Floyd Soileau
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James Floyd Soileau is an American record producer. He was born November 2, 1938, in Faubourg between Ville Platte and Washington, Louisiana. He grew up speaking Cajun French and did not speak English until attending school aged 6 years old.
In his junior year of high school, he did an afternoon Cajun music show as a part-time job with KVPI radio in Ville Platte. After graduating from Ville Platte High in 1956, he opened a small record store and discovered that people were still interested in Cajun French music, but records were no longer being produced. With the financial help of a friend, Ed Manuel, a juke box operator from Mamou who wanted new French records for his juke boxes, Floyd released his first record on the Big Mamou label by artists Austin Pitre and Milton Molitor. In 1957 Lawrence Walker and Aldus Roger helped Floyd launch his own label, Swallow Records.
In 1959, he married his high school sweetheart Jinver Ortego. They have three daughters, Catherine, Connie and Cindy, and one son, Christopher.
Over the past 40 years, Swallow Records has released 265 45rpm single records and 151 albums of Cajun French music, including recordings by Adam Hebert, Belton Richard, Dewey Balfa and the Balfa Brothers, Nathan Abshire, Jambalaya Cajun Band, Paul Daigle & Cajun Gold, D.L. Menard, and many more, plus recordings by the Cajun French story teller, Marion Marcotte.
He has always encouraged his artists to compose new songs to record, and his Flat Town Music Company now publishes over 2800 songs, a majority of which are Cajun songs.
His Swallow Publications now publishes two books vital to the Cajun French language, Cajun Dictionary and Cajun Self-taught, both by Rev. Jules Daigle.
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