuring, you know, all the finger injuries I had. But, uh, I guess I was supposed to keep playing. Because I still am.

John Floridis: Yeah, I'll say.

Edward Poullard: I just had back surgery last year. When the NEA sent that uh, film crew here, I really wasn't sure if I'd be able to play or not. I couldn't play in the award ceremony. I couldn't even go up there.

My daughter and son-in-law had to go up there and get the award for me because there's no way I could have traveled at that time. But, uh, I'm grateful to still be able to do what I do and it's coming along slow, though. I'm still recovering. I'm recovering and I'm playing.

John Floridis: So that moment in the video, the NEA, um, documentary that they shot, where you are talking to your daughter, Kristen, and you got the accordion out, and you're going to give it a shot, and you hadn't played in a while. That's what you're talking about? Like you hadn't played for some time because of the back surgery?

Edward Poullard: Yeah. I kept having muscle spasms in my hands.

John Floridis: So that was… because that was a very moving moment in that, um, in that documentary. I could tell you, and I could tell Kristen got very emotional hearing you play again. That was it was beautiful. You know, it was really beautiful.

Edward Poullard: Everybody in here was crying. All of the film crew…Everybody. That's all it took was Kristen to start.

John Floridis: The floodgates opened.

Edward Poullard: Oh yeah, that's it. It's all over now. But it was…It was emotional.

John Floridis: What was that like for you? What were you thinking?

Edward Poullard: Oh, I was thinking, I'm glad to be able to still sound decent.

John Floridis: Yeah, you did that, then, and some.

Edward Poullard: And then I played the fiddle later on that day. It was really easy too. I was just trying to rush myself to get back into it, I think.

When the time's not right…You know, you are the first person to know when the time was right. And that was when that film crew was here. I tried both instruments and both of them I played. That was cool. Very cool.

John Floridis: Ed, you know, we've had this whole conversation and we haven't even talked about the fact that you make accordions.

Edward Poullard: Oh yeah.

John Floridis: This is one of the main things that you're known for. So let's talk about that, how you got into making accordions, and you don't just build the instruments. You build the parts and now you get your own kids learning this as well.

Edward Poullard: All of the wood parts I make myself. When my, my son started learning how to play…I taught him what he knows and he took it and run with it and got pretty damn good.

And my when my daughter started getting interested. I didn't know she was interested in the accordion. She never expressed a interest in it. But like she said, when she was telling you, She came with me to the Augusta Heritage Center, and they had a scholarship prepared for her. And she could pick any instrument she want. She wanted. So she chose the accordion. She could take classes.

Now, the accordion from scratch teacher is a real good friend of mine, his name is John V. Dream. He had her in his class. And he said by the second day, she was taking over the class. She was teaching the class. And that was not an exaggeration. He was serious when he said that.

So I went and sat in class, kind of kind of sneaky like, just passing by and and stopping. Sure enough, she was actually doing all of the the vocal parts as well as the delivery of the accordion too.

At the end of that week. They have a, what do you call it, a showcase. She was like the music director for the uh, her class for the showcase. Which I thought, I said, “Oh, Lord, now I got to start buying accordion.”

So when I got back home, I enlisted a friend of mine, uh, who was an accordion builder here, to build a couple of accordions. And he threw out an ultimatum for me. He said, “If you help me build them, I’ll build them.”

I said, “Okay, sign me up”, you know?

So that's that's how everything started because I didn't want to be buying all of them high dollar accordions.

I started enlisting the Texas folklife people again to see if the apprenticeship program was still alive and kicking. And they were. So I applied for granted and got awarded the grant and been doing that for 20 something years now. I didn't realize that until somebody asked me how long I've been building accordions.

John Floridis: Yeah. Well, one of the things that really stuck with me from, I don't know if it was the documentary from one of your other interviews, you talked about what it feels like for you to gift your accordions to other players. And I love this quote. “The players are proud to have
them, but not as proud as I am for them to have them.”

Edward Poullard: That's exactly right. When you see something you built in, in, uh, what's considered a professional's hands…And they are e pressing themselves with something that you built. That’s a good feeling. Damn good feeling. And I have been able to get that feeling for 20 years now. That's pretty cool.

John Floridis: Can you talk about how it felt for you to be named an NEA national heritage fellow?

Edward Poullard: Well, firstI thought it was a prank.

John Floridis: Oh, really?

Edward Poullard: Yeah. Because I, I got some, I got some friends will do that. When the NEA called me… They told me that I was selected as one of the 2025 recipients, and I just didn't know what to say. I couldn't say anything, really.

The fact that I couldn't go and accept that award myself really played heavy on my mind, but I knew better than to try to do something against my physical ability. And so I, I sent the best representative I could find my daughter and son-in-law to go up there and get it. They had never
been to anything like that and they really had a ball.

John Floridis: That is so awesome that they could go and represent you Ed. Listen, thank you so much for this conversation and helping me to get your stories to the listeners for this podcast. I had a great time talking with you. So thanks so much again.

Edward Poullard: Okay, thank you. I appreciate it.

John Floridis: You take care of yourself, okay?

Edward Poullard: Take care. You too.

John Floridis: That was Creole Musician and Accordion Builder and 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellow Edward Poullard.

There's a tribute video featuring Edward on the National Endowment for the Arts YouTube channel.

You can find a link in our show notes or visit arts.gov forward slash heritage for more on all of the NEA National Heritage Fellows.

I'm John Floridis.

Thanks so much for listening.

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