Christine Balfa never knew her grandfather, Charles Balfa. But she did know about the legacy he left to her family – Cajun music. Born around the turn of the century, Charles Balfa was a fiddler. He didn’t do it for the money but for the pure joy of it. “In that era, a lot of people played,” Christine explains. “They didn’t have entertainment like we have now, so it was more common for people to be musical.”
Charles had nine children, including Christine’s father, Dewey Balfa, born in 1927. Charles was a sharecropper, and his kids grew up very poor. Dewey was taught to play by his father and older brother, Will. After working all day, Will, Dewey and brother Rodney would play purely for fun. “Music was what they did to entertain themselves and unwind after a hard day’s work,” Christine says.
To support his family, Dewey worked as an insurance salesman, drove a school bus and owned a furniture store. During this same period, he was on tour with his brothers … when fate intervened.
THE DISCOVERY
In 1965, the Balfa Brothers were hired as a last-minute replacement for another band. By chance, a folklorist was searching for authentic Cajun music. The scout went to Mamou, Dewey’s hometown, and hired the Balfa Brothers to perform at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.
“At the time, local papers were saying, ‘I can’t believe they’re going to go and embarrass us and play this old music,’” Christine explains. But after the Balfa Brothers played their first song in Newport, an audience of 17,000 people gave the band a standing ovation.
“That moment changed my father’s life,” Christine says.
The Balfa Brothers started touring the folk festival circuit, traveling to France and Canada. “In the ‘60s and ‘70s, a lot of people were interested in folk and traditional music,” Christine explains, “and a lot of those type of musicians fell in love with Cajun music and the Balfa Brothers.”
For the rest of his life until his passing in 1993, Dewey Balfa’s mission was to help people be aware of their culture.
“They called him the Cajun Ambassador,” Christine recalls. “My father wanted people from here to respect and honor Cajun music and culture.”
THE NEXT GENERATION
As a child, Christine Balfa always loved music. She fondly remembers getting together with her uncles who would cook a supper, then play music.
“I remember as a child just being around that and being really taken with it,” she recalls.
At age eight, Christine started taking fiddle lessons from Jeannie McCleary near Ann and Marc Savoy’s home. “I wanted to do it, but I was also hesitant,” Christine confides.
As she grew up, her attitude changed, and she began playing acoustic bass guitar. At 17, she started playing at informal jam sessions and played guitar and triangle with her father in the summers. Eventually, she and her friend Steve Riley started jamming – with him on accordion and Christine on guitar.
Then she met Dirk Powell, an Appalachian-style musician, who became her husband. The couple started writing songs, eventually making a cassette recording of their songs, along with songs by Christine’s sister, Nelda. They sent the recording to Floyd Soileau, owner of Flat Town Music and Swallow Records, and the band – Balfa Toujours, comprised of Christine, Dirk, Nelda and Kevin Wimmer – took off.
Christine never thought that she would become a full-time musician. But she did, and the band started touring at festivals worldwide – France, Hong Kong, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S.
“It’s been a blessing,” she says. “Traveling reiterated how much I love home, but it also makes me see that we’re all similar.”
Christine also played with other bands, including the Magnolia Sisters with Anne Savoy, and Grammy-nominated Bonsoir Catin. “That’s my group of girls,” Christine says. “They saved me after I went through my divorce, that band.”
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CHRISTINE
After her divorce from Powell, Christine became a single mom to daughters Amelia and Sophie. She went back to school at University of Louisiana at Lafayette and became certified as a teacher. She taught French classes to children at the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra & Conservatory of Music and is currently teaching yoga at Ossun Elementary School and on the side.
Christine still occasionally plays music with Dirk, as well as Balfa Toujours and Bonsoir Catin. Her daughters are both musicians and singers, and Amelia is studying music at Loyola University New Orleans.
She’s also busy with Louisiana Folk Roots, a nonprofit she founded with other volunteers in 2000. Her future plans include playing at Festivals Acadiens et Créoles and Festival International de Louisiane with both Bonsoir Catin and Balfour Toujours (with cousin Courtney Granger) in the fall.
“I’m looking forward to those times again,” she says hopefully. “I think we are going to have a resurgence after COVID is over.”
Follow Christine Balfa at christinebalfa.com where you can find out about her bands and her new artwork.