Errol Verret is a highly respected Cajun accordion player who also crafts the instruments. His playing style blends the older Cajun sound with many unique elements. For almost ten years, he was a member of the group Beausoleil before taking up his accordion for a band called the Basin Brothers. He has also played for a number of other artists, among them Chet Atkins, Emmylou Harris, and Richard Thompson. In addition to the recordings he made with the Basin Brothers and Beausoleil, Verret can be heard on the works of Jo-El Sonnier, Sonny Landreth, Canray Fontenot, and Dennis McGee, among others. The accordionist has played at festivals and other venues in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, among them Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Lincoln Center, and the Festival of American Folk Life sponsored by the Smithsonian. The accordionist hails from the region surrounding the Atchafalaya River Basin in Louisiana. A master craftsman who belongs to an association known as the Louisiana Crafts Program, Verret's Cajun accordions are held in high esteem. He not only crafts accordions, but he is also an acknowledged master boat builder who counts among his creations a number of vessels that are part of the Atchafalaya's folkways, including houseboats and pirogues (Cajun canoes). Verret was the recipient of a grant in 1991 that allowed him to teach an apprentice boat builder. During the mid-'80s, the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed a grant on Verret that allowed him to work with Albert Latiolais, a master boat builder. His interests also include cooking and he excels in the preparation of such traditional Cajun fare as gumbo and crawfish étoufée. His wife, Beth Verret, devoted five years to the Festival International de Louisiane as its director. She passed away in 1998, a victim of cancer when she was 41 years old. ~ Linda Seida, Rovi