Dennis Stroughmatt: Creole and Cajun Fiddler

Description

Dennis Stroughmatt, a critically acclaimed Creole, Cajun and Western Swing fiddler and accordionist, brings the best in both "upper" and "lower" Louisiana French music to listeners and dancers across the country. Fluent in Illinois-Missouri Creole French and representing his "Illinois Country French" heritage, Dennis strives not only to entertain, but also to educate. Having lived in French speaking communities in Missouri, Louisiana, and Quebec, and trained with legendary Creole, Cajun and Western Swing fiddlers in Missouri, Louisiana, Illinois and Tennessee, Dennis uses his skills to reach thousands every year on stages across North America. Dennis tours with two groups, his five piece "Creole Stomp" and the "L'Esprit Creole" trio. With Creole Stomp Dennis plays Louisiana Cajun, Swamp-Pop and bayou Blues with a definite "joi de vivre" that comes straight from the bayou. With his traditionally focused "L'Esprit Creole," Dennis re-introduces audiences to the driving French Creole fiddle and beautiful ballad of "Old Upper Louisiana" aka Illinois-Missouri-Indiana. Always focused on his audiences, Dennis loves to entertain and is known for veering off the "set list" to play a hot swing fiddle tune and sing a dreamy ballad in the style of musical legends like Ray Price and Willie Nelson.

Work Sample

The music presented in the work sample "Dennis Stroughmatt Live at the Fox Valley Folk Festival" is a cross section of the different styles Dennis can perform in one concert or split into focused performances in individual genres. Also an accomplished vocalist, Dennis is known worldwide as a Creole fiddler, a Cajun Fiddler, and a Western Swing-Blues fiddler. That can be confusing, but he is "all of the above." This short video shows his diversity, wide range of interests and why he was inducted into the National Oldtime Fiddlers Hall of Fame in 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crm2QNxZSG0

Dennis Stroughmatt "Live" at the Fox Valley Folk Festival. Filmed in August 2020 for the Fox Valley "Virtual" Folk Festival in Geneva IL. This video is a Dennis Stroughmatt duo featuring a mixture of Illinois-Missouri-Indiana traditional French Creole music, Louisiana Cajun Music and Cajun/Western Swing. Dennis Stroughmatt performs with a duo, trio and up to a five piece group. This video is a good cross section of the work Dennis is known to perform at different times. Total video run time is 27:16.

Le Beau Mardi Gras: Dennis performs the Illinois traditional Creole Mardi Gras song for the award winning Illinois PBS documentary "Voices of Illinois" in October 2019. 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

Saute la Barriere: June 7, 2015. 4 minutes 38 seconds. Dennis performs a traditional Cajun song in the twin fiddle tradition with his Illinois CajunZydeco band "Creole Stomp" at the Strawberry Park Cajun and Zydeco Festival in Preston, CT.

History

Dennis Stroughmatt, from southeast Illinois, first began studying fiddle and French Creole ballads in his teen years in the Missouri French Creole enclave of Old Mines as well as Cahokia, Illinois. After three years Dennis moved to southwest Louisiana where he studied Cajun-Creole fiddle and accordion styles with many well known local masters. After returning to southern Illinois in the mid 1990s, Dennis studied Western Swing fiddling with the legendary Wade Ray. Since the late 1990s Stroughmatt had been a focused bearer of musical tradition. After starting the band Creole Stomp in 2002 and later L'Esprit Creole in 2005, Stroughmatt has performed with these groups at a range of venues including The New Orleans Jazz Festival, The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, The Library of Congress, and The Kennedy Center. He has also been featured on national television shows including RFD-TV's "Midwest Country," "Branson Country USA," and as host of the legendary radio show "The Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree" on AM-650 WSM in Nashville, TN. Ever the educator, Stroughmatt has given countless workshops and clinics in music and language to schools across the United States and groups including the American Association of Teachers of French.

Artistic Vision

As a tradition bearer of not only music but of language, Dennis Stroughmatt has made it his life's work to both entertain and educate. With strong rural roots in southeastern Illinois, always moving between his ties to French Creole ethnic areas in southern Illinois and southeast Missouri, his love of Louisiana Cajun music and his unending pursuit to master the Western Swing fiddle style that influenced him as a child, Stroughmatt never stops trying to learn and share that gained knowledge with countless audiences, students, and other educators.

Programs for Specific Audience(s) Expertise

Programs can be directed to grade school, high school, college age students, and adults in settings including libraries, folk festivals, workshops, and long term residencies. Programs can include historical and cultural instruction, linguistic instruction focused on the IL-MO-IN French Creole language, and instrument instruction from beginner to advanced in the styles Dennis performs. Dennis, in solo, duo and trio combinations, has given workshops and residences in a wide range of settings including week long music camps, month long residencies in both urban and rural environments for troubled youth, learning disabled, and economically challenged students, as well as giving continuing education clinics to primary and secondary education teachers. As he, himself, has pursued lifelong learning, Dennis is a patient teacher who is comfortable working with either a single student or a large workshop group, in any age range.

Traditional Folk/Ethnic Artform Statement

As a traditional artist who sits on the edge between his Scots-Irish and French Creole ancestry, Dennis has always focused more heavily on the preservation of the local French Creole language and music that is based in southern Illinois, southeast Missouri and southwestern Indiana. It is in great danger of extinction and currently Dennis sits as the last of the traditionally trained Creole fiddlers and balladeers from the region. With French ancestry from Vincennes, IN, Dennis continually works to support the heritage of the area through programs in local schools, festivals, and private "bouillons" (local French house parties). Dennis also gives an annual language and culture class on the "Illinois French Creole Corridor" at Wabash Valley College in Mt Carmel, IL.