"One Step De L'Amour" - Hackberry Ramblers

The Hackberry Ramblers were one of RCA's best selling French and English western swing group in the 1930s.  It all started with Luderin Darbonne and Edwin Duhon. Luderin recalls learning to play music:

Most of the fiddling that I learned, I actually first learned to play the hillbilly style.  We lived in Texas.  That's where I learned numbers like Wednesday Night Waltz, Beaumont Rag, stuff like that.  Then we moved to Hackberry.  After I moved there, that's when I met Edwin Duhon.  He played the accordion at that time.  We joined together.  I'd play the fiddle and he'd play the accordion, before he switched over to the guitar.1

Darbone and Duhon's musical progress has reflected both the ebb and flow of Cajun music, and its melding with all kinds of musical forms: country, the jazz-tinged form known as western swing, and a palpable black influence.2  

When I lived in Hackberry, they'd have a dance there every Saturday night, and the owner of the place'd get an orchestra. They were all black. And in the dance-hall, there were no blacks dancing, all whites. There was no mixture. When they'd get to the intermission, the musicians would sit in their cars. They didn't associate with the whites at all. But I'd learn a lot of my tunes from listening to them.2

Moi j'avais une chère tite fille, une tite fille qui m'aimait,

Quoi faire te brailles, (Quoi faire te brailles),

Quoi faire te brailles, (Quoi faire te brailles),

Quoi faire te brailles, chérie, si te connais j'aime un tas.

Tu m'as fait m'en aller, m'en aller avec un autre,

Quoi faire te brailles, (Quoi faire te brailles),

Quoi faire te brailles, (Quoi faire te brailles),

Quoi faire te brailles, chérie, si te connais j'aime un tas.

Tu m'as dit (que) te m'aimais, mais moi je connais (que) c'est pas vrai.

Quoi faire te brailles, (Quoi faire te brailles),

Quoi faire te brailles, (Quoi faire te brailles),

Quoi fairee te brailles, chérie, si te connais j'aime un tas.

Floyd Shreve, Luderin Darbone,
Danny Shreve, Claude "Pete" Duhon

The Ramblers' 1938 recording, "One Step De L'Amour" (#2056), has a similar swing feel as their recording of "J'ai Pres Parley".  The session had Danny Shreve on guitar, Floyd Shreve on guitar, Claude "Pete" Duhon on bass, and Luderin Darbonne on fiddle and vocals.   

I had a dear little girl, a little girl who loved me,

Why do you cry, (Why do you cry),

Why do you cry, (Why do you cry),

Why do you cry, dear, if you knew I like it alot.

You made me go away, went away with another,

Why do you cry, (Why do you cry),

Why do you cry, (Why do you cry),

Why do you cry, dear, if you knew I like it alot.

You told me that you loved me, but I know it's not true,

Why do you cry, (Why do you cry),

Why do you cry, (Why do you cry),

Why do you cry, dear, if you knew I like it alot.

This session would be their last before the war and end their 3 years with RCA.  The group wouldn't record until a small label called DeLuxe from New Jersey would find the group still playing music and entice many of the original members to record again in 1947.

1. http://arhoolie.org/hackberry-ramblers/
2. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/mar/21/popandrock4
3. Lyrics by Stephanie D and Herman M

Find:
Louisiana Cajun Music Volume 8: The Hackberry Ramblers - Early Recordings 1935-1948 (Old Timey, 1988)