Nathan Abshire, born on June 27, 1913, near Gueydan, Louisiana, was an American Cajun accordion player. He began playing at age six and performing publicly two years later. In the 1930s, he played with fiddler Lionel Leleux and accordionist Amédé Ardoin. He wrote "Service Blues". After settling in Basile, Louisiana, he performed regularly at the Avalon Club and released a best-known record, "Pine Grove Blues" (1949). Abshire gained wider recognition outside of Louisiana at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. He collaborated with Dewey Balfa and The Balfa Brothers to promote Cajun music. A renovated museum was dedicated to him, and he was featured in the book The Makers of Cajun Music (1984). Abshire died on May 13, 1981, in Basile, Louisiana.
