"Rice City Stomp" - Hackberry Ramblers

The Hackberry Ramblers had one of the longest histories of a musical group in the United States of America.  Having begun their recording career in 1935 and helping fill Bluebird records commitment of more rural field music, two years later, they would be in the Bluebird's makeshift studio in the Masonic Temple in New Orleans. There, they would record a slew of songs, one which would be an ode to the city of Crowley, Louisiana called the "Rice City Stomp" (#2017).  Given the song was in french, Bluebird kept their name listed as Hackberry.

C'est la vie des Cajuns, 

Sont partir couper du bois, 

Pour emmener son hache à main,

Pour chasser les ouaouaron.

Hackberry Ramblers, 1945
Westley "Chink" Widcamp (bass),
Jim Gentry (mandolin),
Luderin Darbone (fiddle),
Eddie Shuler (guitar),
Edwin Duhon (guitar seated),
Lennis Sonnier (guitar)

Crowley has been the heart of Acadia Parish; an area which became the capital of rice farming for south Louisiana since the 1870s. However, it wouldn't be unusual to have the locals in the nearby town of Rayne, known for it's frog export businesses, to chop up frogs and use the frog meat for dinner.  The song seems to be a slower version of "T'en A Eu, T'en Au Vas" which is better known as "Step It Fast" first recorded by the Breaux family. The group consisted of Lennis Sonnier on guitar, Joe Werner on harmonica, Luderin Darbonne on fiddle, and either Joe or Lennis on vocals. Johnny Purderer on upright bass. It contains one the shortest set of lyrics in Cajun music, with a strong harmonica sound by Joe Werner filling in for solos.

New Orleans
Masonic Temple

It's the life of the Cajuns,

To leave chopping wood,

Taking an axe,

To hunt bull frogs.

1. The Old-time Herald: A Magazine Dedicated to Old-time Music, Volume 9
2. Lyrics by Jerry M

Find:

Early Recordings: 1935-1948 (Arhoolie, 1988)
Hackberry Ramblers: Early Recordings: 1935-1950 (Arhoolie, 2003)
Cajun Country, Vol. 2, More Hits from the Swamp (JSP, 2005)
Cajun Capers: Cajun Music 1928-1954 (Proper, 2005)
The Best Of Cajun & Zydeco (Not Now, 2010)
The Best Of Cajun And Zydeco (Rapier, 2014)

"Unis Two Step" - Floyd Leblanc

Right before Bill Quinn started Gold Star records, he tried out his luck by recording artists locally in Houston and then sending out the masters for production in other places.  Quinn paired up with Bennie Hess of Opera Record Company in Los Angeles, CA producing his first records of the Cajun fiddle player Floyd Leblanc including the "Eunice Two Step" (misspelled "Unis") in 1948.  The song originates with Amede Ardoin's 1929 recording "Two Step de Eunice" for Columbia.

Bennie, originally from Chriesman, Texas, would travel back and forth between Houston and LA and knew Quinn through the business.  In 1948, he formed the Opera label and later signed with Mercury.  

Floyd Leblanc, Iry Lejeune, Ben Oldeg,
Bennie Hess and Virgil Bozman

Ma jolie, mais joli cœur,

Quoi ta fait il y a pas longtemps,

Moi je l'aime, mais jolie fille,

Mais ça, ça m'fait du mal.

Jolie fille, joli cœur,

Tu vas voir, mais, ton vieux neg,

Moi je connais tu vas pleurer,

Mais aussi loin de moi.

Moi je connais, mais jolie fille,

Tu vas voir ton vieux neg,

Joli cœur, mais moi je connais

Mais ça tu fais pitié.

Daily World
Aug 12, 1948

Floyd was from Mermentau, Louisiana and born into a musical family, influenced by his father's fiddle playing and the Hackberry Ramblers.  After WWII, while stationed in San Antonio, he would eventually meet up with Virgil Bozeman and join his group called the "Oklahoma Tornados".  Composed of Ben Oldag on bass, Dudley Champagne on drums, Bennie Hess on guitar, Virgel Bozman on guitar and Floyd on fiddle, Virgil's group became the backup band for any artist that Quinn had in the studio and Floyd took the opportunity to record his own songs.  Virgil had heard Iry play music in Evangeline and Iry convinced Virgil to travel to Houston and record with the Oklahoma Tornados.  There, they produced Iry's first record containing "Love Bridge Waltz" and "Evangeline Special".  Floyd's and Iry's records would be pressed in California on Hess' label.

