Richard Sale Barn to celebrate new shows in Abbeville, LA | Entertainment/Life

In a previous life, Richard Sale Barn was a vital link in Vermilion Parish’s cattle industry — a stockyard accessible on the bayou where farmers and ranchers gathered every Tuesday for livestock auctions. 

Johnny Richard grew up on the property that hugs the Bayou Vermilion, where the old barn stands sentry for a bygone era. His grandfather, Jean Avery Richard, built the first structure and started selling cattle there. The business expanded with his son, John Avery Richard II, who built the wooden barn that now stands just outside the center of Abbeville — complete with a tiered auction arena that creates the perfect stage for live music.

“So many people would come to the sale on Tuesday to find out how everyone else was doing,” said Johnny Richard, who also ran a saddle-making and repair business out of the barn. 

“‘How’s your crop growing? How are your cattle doing?’ You know, these were French-speaking people. My grandfather would sit right there with a straight-backed chair, and we were part of the industry that kept Vermilion Parish alive,”

The stockyard was last active in the early 1980s when point cattle sales started moving closer to Interstate 10. Johnny Richard and his wife, Kathy, placed the barn on the historic registry in 1996 and began hosting live music in the space over 25 years ago — finding out in the process that you can hear everything in a wooden auction room. 

“We have a lot of musician friends, and we started having little get-togethers where we would sit here and cook, and they would play music and they kept telling us how great the acoustics are,” said Kathy Richard. 

A unique feature of the venue is its lack of dance floor, which wasn’t needed when the space was filled with locals making livestock purchases. Instead, tiered seating stands at an intimate distance from the stage, where performers like Zachary Richard, Michael Juan Nunez, Tommy McLain and Michael Doucet have played over the years. 

It’s a true listening room — something of a rarity in Acadiana, where music and dancing and carousing tend to go hand-in-hand. 

Said Kathy Richard: “When I go up and say hello to folks, I remind them that music is primary, conversation is secondary. You can go out into the reception area for conversations, and the musicians really feed off that. They know that you’re paying 100% attention.”

The performance space has been closed over the past year for building upgrades, and muralist Robert Dafford has been busy putting the final touches on the restored “Abbeville Commission Co.” sign on the side of the barn. All this is preparation for dedicating the new “June and Ernest Atchetee Theater” at the Richard Sale Barn, which will host the Mike Dean Band with guest Gabe Wootton on April 11.

“The community has been behind us 100%, which means a lot to me and Kathy,” Johnny said. “Yeah, it’s my family’s history, but it will hopefully live on long after us. Cattle took care of our parish and took care of the people here, and in a lot of ways, we’re losing that. People come and share about how they used to come to the sale with their grandfather or someone, and it’s a part of their history that should be remembered.” 

Community members are welcome to attend the rope-cutting and dedication ceremony at 10:30 a.m. April 10 at Richard Sale Barn, 1307 S. Henry St. in Abbeville. The Mike Dean Band will perform April 11, with doors opening at 6 p.m. Tickets are for sale online at $25.