"I Woke Up One Morning In May" - Didier Hebert

Didier Hébert (pronounced DEE-djay AY-bear) was a blind guitarist from Louisiana who accompanied the accordion player Dewey Segura on one Columbia recording session on December 10, 1929. The two men recorded three French numbers together and Hébert (misspelled as Herbert) recorded one solo song, "I Woke Up One Morning in May" (#40511), a Cajun French lament of a woman that married a gambling and drinking man who abandon her and their children.[1]  

Je me suis levé matin dans Mai,

Mais, bien de bon matin,

C’était pour passer,

Mais, un beau jour dans ma vie.

Oh j’ai trouvé mon père en train de pleurer,

Ma mère qui pleurait dans ses bras,

C’est adieu pour longtemps,

Je me donnes à un jeune garçon.

Oh moi je l’aimais beaucoup,

Beaucoup plus que ma vie,

Il m’avait fait une promesse,

Et cette promesse c’est d’être sa femme

Oh j’ons ferait des enfants,

Il m’a quitté d’un abandon,

Moi bien malade dans mon lit,

Et mes enfants là crèvent de faim

Et mon mari à la table après gambler,

Et moi je ne souhaît que la mort,

C’est tous ces jeunes bébés, grand Dieu,

Dans les jambes de moi

Oh mettez-vous tous vous autres à méfier

De tous ces jeunes garçons,

Ça, ça conte autant de menteries,

Qu’en a d’étoiles dans le ciel.

Oh depuis dans l’âge de quatorze ans

J’après misèré avec toi,

Et dès de jour en jour,

Mais moi je m’en vas dans l’abandon.

Oh moi je connais je m’en vas dans ces grands chemins,

Misereux moi toute seule,

Et dès je suis une délaissée,

Mais que personne en veut de moi.

Didier Hébert represent an older tradition of Cajun musicians that sang old songs and ballads, so rarely heard on recordings.  His music was authentic enough that John and Alan Lomax chose to record Didier in June of 1934 performing "C'est Bien Le Mois D'Avril".  Growing up, Didier went blind due to a gun accident when he was eight years old but it never prevented him from learning the guitar.      Although the melody of the song is unique in Cajun music, the theme of Hebert's tune is common in other genres.  According to Alexander M. Stern, 

The detail of the husband spending his time in a tavern rather than with his wife and family recalls the story of the female suicide in Buell Kazee's 'The Butcher's Boy.' The warning to other young girls to avoid the same fate also recalls 'The House of the Rising Sun,' famously recorded by Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan, and the Animals.[2]  

I got up early in the morning in May

Well, very early in the morning,

It was to pass the time,

Well, a beautiful day in my life.

Oh, I found my father crying,

My mother crying in his arms,

It's goodbye for a long time,

I gave myself to a young boy.

Oh, I loved him very much,

Much more than my life,

He made me a promise,

And that promise was to be his wife.

Oh, I had children,

He left me with abandonment,

I was very sick in my bed,

And my children there are dying of hunger.

And my husband at the table, gambling,

And I wish only death,

It's all these young babies, good God,

At my feet.

Oh, all of you, start being wary,

Of all these young boys,

That tells as many lies,

As there are stars in the sky.

Oh, since I was fourteen,

I've been miserable with you,

And, from day to day,

But, I'm leaving, abandoned.

Oh, I know, I'm going away on these highways,

A mistress all alone,

And now I'm abandoned,

Well, no one wants me.

Allen Hebert, Didier's son, felt his father was embarrassed by the recording.   Didier claimed he was sick that day and it didn't turn out well.  He married in 1930 and gave up having a recording career.  However, the haunting nature of the recording has been appreciated by many over the years.  In 1952, it famously made the cut on the acclaimed Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music LP in which guitarist and archivist John Fahey described his feelings about the song: "Love it, Wonderfully out of tune."[3]    According to Matt Ryan's Strange Currencies Music,

Hébert’s lone solo recording expresses a profound sadness, even before one attempts to translate its lyrics. Among the eighty-four songs on the Anthology, “I Woke Up One Morning” has one of the hardest codes to crack, but when it hits you, it becomes a clear favorite.[4]  

1. https://oldweirdamerica.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/60-i-woke-up-one-morning-in-may-by-didier-hebert/
2. https://theanthologyofamericanfolkmusic.blogspot.com/2010/05/i-woke-up-one-morning-in-may-didier.html
3. https://folkways-media.si.edu/docs/folkways/artwork/SFW40090.pdf
4. http://strangecurrenciesmusic.com/harry-smiths-america-part-3-songs/

Release Info:

W111390-1 I Woke Up One Morning In May | Columbia 40517-F | Okeh 90017

W111391-2 Far Away From Home Blues | Columbia 40517-F | Okeh 90017

Find: 
ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC – VOLUME THREE (Folkways, 1966)

Les Cajuns Best Of 2002 Les Triomphes De La Country Volume 12 (Habana, 2002)
Cajun Country 2: More Hits From The Swamp (JSP, 2005)