Bennie Hess

My pretty, but, a pretty heart,

What you did, not long ago

I love you, but, pretty girl, 

It's making me ache.

Pretty girl, pretty heart, 

You'll see, my old friend,

I know you're gonna cry, 

But, you're away from me. 

I know, however, pretty girl, 

You'll see, my old friend,

Beautiful soul, but I know 

Well, that makes you pitiful.

Virgil Bozeman

Eventually, Floyd, Virgel and Iry would make a trek to Nashville in 1947 to seek fortune.  Iry returned home after a couple of weeks, but Floyd played with several bands while there including Enest Tubb's Texas Troubadours and numerous jam sessions with many of the stars on a nightly basis. Hess' label didn't last after Mercury terminated his contract when the company discovered that Hess was bootlegging his own recordings on his Opera label. 

With characteristic exaggeration, Hess later recalled that he was on “the brink of stardom” when this setback occurred. He followed this with seven more of his own releases on Opera through to 1951. For the last Opera release he offered the dealers, in a March 1951 advertisement, a sure-fire hit or 100% returns on records purchased. However, the dealers were unmoved. His Opera label artist Floyd LeBlanc left by signing with Virgil Bozman's new O.T. label whilst Iry LeJeune pacted with Eddie Shuler. 

1. House of Hits: The Story of Houston's Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios By Andy Bradley
2. Laurie E. Jasinsk, "HESS, ORVILLE [BENNIE]," Handbook of Texas Online
3. Handbook of Texas Music edited by Laurie E. Jasinski
4. Louisiana Fiddlers By Ron Yule
5. Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 2 By Steve Sullivan
6. http://ereserves.mcneese.edu/depts/archive/SWLAMusicians/encyclokr.htm
7. http://www.last.fm/music/Bennie+Hess/+wiki
8. Lyrics by Jerry M

"Iota Two Step" - Nathan Abshire

Although not one of Nathan Abshire's more well known songs, this 1951 recording for George Khoury is a rough, upbeat song with his band called "The Musical Five".  In it, he had Will Kegley on fiddle, Ernest Thibodeaux on guitar, Atlas Fruge on lap steel, Jim Baker on bass, and Ozide Kegley on drums.  Together they recorded the "Iota Two Step"  (#612) in Lake Charles.  

‘Tite fille tu m’fais pitié

Ce soir après pleurer,

Ce soir après pleurer,

Quand même, mais malheureuse.

‘Tite fille c’est toi la cause

Mon cœur est si cassé,

‘Tite fille prends donc courage,

Allons j’viens avec toi.

‘Tite fille c’est toi la cause

Si moi, mais moi j’me va,

Si moi, mais moi j’me va,

Là-bas (z)à la maison.

Hey, mais ça ça m’fait du mal

Oh, ouais tu vas pleurer.

Nathan Abshire

Iota is a small town in southwest Louisiana located in the prairies. The song has similarities to the Walker Brothers' 1929 "La Breakdown La Louisianne" recorded for Brunswick in 1929.  In the following years, Robert Bertrand and Nolan Cormier renamed it as the "Pogey Boat Special". 

Lil girl, you make me pitiful

This evening, I cried

Tonight, I cried

Anyways, oh my, i'm miserable.

Lil girl, you're the reason

My heart is so broken,

So lil girl, be courageous,

I'll go with you.

Lil girl, you're the reason

So me, oh my, I'll be fine,

So me, oh my, I'll be fine,

There at the house.

Hey, but it's going to hurt

Oh, yeah you're gonna cry.

 According to Dr. Barry Ancelet, Nathan told him:

I learned to play by myself. I would hear and see others playing. I was six-years-old. I started playing an accordion that cost $3.50. It wasn’t mine. It was one of my uncles. I can’t read. I can’t sign my name, but I make up songs in my head. I listen to them on accordion until they sound like they’re supposed to.

1. http://www.offbeat.com/2003/10/01/masters-of-louisiana-music-nathan-abshire/

Release Info:
La Valse De Bayou Tech | Khoury's K-612-A
Iota Two Step | Khoury's K-612-B

Find:

Nathan Abshire - French Blues (Arhoolie, 1993)

"Continuez De Sonner" - Clifford Breaux

After the Breaux's recorded "Ma Blonde Est Partie" in 1929 (which i covered earlier), they would head to Dallas, TX in 1937 for their last recording session ever where Clifford would record 2 songs accompanied by his sister Cleoma for Decca. One of these would be a Cajun french take on the song "Keep A Knocking But You Can't Come In" called "Continuez de Sonner" (#17043). 

