Ron Yule to be recognized as Louisiana Tradition Bearer at Louisiana Studies Conference

By: Shane Rasmussen, Director, Louisiana Folklife Center

NATCHITOCHES - Fiddler and cultural historian Ron Yule will be named a Louisiana Tradition Bearer by the Louisiana Folklife Commission and honored at a ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 19 in the Magale Recital Hall on the campus of Northwestern State University. The Recital Hall is in the Creative and Performing Annex located at 140 Central Avenue.

Serving as Folklife Ambassadors for the Louisiana Folklife Commission, Dr. Shane Rasmussen, professor of English and director of the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University, and Dr. Susan Roach, professor emerita of English and folklore at Louisiana Tech University, will honor Yule at the event.

The event will take place as the keynote at the 16th Annual Louisiana Studies Conference to be held in the Creative and Performing Arts Complex. Presentation sessions will begin on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and run until 4:45 p.m. Scholars from throughout Louisiana as well as Alabama and Texas will make presentations on aspects of Louisiana archaeology, religion, architecture, material culture, folklore, art, history and literature. Admission to the conference is free and open to the public.

Yule's keynote address, "Influential & Popular Fiddle Tunes & Styles of 20th Century Louisiana," will be a musical history of Louisiana folk music. Accompanied by the Medicare String Band, Yule's keynote will include examples of Cajun, country, bluegrass, blues, gospel and Celtic fiddle music.

Yule began playing the fiddle in 1968 while a student. In 1973, Yule 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. Yule continues to promote several bluegrass shows each year, including the Beauregard Parish Fair Fiddle Contest, an event that has been viable since 1925. After retiring, Yule began amassing all the data and pictures he had collected over the previous 30 years and started a written documentation of fiddling, bluegrass, Cajun and country music in Louisiana with a focus on southwest Louisiana. His books include "When the Fiddle Was King," "My Fiddlin' Grounds" and "Iry Lejeune: Wailin' the Blues Cajun Style." The 2000 and 2019 Louisiana State Fiddle Champion, Yule continues to do what he loves best, which is to "play music with bluegrass, country and Cajun friends at jam sessions, festivals, nursing homes and anywhere they'll allow the noise."

The ceremony and discussion are part of a series of events throughout the state for Folklife Month in Louisiana. The event is sponsored by the Louisiana Folklife Center, the Louisiana Folklore Society, and the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism. Funding is also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in collaboration with the Louisiana Folklife Commission.

For more information, call the Louisiana Folklife Center at (318) 357-4332, email [email protected], or go to nsula.edu/folklife/.

Photo of Ron Yule by Elona Weston.