Matthew Courville
Accordion prodigy extraordinaire.
Inducted on January 29, 2000
From www.downtowncajunband.nl/sitewillem/Acadiana Gateway/music/mcourville.htm.html
Matthew Courville took up accordion-playing when he was 10 years old. Within five weeks he made an appearance with Sheryl Cormier and Cajun Sound at the Liberty Theater in Eunice, where he sang “Jolie Blonde” and “La Porte d’en Arrière.” He has also performed with Horace Trahan and with Lee Benoit and the Bayou Stompers.
In addition to the accordion, Matthew Courville also plays harmonica, guitar, saxophone, and piano. In 1999, he received the Cajun French Music Association’s Chapitre de Lafayette’s New Dawn Award.
He was 12 years old when he recorded the CD, which was released in 1999 by Swallow Records.
The CD is dedicated to “Pa Pa ‘My Idol,'” a reference to his grandfather Roy Guilbeaux (1926-1998). It includes “Chanson Pour Pa Pa,” a song written by Helen Boudreaux and Kenneth Courville, Matthew’s father, as a tribute to Roy Gilbeaux and sung by Matthew and his sister, Candice, with Lee Benoit on accordion. The two also join together to sing “Jolie Fille.”
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