Moi, j'sus la ayou tu peux pas rentrer

Moi, j'sus la ayou tu peux pas rentrer

Moi, J'ai un cadenas sur la porte en avant

Moi, j'sus la ayou tu peux pas rentrer

Toi, tu la cogner mais tu peux pas rentrer

Toi, tu la cogner mais tu peux pas rentrer

Moi j'ai un cadenas sur las porte en arriere

Toi, tu la cogner mais tu peux pas rentrer

(Oh boy!)

Moi, j'sus la ayou tu peux pas rentrer

Moi, j'sus la ayou tu peux pas rentrer

Moi, j'connais t'aime ton pauvre vieux nègre

Non, tu peux pas rentrer

Clifford sings jazz-like scat with a raw, lazy charm along with his swinging fiddle solos. It's the only known Cajun song with a scat style incorporated (that I know of). The first recording of this song seems to be the James "Boodle It" Wiggins version done on Paramount in 1928. This shows some of the influence jazz and blues had on early Cajun music.  Between 1953 and 1954, Nathan Abshire records the same tune but calls it "Tee Per Coine". 

Clifford Breaux and Joe Falcon

I'm in a place where you can't come in

I'm in a place where you can't come in

I already put a lock on the door

I'm in a place where you can't come in

You keep a knocking but you can't come in

You keep a knocking but you can't come in

I have a lock on the back door

You keep a knocking but you can't come in

(Oh boy!)

I'm in a place where you can't come in

I'm in a place where you can't come in

I know you love your little boy

No, you can't come in

Clifford would go on to play with Joe Falcon and his band well into the 1960s and by all accounts, he was actually a much better musician all around.

1. http://www.allmusic.com/album/cajun-string-bands-1930s-cajun-breakdown-mw0000031115
2. http://npmusic.org/artists.html
3. Lyrics by N Pomea

Find:

Cajun String Bands 1930's: Cajun Breakdown (Arhoolie, 1997)

"Attendre Pour Un Train" - John Bertrand & Roy Gonzales

John H. Bertrand was born in Prairie Ronde, a small district near Opelousas, Louisiana. He worked primarily as a blacksmith and taught himself the accordion while in his teens. After a spell away from the Opelousas area he and his family returned in 1924 and settled in a small community, L’Anse Aux Pailles. The young Milton Pitre lived next door and he would back Bertrand at his first session for Paramount in what is thought to have been January 1929.  

He traveled to Chicago twice in 1929 to record for Paramount Records; first time with guitarist Milton Pitre and the second time with guitarist Roy Gonzales and fiddle player Anthony Bertrand. At the time, Pitre would have been around twenty. In a macabre echo of the murder of Mayeus La Fleur, just a few weeks after this recording debut, Pitre was shot dead in an argument over a woman.  John and Milton are most known for the song "The Rabbit Stole The Pumpkin" which would influence two more well-known songs in years to come: Iry Lejeune's "I Went To The Dance" and Lawrence Walker's "Johnny Can't Dance".

Tout autour des "tanks" d'eau après attend' pour un train,

De mille miles de chez moi dans une place qu'est bien vilain.

J'ai monté de voir le conducteur, j'lui ai fait deux ou trois pas,

Il m'a dit si tu as d'l'argent, je vois que tu marches pas.

J'ai pas cinq sous dans ma poche, j'ai rien que j'peux montrer,

Tu peux descendre mon vieux bougre, il m'a fait me dépêcher.

(Yodel)

Ils m'ont fait descendre dans l'Texas, une Etat que j'aime bien,

J'ai r'gardé autour de moi, mais j'voyais pas le train.

Personne ne voulait pas y me donner un coup d'main,

Tu t'en sors (?) mon vieux hobo, dépêche prend ton ch'min.

En poche mon livre était bien vide et mon cœur était en peine,

J'suis mille miles de chez moi pour attendre toujours un train.

(Yodel)

John Bertrand

The recording is extremely rough and any translation is bound to be a guess at best.  Bertrand's style represents an unusual byway of Cajun music that is softer and more introspective than most other styles.  In March or April 1929 Bertrand was invited back for another Paramount session. With the death of Pitre, he appointed Roy Gonzales as back-up guitarist. Gonzales' unique yodeling style would imitate Jimmie Rogers which was popular during the era.  It's one of the few Cajun recordings containing yodeling.

All around the water tanks, I'm waiting for a train,

A thousand miles from home in a place that is very shabby.

I came up to see the driver who was two or three steps away,

He said "If you got money, boy, I'll see that you don't walk",

I don't have five cents in my pocket, I have nothing to show,

"Get off old chap!"  He made me leave quickly.

