"Pleur Plus' (Don't Cry)" - Columbus Fruge

Columbus Fruge (or Frugé) was from Arnaudville, Louisiana, a town in the St. Landry and St. Martin parishes in south-central portion of the state.  Virtually no details of his life exist, other than the fact that he began playing accordion as a child and was performing around his hometown by the age of eleven. 

Hé, yaille! chère 'tite fille, t'es la fille de la veuve que moi, j'aimais.

Moi (z) aujourd’hui, dans la traîne dans les chemins, chérie.

Chère, t'es partie de mourir moi tout seul là bas à la pointe noire.

Yé yaille, tu connais, toi tu me fais des misères, j'suis parti m'en aller.

Hé, toi tu marches pour ton nég', te connais ce ton nég' est parti, s'en aller si longtemps.

Hé, canaille.

Pourquoi tu me fais les misères!

Columbus "Boy" Fruge

In 1929, Frugé traveled along with Opelousas jewelry store owner Frank Dietlien, fiddler Leo Soileau, and accordionist Moise Robin to Memphis, Tennessee where he recorded four sides for Ralph Peer's Victor Records including "Pleur Plus' (Don't Cry)", (#22206).  It was a similar melody to Angelas Lejeune's "Valse De La Lousianne" and Bixy Guidry's "Qu'Est Que J'Ai Fait Pour Etre Peuni Si Longemps?".  In the song, he be referring to Pointe Noire, a locale not for from Fruge's home in Arnaudville, Louisiana.  For some of the Victor engineers working that day in the Claridge Hotel ballroom, the raw accordion sound and loud raucous of Fruge banging on Coca-Cola crate lumber was too much for them to bear.   According to Dietlein,

After listening to two or three of Fruge's practice runs of his accordion music, his singing and his stomping on the wooden board, I noticed that all of the engineers had placed wads of cotton in their ears.  Being the sensitive soul that I am, and disliking the thought of hurting any person's feelings, I asked the head engineer, what was the reason for the wads of cotton.  "Listen, friend," declared the fellow, "We've recorded the tom toms of tribal Africa and the tin pan music of China, but our ears have never listened to anything like this."2  

Hey, yaille! Dear little girl, you're the daughter of the widow I loved,

Today, I'm lagging behind down the road, honey,

Dear, you left me to die by myself over there in the black point.

Ye yaille, you know, you make me miserable, I'm going to go.

Hey, you're walking towards your old man, you know your old man left to go so long ago.

Hey, mischievous one.

Why do you make me miserable!

1. http://theanthologyofamericanfolkmusic.blogspot.com/2010/02/saut-crapaud-jump-frog-columbus-fruge.html
2. Daily World (Opelousas, Louisiana) 28 Oct 1965, Thu Page 4

Find:

Cajun Country, Vol. 2, More Hits from the Swamp (JSP, 2005)