Overview

"Doug Kershaw's musical career as a fiddler, songwriter, and singer has spanned over seventy years. Born on a houseboat tied to a cypress tree in the swamps of Southwest Louisiana, his family followed the fishing up and down the Mermantau River. Alligators and snakes lurked beneath the waters. Alcoholism and violence lurked above. The fais do-dos, those popular houseboat dances, were the only escape from a harsh way of life. Until the Kershaws were forced to move into town following a family tragedy, Kershaw spoke only Cajun-French. He got his first pair of shoes when he was eight years old, the same year he began supporting his mother by playing fiddle and shining shoes. Throughout his career, he has mastered twenty-eight instruments. Because of his signature style of music-making and entertaining, Kershaw is considered by many to be a consummate performer and storyteller. His is a classic American story of how one young man rose from poverty in the swamps to the stage at Carnegie Hall. Despite the pitfalls known to many entertainers--alcohol and cocaine rehab, divorces, scandal, bankruptcy, music business woes, even cancer--Doug Kershaw's life was filled with exciting and comic adventures. The proof is in the amazing people he met along the way: Roger Miller, Johnny Cash, Mary Tyler Moore, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Jean Shepherd, Chet Atkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Wyman, and many more. Kershaw recalls the bad and the good with the same humor that helped him survive it all. While many accolades have since come his way, his greatest pride was hearing his autobiographical song, """"Louisiana Man,"""" broadcast back from space before Apollo 12 landed on the moon."

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Doug Kershaw has enjoyed a prolific career in television entertainment and as a musician and songwriter, recording over 400 songs with such labels as Hickory Records, RCA, Columbia, and Warner Brothers Records. A friend and mentor to many stars, he was a longtime member of the Grand Ole Opry along with his brother, Rusty. Kershaw is a 2009 inductee into the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame and was honored in 2007 as the first inductee into the Cajun Zydeco Hall of Fame in Louisiana. Cathie Pelletier is the critically acclaimed author of twelve novels, including The Funeral Makers and The One-Way Bridge. Several of her books have been translated into numerous languages and two have become films. With Tanya Tucker, she has co-written 100 Ways to Beat the Blues. Pelletier lives in Allagash, Maine.

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