(Yodel)

They made me go down to Texas, a state that I like,

I looked around me, but I could not see the train,

Nobody wanted to give me a helping hand,

You go away, old hobo, hurry along,

In my book bag was empty and my heart was in pain,

I'm a thousand miles from my house forever waiting for a train.

(Yodel)

How the two came to work together is unclear but from the two numbers included here, the partnership appears to have worked well. During this second and final recording session, John and Roy record the song "Attendre Pour Un Train" for Paramount (#12762).   The song is a Cajun french verison of Jimmie Rogers' "Waiting For A Train".  Roy, a native of Crowley, Louisiana, was good friends with fiddler Leo Soileau.   It's possible the fiddle player on this song is Leo however, it's still unknown.  They would later team up, travelling together with Moise Robin to record for Paramount in Richmond, Indiana during the summer of 1929.  During this session, Roy would re-record "Attendre Pour Un Train" (#12807), this time, by himself. 
  

1. Cajun Breakdown : The Emergence of an American-Made Music By Ryan Andre Brasseaux
2. http://www.venerablemusic.com/catalog/TitleDetails.asp?TitleID=11576
3. http://www.yazoorecords.com/2042.htm
4. Photo by Malcom V
5. Lyrics by Ericajun and Marc C

Find:
John Bertrand / Blind Uncle Gaspard / Delma Lachney Early American Cajun Music (Yazoo, 1999)

"Raise Your Window" - Falcon Trio

In 1936, with record sales holding up after the end of the Depression slump, the Victor mobile recording unit under the direction of Eli Oberstein visited New Orleans to record local hillbilly, blues and Cajun artists.  In what was one of the last major field trips, mammoth sessions were held at the St. Charles Hotel, with more than twenty five titles recorded each day.  The ensuing 78s were eventually released on Bluebird, Victor's subsidiary budget label, at a cost of thirty-five cents per copy.  The 2000 series had been set aside for it's Cajun artists.

Among the artists were the Falcon and Breaux musical families.  Joe and Cleoma most likely brought along fiddle player and family friend, Moise Morgan, to fill in the band labeled as the Falcon Trio.  However, some list the third player as Joe's brother, Ulysse Falcon. Leading the vocals, Cleoma sang the song "Raise Your Window" (#2183) for Bluebird.  

If you see me coming, raise your window high,

When you see me coming, raise your window high,

When you see me leaving, hang your little head and cry.

I went home last night, baby, knocked at my front door,

I went home last night, baby, knocked at my front door,

I heard someone say, I don't live here no more.

I found a stranger passing through your town,

I found a stranger passing through your town,

I'd ask a favor, but boy, you'd turn me down.

I can make more money with my pick and guitar than my good old Jersey cow,

I can make more money with my pick and guitar than my good old Jersey cow,

St. Charles Hotel

I can make more money than a passenger train can ride

I'm wild about Memphis, fool about Tennessee,

I'm wild about Memphis, fool about Tennessee,

Give me sweet Dallas, Texas where the men think the world of me.

It's an English version of a song she had recorded in Cajun french two years earlier for Decca in New York called "Ouvrez Grand Ma Fenetre" (also referred to as "Leve Tes Fenetres Haut" or "Raise Your Window High").  It's a swingy, bluesy song in the style of Jimmie Rodgers' "Anniversary Blue Yodel (Blue Yodel No. 7)" that most likely has an older origin. Even the lyrics between the two versions changed.  In this version, she sings about leaving her home and traveling the country, making more money playing music than farming, and the men she met in different towns.  Songs, like this 12-bar blues and similar others, would eventually influence Iry Lejeune's "Grand Bosco" and Happy Fats' "Blues de Bosco".

1. Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times edited by Janet Allured 
2. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven

Find:

Raise Your Window: A Cajun Music Anthology 1928 - 1941 (The Historic Victor-Bluebird Sessions Vol. 2) (CMF, 1993)
Cajun Early Recordings (JSP, 2004)
Let Me Tell You About the Blues: New Orleans (Fantastic Voyage, 2011)

"Alons Kooche Kooche" - Louisiana Rounders

In the early 1930s, country music from Texas began it's large scale influence on local Cajun music in Louisiana.  Several bands from west Louisiana and east Texas popped up using country music instruments and sang Cajun French lyrics. Joe Werner had alot of success with Happy Fat's early band and made a name for himself.  It wouldn't be long before Decca would ask him to travel to Dallas for a recording session where he invited Julius "Papa Cairo" Lamperez to come along and record with Wayne Perry as the Louisiana Rounders.

