Madeline Berzas started playing the triangle with the band in the early 1980’s, and in 1983 began playing the drums with the band. She has toured all over with the band and has played in numerous restaurants, festivals, conventions, and other places promoting the Cajun music. She has over thirty five years of experience with the band and is also on the Mamou Cajun Music Festival Staff in which she helps out with the entertainment part of the festival. Her biggest job is to keep the band together and on track.
Joe Simon and his lovely wife Emily, have 3 beautiful daughters and live in Youngsville, Louisiana. He comes from a family of seven boys and a father who played guitar and mandolin. Playing the guitar since he was 17, Joe has played with many talented bands. These bands include: Nouveau Coeur, The Mulate Playboys, The Dixie Ramblers, Tony Thibodeaux and The Cajun Five, and The Cajun Tradition Band. He has played at many venues such as Prejean's, Randol's, Mulate's in three locations-Breaux Bridge, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, Boutin's in Baton Rouge and Tee George's in Lafayette. Joe had traveled to Copenhagen Denmark in 1993 and 1994 to teach and perform. In 1994, by special invitation, he went to Vienna Virginia with the late fiddle player and luthier Lionel Leleux at the Barn's of Wolf Trap. This was a four day event sponsored partially by the Smithsonion titled, "Folk Master's of The Fiddle." In 1994 he was nominated by the Cajun French Music Association for Male Vocalist of the year for an album recorded with fiddler Beau Thomas, Jamie Berzas and others. In our opinion, we consider Joe to be one of the finest Cajun Vocalists around.
From left: (2019) Randy Vidrine, Jamie Berzas, Madeline Berzas, Henry Hample, and Glenn Richard.
Glenn Richard has been playing bass for 42 yrs. and has traveled the country with an 8 piece band. He has shared the stage with many country artist, including George Jones, Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs, Gene Watson and John Conley. Glenn has toured Sweden, Finland, Tokyo, Quebec, Montreal and recorded Gospel, Country, Cajun and Folk music. In 1989, he played bass on the album A' La Vielle Facon with The Cajun Tradition Band which was nominated for a Grammy. He also played bass guitar for Dewey Balfa until his untimely death.
Band's Bio's
Henry Hamplegrew up in New York, and moved to Arnaudville, La., in 2007. He started piano lessons at age 7, then switched to guitar at age 9. On a whim, his Dad gave him a fiddle for his 16th birthday, and Henry taught himself to play, developing his own hard-edged style somewhere between bluegrass and rock. Twenty five years later, after earning a master's degree in music from Brown University, he was thrown out of a Bourbon Street bar for attempting to sit in with the house Cajun band, so he resolved to learn Cajun fiddle. Since then, in addition to the Cajun Tradition Band, he has performed with Jesse Lege, Sheryl Cormier, Ray Abshire, August Broussard, and many others. In 2010, he was nominated by the Cajun French Music Association for Fiddler of the Year -- and started playing gigs on Bourbon Street.
Jamie Berzas was born in 1958 to Nathan and Alida Berzas. Jamie is the oldest of nine children. He began playing at the age of ten when his Dad taught him how to play the Accordion. He also had the outside influence of many area musicians. He now plays not only the Accordion, but also the Guitar and Drums, as well as being a vocalist. Jamie and his wife, the former Madeline Martel, have raised his stepson Jonathon Brunet, here in the town of Mamou. Jonathon and his wife Leslie, have two children, Alyse and Noah.. Not only is Jamie an accomplished musician, but was an auto mechanic for seventeen years. He now works for G.E. Healthcare as a Certified Biomedical Equipment Technician.
