Originally from southern Illinois, Dennis Stroughmatt grew up in the shadow of the French Creoles of Vincennes, Indiana, where he was introduced to local French music. Dennis's great-grandfather Benjamin Stroughmatt was a fiddler and the first fiddle his son (Dennis's grandfather, Chancy Stroughmatt) gave to Dennis when he was 17 (apparently won in a card game around the turn of the 20th century) had belonged to Benjamin, a barn dance fiddler who lived most of his life working on the Mississippi, Wabash, Ohio, and Illinois rivers from Muscatine, Iowa, south to Memphis, Tennessee and beyond. His family were "house boat" people, nomadic for three generations, traveling the rivers and working — anything from fishing, to mussel shelling, moonshine, cotton, and music. Chancy was born in 1904 and lived until 1998, so Dennis spent a great deal of time with him growing up, learning about the songs his great-grandfather played.
While attending college in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Dennis became involved with the French Creole population of the Old Mines area. He spent about three years attending weekly house parties or "bouillons," learning to speak Creole French with many Creoles in the area including Kent Beaulne and Pete Boyer, and learning to play the fiddle styles of the Missouri French. He also recorded old-timers' oral histories and uncovered scratchy wax cylinder recordings.