Papa Cairo was a lap steel guitarist originally from New Orleans, living in Crowley.  Having become friends with Joe Falcon and Cleoma Breaux, he would play with several musicians around the Crowley area, including Leo Soileau, until he joined Werner's group in 1937. He started out playing guitar flat across his knees with a metal finger attachment, and when the first steel guitars appeared he was quick to buy one, mystifying his audiences by taking his hands off the instrument and holding the notes with his feet on the pedals. Happy Fats noticed he always wore a diamond-shaped gem on his tie and finger and gave him the nickname based on the Cajun French word for "diamond" ("carreau", pronounced "cairo"). 

Although the first recording of this melody as a Cajun tune was by the Guidry Brothers called "Le Garcon Negligent" in 1929, his tune was based on the Jolly Boys of Lafayette called "Abbeville", the band used the melody to record the song the 1937 song: "Alons Kooche Kooche" (#17040).

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller à l'anse Kooche Kooche

Pour t'en aller toi tout(e) seul(e) à l'anse Kooche Kooche

Criminelle! Comment j'va faire moi tout seul?

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller, pour t'en aller

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller

Pour t'en aller toi tout(e) seul(e) à l'anse Kooche Kooche

Criminelle! Comment j'va faire moi tout seul?

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller, pour t'en aller

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller

Pour t'en aller à l'anse Kooche Kooche toi tout(e) seul(e)

Criminelle! Comment j'va faire moi tout seul

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller dans l'anse Kooche Kooche

Hey !  Kooche Kooche !

Julius "Papa Cairo" Lamperez

In the 1940s, he was drafted into the US Army, became a Sergeant. Lamperez would enter WWII, end up being captured by the Nazis, and held as POW in a stalag.  His sister explains that he escaped four times but never got very far. While captured, he had made a fiddle to entertain the guards and his popularity kept him from being executed. After his last prison escape with a group of men, the Germans killed all the escapees except for a dentist and Julius. However, after the war, he would return to music, recording with many local musicians, yet he never forgot the melody of this song.

You left me to go to the Kooche Kooche cove,

You went all alone to the Kooche Kooche cove,

Criminal! How will I handle this by myself?

You left me to go far away, went away.

You left me to go far away,

You went all alone to the Kooche Kooche cove,

Criminal! How will I handle this by myself?

You left me to go far away, went away

You left me to go far away,

To go to the Kooche Kooche cove all alone,

Criminal! How will I handle this by myself?

You left me to go far away to the Kooche Kooche cove

Hey there! Kooche Kooche!

Chuck Guillory's band.
Herman Durbin, Jimmy Newman, 
Chuck Guillory, Kersey "Pork Chop" Roy, 
R.R. Sagg (emcee), Papa Cairo

While the title is labeled with the misspelled Cajun french word allons (which means "to go"), given the context of the lyrics, it actually a different word, l'anse, which can mean cove or a "bend in the river" or "bend in the trees". It's named after the community "L'anse Couche-Couche" located along Hwy 92 between Mermentau and Morse in Acadia Parish.   Couche-couche, itself, is the Carribean Creole cornbread dish served around South Louisiana.  Unlike the Arabic version of couscous (kuskus) which uses durham wheat, the Cajuns replaced this with cornmeal mush. 

The melody would be used in Lamperez's recording of "Big Texas"; first with Chuck Guillory's band.  Eventually he would form his own group, Papa Cairo and His Boys which included Don Lane on xylophone, Murphy Smith on fiddle, Herman Durbin on piano, Albert Roy on guitar and possibly Pete Duhon on bass. He had spent years trying to get his song noticed, later recording it for J.D. Miller's Feature label in French and then later in English.  That same year, he and Jimmy Newman re-recorded the tune for Modern's Colonial label, simply known as "Kooche Kooche".  However, after his recording was used by Hank Williams for his famous song, "Jambalaya", and the song's success went nationwide, Lamperez turned his back on recording in disgust.

1. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven
2. Discussions with Kevin Fontenot
3. Kevin Fontenot (August 15, 2012). "Over These Prison Walls I Would Fly: Country Music POWs During World War II". Interview with Margie Lamperez 
4. Cajun Breakdown : The Emergence of an American-Made Music By Ryan Andre Brasseaux
5. Kevin Coffey, liner notes.  Swingbillies: Hillbilly and Western Swing on Modern/Colonial/Flair 1947-52.  Ace Records.

Find: 

Cajun: Rare & Authentic (JSP, 2008)