Founder of the Louisiana-based label Valcour Records, Joel Savoy is a two-time GRAMMY-winning recording engineer and record producer as well as a ten-time GRAMMY nominee. He served seven years as Artistic Director of the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington, and as program manager for the National Council for Traditional Arts program National Treasures. He currently builds Cajun accordions under his father’s Acadian brand in Eunice from where he also operates his recording studio “Valcour Records.”
Joel is a versatile fiddler and guitarist and he has played and taught music around the world for the last 25 years. He has worked with the best in southwest Louisiana as well as with folks like John Fogerty, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Earle, and T-Bone Burnett, although most often he’s seen with his brother Wilson and their parents in the Savoy Family Cajun Band.
In 2017 he was an ICON Award honoree in Lafayette, Louisiana, for his contributions to the area's art, business and culture, and from 2020 he was the curator for the esteemed Louisiana Crossroads concert series at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Downtown Lafayette. He also served as a governor on the board of the Memphis Chapter of the Recording Academy for three years and as the chapter Vice President for a year and has appeared on the big screen in The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, All the King's Men, HBO's Tremé and Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and Parts Unknown.
