Floyd

What is now Flat Town Music Company was founded by
Floyd Soileau (pronounced swallow) in 1956 as a
part-time job selling records to supplement his radio
disc jockey income at KVPI in Ville Platte, Louisiana.
His record sales, made during breaks in between
dee-jaying, became so popular that eventually he was
told by the radio station's management to chose: spin
records at the radio station, or sell them. Soileau
decided to leave the radio station in 1957 in order to
sell and produce records, and the rest, as they say,
is history.

Born on November 2, 1938 in Grand Prairie, just
outside Ville Platte, Louisiana. Floyd Soileau's Cajun
father, grandfather, and great grandfather played
fiddle. His brother played fiddle and accordion.
Typical of Cajun French families at the time, Floyd
spoke no English until he was six years old when he
attended the 1st grade. During his his radio disc
jockey stint while still in high school, Floyd opened
is record store selling mostly used records.

Not long afterwards, Floyd gave up his DJ job for his
newly established Floyd's Record Shop retail & later
one-stop (wholesaler) business. He later formed his
first record label, Big Mamou, owned in partnership
with a Mamou jukebox and nightclub operator, and then
his own label, Vee-Pee (as in Ville Platte) His first
recordings, of Milton Molitor and Austin Pitre
performing "Manuel Bar Waltz" and "Midway Two-Step",
were pressed in Nashville and released as 78s and 45s
in 1957. Word of his regional record label spread and
Soileau was soon approached by several local Cajun
musicians, including Aldus Roger, Austin Pitre, Adam
Hebert, and Lawrence Walker, about recording their
songs.

In 1958 Soileau dissolved his earlier record labels,
and founded two new labels, Swallow (a play on the
pronunciation of his last name) and Jin (named for his
soon-to-be-wife Jinver). On the early recordings on
the Swallow and Jin Record labels, there was no
distinction between genres of music. Soileau released
Cajun French music and south Louisiana rock n roll
(later termed Swamp Pop) on both record labels. Later,
the Swallow label was dedicated to French language
Cajun releases, and the Jin label to Swamp Pop and its
blend of mostly English but sometimes Cajun French
music with rock and roll, country and New Orleans R&B.
He later added two more labels, Maison de Soul (for
Zydeco releases) and Kom-A-Day (a play on the French
word comédie, for Cajun humor) and founded a book
publishing division, Swallow Publications, in 1985 to
publish Cajun language instructional materials
dictionaries, books about Louisiana music history, and
the Cajun culture.

Soileau had early success with Jin Records. Rod
Bernard's "This Should Go On Forever" (1958), became a
national hit, making it to No. 8 in the Hit Parade
and to the Top 20 of Billboard's Hot 100. Bernard even
found himself on American Bandstand. Later Jin hits
included Jivin' Gene's "Breaking Up is Hard to Do"
(1959), Joe Barry's "I'm a Fool to Care" (1961), Tommy
McLain's "Sweet Dreams (1966), Johnny Allen's "Lonely
Days and Lonely Nights." (1959) and Rufus Jagneux's
"Opelousas Sostan" (1973). Other swamp pop Jin stars
include Warren Storm, Don Rich, Cookie and the
Cupcakes and The Boogie Kings.

Soileau, on his Swallow label, has recorded many
legends of Cajun music including Dewey Balfa and The
Balfa Brothers, Nathan Abshire, Adam Hebert, Dennis
McGee, Vin Bruce, Hadley Castille, Paul Daigle, Aldus
Roger, Lawrence Walker, Austin Pitre , Belton Richard,
D.L. Menard and more recently BeauSoleil, Steve Riley
and the Mamou Playboys, Jambalaya Cajun Band, Kevin
Naquin, and the Mamou Prairie Band. Especially notable
recordings include The Balfa Brothers Play Traditional
Cajun Music" (1965) which helped spark the "Cajun
revival", Belton Richard's album, "Modern Sounds in
Cajun Music", which included "Un Autre Soir
D'ennui"(1967), and D. L. Menard's "La Porte En
Arriere" (The Back Door) (1962).

In 1974, taking the advise of Zydeco king, Clifton
Chenier, Soileau founded Maison de Soul which is
arguably the first record label dedicated to the
soulful upbeat style of music termed "Zydeco". He
recorded several albums by Chenier as well as the
1980's comeback album of Boozoo Chavis, "Louisiana
Zydeco Music", which included such Zydeco classics as
"Dog Hill" and "Motor Dude Special". Soileau scored
his biggest hit with Rockin' Sidney's Grammy award
winning "My Toot Toot" in 1985. Over two dozen
versions of "Toot Toot" have been recorded in the U.S.
as well as dozens of foreign versions. The Handy Blues
Foundation named it "Song of the the Year". Maison de
Soul has also recorded other legends and present stars
of Zydeco such as Rockin' Dopsie, John Delafose, and
more recently Keith Frank, Rosie Ledet, Thomas Fields,
Zydeco Force, J. Paul, Jr., and the Creole Zydeco
Farmers.

In September 2000, the Festival de Musique Acadienne
(Cajun Music Festival) in Lafayette, Louisiana, was
dedicated to Floyd Soileau & his contribution to Cajun
music. In 2001, Offbeat Music in New Orleans honored
Soileau with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his 40
plus years devoted to recording, producing,
distributing and promoting Cajun French music.

Soileau and Flat Town Music Company continue to
operate as an independent, regionally oriented label
in an age of media giants. Flat Town Music Company
(producer & administrator of Soileau's record labels)
continues to issue numerous Cajun, Zydeco, and Swamp
Pop recordings, while Floyd's Record Shop caters to
fans of south Louisiana music worldwide through its
mail-order catalog and internet website. Additionally
Flat Town Music owns and manages the copyright to over
3,000 songs.

As Floyd Soileau approaches semi-retirement, his son
Chris has taken an active role in Flat Town,
continuing in his father's footsteps in doing their
part to preserve such a vital part of south Louisiana
Cajun culture, the music. The presence of this web
site is just one more way of providing information
about the unique rich heritage of Cajun Louisiana and
its music.