Kristi Guillory (accordion) and Anya Burgess (fiddle), of Bonsoir, Catin, have shared a love of old and crooked Cajun tunes since they first started playing music together in 2005. In addition to playing regularly with the full band, the girls have teamed up as a duo and perform a unique repertoire of some of the oldest recorded Cajun songs of the 1920s and 1930s — from players like Bixy Guidry, Slim Doucet, Adam and Cyprien Landreneau, and Leo Soileau.

Kristi Guillory became a child prodigy of accordion in the early 1990s and has since earned her place among the modern masters. Kristi worked as the first archivist at the Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Francophone Studies and master’s degree in Folklore Studies. Kristi is currently on faculty in the Traditional Music department at UL, where she teaches courses in accordion, vocals, and Cajun and Creole music history.

Anya Burgess has dedicated her life to playing and building violins, and has been enamored with the old ways of doing both since she first picked up the fiddle. She was introduced to lutherie by Otis Tomas of St. Ann’s Bay, Cape Breton, and as a result of working with him was inspired to pursue violin making at Indiana University and now as a career. She operates her own violin shop in south Louisiana and services most of the local players from Cajun to Classical. Learning and playing old fiddle tunes is a perfect compliment to her violin work.