D.L. Menard; Vermilion Parish Bios, Louisiana Submitted by Kathy Tell Source: NSU Folklife; LSUE; Acadian Museum Submitted: August 2004 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** D.L. (Doris Leon) Menard Chairmaker and Cajun Musician D. L. Menard was born the only child of Acadian farmer, April 14, 1932 in Erath, Louisiana. He married his wife Lou Ella, January 15, 1952 at Holy Rosary Catholic in Kaplan, Louisiana. She passed away April 7, 2001 after a brief illness. They have seven children and fourteen grandchildren. As a young child Menard worked in the cane fields and the cotton fields of south Louisiana. He learned to sing country tunes in English long before he sang in French. His father was a popular harmonica player and his uncle played guitar. Menard purchased his first guitar from a Sears Roebuck catalogue when he was 16 years old and asked a member of his uncle's band to teach him how to play basic chords. A year later, he played his first Cajun dance for pay at the Palombo Night Club in Abbeville, Louisiana. D. L. Menard is one of the most respected music artists in French Louisiana today. His 1962 hit, "La Porte d'en Arrière," is a humorous song about a hard-living Cajun who has to sneak in from his drinking and carousing by going through the back door. Eighteen years since "La Porte" was first recorded, it has sold over half a million copies. The song is in the tradition of Hank Williams, whom Menard met at the Teche Club in New Iberia in 1951 a year before he joined the Louisiana Aces and eventually became the leader of the group. As Menard explained to Ann Savoy in an interview included in her book, Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People, the tune for "The Back Door" is based on Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues." Menard composed the words one day while working at a gas station. He jotted them down on a small pad in between pumping gas and servicing cars. D. L. says, "The singing and music came natural...people said I sang like Hank Williams, but it was just my way of singing." D. L. has sung at festivals in Quebec, France, and scores of Louisiana honky-tonks. Recording in both French and English, his many original songs are inspired by a love of life in all of its dimensions. He brings this same enthusiasm to his stage performances, singing with genuine passion and, in between numbers, joking with other musicians or with the audience. He has recorded for Louisiana and French labels as well as northern folk labels in the United States. When asked to describe his music, Menard pauses and looks you in the eye. "I don't know," he says, "I don't study myself! I just play my music! All I can tell you is it's Cajun music, with a real strong rhythm for dancing." Today Menard is an accomplished guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and composer. He has visited 33 foreign countries such as France, Italy, Thailand, Norway, Brazil, Germany, Egypt and Japan due to the success of his best known song, "The Back Door," or, as it is pronounced in French, La Porte D'en Arrier. He has received many honors, including a 1994 Folk Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Along with his music art, Mr. Menard owns a chair factory. Louella's kitchen is host for anyone wanting to enjoy Cajun coffee and food. The furniture in her kitchen is a product of the D. L. Menard chair factory, a rambling one-man shop located next door. D. L. is a master craftsman and his chair factory is as remarkable as the chairs themselves. It is a small factory D. L. concocted from such materials as old washing machine motors. He makes most of the chair parts from the finest ash wood obtained from the local sawmill. He uses seasoned hardwood rungs, which are locked tight by drying ash in the traditional way. Louella weaves the chair seats. His inventory includes platform rockers, high back rockers, sewing rockers, ladder back chairs, bar stools, and children's furniture. -END [Seven years ago, the Menards experienced a fire that destroyed their chair factory along with all of the vintage tools, equipment, and many rare antiques from the now closed Erath Sugar Refinery]