"Gabriel Waltz" - Happy, Doc And The Boys

From 1946 to 1959, J.D. Miller released all forms of French language records, from the beautiful fiddle and guitar records of Oran 'Doc' Guidry and Leroy 'Happy Fats' Leblanc to the raucous recordings of Robert Bertrand and the Lake Charles Playboys.  It was between 1946 and 1948, when Miller decided to work with Happy Fats and record some of the first Cajun-country music after WWII.  Miller recalls:

We founded the M&S Electric company and we were doing industrial work on the rice mills.  All of it was heavier-type work, industrial and commercial.  I rented a building to house our company, but it was such a large building it looked bare with what we had invested.  There was so much room, I took an idea to put a little music and record shop in it.3 

So we bought a few records and a guitar or two...strings.  We put in a few records and the jukebox owners started buying records from my store.  Many of the customers, because they were predominantly Cajun at the time, wanted Cajun records.  They had a couple of Harry Choates records on the market and few other things, but apart from that, try as hard as I could, I couldn't obtain any.  So I got the idea I'm gonna make some, and I didn't know where to turn to go to a studio. Then I found they had a studio in New Orleans, the only studio in Louisiana: Cosimo Matassa's.3

J.D. Miller

Miller went to Cosimo Matassa's fledgling J&M Recording studio in New Orleans between 1946 and 1947 and recorded singer Happy Fats with fiddler Doc Guidry and singer Louis Noel.  Happy told radio interviewer Dave Booth:

We did a French thing and a country thing.1 

Gabriel avais de mon parrain,

Madeleine, c’était ma marraine,

Gabriel, il était pas beau,

Madeleine, elle valait pas mieux.

Gabriel avait de beau chapeau,

Madeleine avait (z)un beaux souliers,

Gabriel avait de beau chapeau,

C’est dommage il avait pas de calotte.

Gabriel avait de beaux souliers,

Madeleine avait (z)un beau chapeau,

Madeleine avait (z)un beau chapeau,

C’est dommage il avait pas de calotte.

Gabriel avait de belle calotte,

Madeleine avait (z)un beau chaussette,

Madeleine avait (z)un belle chaussette,

C’est dommage il était déchiré.

Gabriel avait de beaux souliers,

Madeleine avait (z)un beau chapeau,

Madeleine avait (z)un beaux souliers,

C’est dommage c’était des "tennis shoes".

Louis Noel

It turns out they recorded six songs total, one of them being "Gabriel Waltz" (#1000).  It was an old French folk ballad, associated with children's nursery rhyme.  The 1947 melody has origins in Leo Soileau's 1937 "Valse D'Amour", with the smooth fiddle rides by Oran "Doc" Guidry.  In addition was Happy Fats on guitar, Jack Leblanc on guitar and Dalton Delcambre on steel guitar.  To round out the group, Happy picked up a budding guitarist from St. Landry parish known as Louis Noel.   Louis' daughter recalled: 

Louis decided to give up farming and try his luck as a musician.  He landed a spot at KSLO in Opelousas.  He did some "hand me down" songs like "La Cravat" and "Gabriel Waltz".4

Miller's early releases had the letter 'F' in the catalog number to signify a French recording, specifically Cajun French, while the letter 'E' signified and English recording, specifically a country song.   Therefore, Miller's early pressings contain multiple uses of numbers.

Crowley Daily Signal
Oct 13, 1949

Gabriel was my godfather,

Madeleine, she was my godmother,

Gabriel, he was not handsome,

Madeleine, she was no better.

Gabriel had a nice hat,

Madeleine had nice shoes,

Gabriel had a nice hat,

It's a shame, he had no overshoes.

Gabriel had beautiful shoes,

Madeleine had a nice hat,

Madeleine had a nice hat,

It's a shame, he had no overshoes.

Gabriel had a nice cap,

Madeleine had nice socks,

Madeleine had nice socks,

It's a shame, they were torn.

Gabriel had beautiful shoes,

Madeleine had a nice hat,

Madeleine had nice shoes,

It's a shame, it was tennis shoes.

In 1957, Bobby Bourke from Avery Island would record the tune during a field session for the Ethnic Folkways Library's I. Bonstein.   Later, Austin Pitre's "Valse d'Amour" would re-issue the melody and Nathan Abshire would rework the tune as "Gabriel Waltz" later.

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4. Discussions with Karl W
5. Lyrics by Marc C

Release Info:
La Cravat | Fais Do Do F-1000-A
Gabriel Waltz | Fais Do Do F-1000-B

Find:
Acadian All Star Special - The Pioneering Cajun Recordings Of J.D. Miller (Bear, 2011)