Every year, the Louisiana Folklife Program and the Louisiana Folklore Society coordinate with institutions across the state to select and honor six people or groups as Louisiana Tradition Bearers. Chosen by Folklife Ambassadors who are themselves active in cultural preservation work, these honorees represent some of the truest examples of Louisiana residents maintaining the traditions that mean so much to our state and its residents. For more on Folklife Month, including a full list of related programs taking place across the state, visit louisianafolklife.org. 

Gina Forsyth 

Fiddler, Singer/Songwriter, Guitarist 

Breaux Bridge 

Folklife Ambassador: Jim Hogg 

Born in Florida and raised on country music, hymns, and fiddle music in Alabama, Gina Forsyth moved to Louisiana in the mid-1980s and has been playing Cajun and country fiddle music ever since. The longtime fiddler with Bruce Daigrepont’s Cajun band, she has also released a solo album of traditional fiddle tunes and two of her original works as a singer-songwriter. Forsyth performs widely at festivals and other events nationally and locally. An enthusiastic advocate for the preservation of Cajun-style fiddling, she teaches at events nationwide and in the traditional music program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. 

Darryl Reeves 

Master Blacksmith 

New Orleans 

Folklife Ambassador: Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy 

Master Blacksmith Darryl Reeves is a third-generation metal worker and owner of Andrew’s Welding & Blacksmith Shop in New Orleans’s Seventh Ward. During his fifty years as a working blacksmith, Reeves has restored the ornate gates of the Presbytère and the massive gate at the Chalmette National Cemetery. He has also fabricated the fence of the Cabildo and a metal masterpiece for Walt Disney World’s new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction. In 2012 he cofounded the New Orleans Master Crafts Guild, which includes apprenticeship training, ground-level network building, and reviving trades for a new generation—work which also addresses the need for skilled laborers to maintain New Orleans’s historic architecture.  

Jerry Devillier 

Cajun Harmonica 

Eunice 

Folklife Ambassadors: John Sharp, Herman Fuselier  

Jerry Devillier, born in 1938 in L’Anse Meg, Evangeline Parish, spoke only French until schooling introduced him to English. At seven years old, he was asked to play accordion on the bandwagon for the Mamou Courir de Mardi Gras. Devillier played harmonica and triangle in the Mamou Cajun Band, including at their performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where they brought their version of Cajun music to a wide audience. Frequently on stage with swamp-pop legends the Boogie Kings, Devillier is also in frequent demand for recording sessions. On the other side of the microphone, he recorded Rendez-vous des Cajuns at the Liberty Theater in Eunice every Saturday for over twenty-five years.  

George “Scrap” Hymel Family 

St. James Parish Levee Bonfire Tradition 

Donaldsonville 

Folklife Ambassador: Brian Davis 

The Hymel Family bonfire tradition began in 1969, when the late Richard Roussel Jr. brought together family and friends for food and camaraderie at the Gramercy home of his daughter, Denise “Denny” Hymel, and her husband, George “Scrap” Hymel. The tradition is carried on today by Denny and Scrap’s children and their families. Each Christmas Eve, up to three hundred Hymel family members and friends gather to eat, visit, and wait for night to fall so the bonfires along the levee can be lit and the fireworks displays begun. According to Rooney Hymel, the competition among St. James Parish families is not for the biggest bonfire—it’s for best fireworks.  

Waylon Thibodeaux 

Cajun Fiddler 

Houma 

Folklife Ambassador: Jonathan Foret 

Houma native Waylon Thibodeaux has gained a notable reputation as one of Louisiana’s best-known recording artists. Building on a state fiddle championship he won at sixteen, his talents have led him to play festivals, clubs, and other special events throughout the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, and Central and South America. Thibodeaux also conducts educational and musically themed workshops. Dedicated to the preservation of Cajun history and customs, he utilizes his gift for storytelling as he traces the Acadian journey. Audience members often find themselves with a washboard, triangle, or other Cajun instrument in hand as the stories and music of the Cajun people unfold. 

Ron Yule 

Fiddle Player, Cultural Historian 

DeRidder

Folklife Ambassadors: Dr. Shane Rasmussen, Dr. Susan Roach 

Ron Yule began playing the fiddle as a student in 1968; in 1973 he began producing fiddle contests and promoting bluegrass shows throughout Louisiana and southeast Texas. He and his wife Georgia produced the first bluegrass/fiddle club and newsletter in the state of Louisiana, the Southwest Louisiana Fiddler and Bluegrass Club, from 1974 to 1976. After retiring, Ron began amassing all the data and pictures he had collected over the previous thirty years to document fiddling, bluegrass, Cajun, and country music in Louisiana. The 2000 and 2019 Louisiana State Fiddle Champion, Ron continues to do what he loves best: play and promote bluegrass.