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Dewey Balfa (March 20, 1927 – June 17, 1992) was an American Cajun fiddler who contributed significantly to the popularity of Cajun music. Balfa was born in Mamou, Louisiana. He is perhaps best known for his 1964 performance at the Newport Folk Festival with Gladius Thibodeaux and Vinus LeJeune, where the group received an enthusiastic response from over seventeen thousand audience members. After this, in 1965, he formed The Balfa Brothers. He was the father of Christine Balfa, who followed her father into Cajun music with her group Balfa Toujours. He sang the song "Parlez Nous à Boire" in the 1981 cult film Southern Comfort, in which he had a small role.
Balfa lost his brothers Will and Rodney in an automobile accident in 1979, his wife in 1980, and later his son, but he still followed his goal to get his music accepted. In 1982 he won the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship.
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