"La Fille A Oncle Elair" - Joe Falcon & Cleoma Breaux

The early surge of musical creativity carried over into a new period as Cajun performers throughout the 1930s, adapted tunes they heard on the radio. Joe and Cleoma were both known to have taken popular tunes of the day and recorded them in Cajun French.  

After the Great Depression, Joe and Cleoma were approached by RCA to travel to their makeshift studio in San Antonio for a recording session.  Together, the duo recorded four sings in 1934, one of them known as "La Fille A Oncle Elair" (#2191).  The song's popular was easily eclipsed by the record's popular flipside recording of "Ils Volet Mon Trancas", better known as "Hippy Ti Yo".  

Ah yéyaie les filles à n'onc Hilaire, 

C'est toutes des chères belles filles, 

Y'a une 'tite brune, y'a une 'tite blonde, 

Un qui est trop noire pour moi z'aimer, 

Mais, ça me fait du mal à moi.

Ah yéyaie les filles à n'onc Hilaire, 

C'est toutes des chères belles filles, 

Y'a une 'tite brune, une 'tite blonde, 

Un qui est pas de mon goût du tout, 

Mais, ça me fait du mal.

Ai yé yaille, les filles à Nonc’ Hilaire,

C'est toutes des chères ‘tites filles,

Tout ce qui me dégoute de porter des petits souliers numéro 9,

C’est trop de l’argent pour moi dépenser,

Fait pas ça avec moi.

Je me rappelle quand moi je passais,

Devant la porte de ta maman, 

N'en n’a pas un qui voulait me voir,

J'ai eu de la chance, mais-aujourd’hui,

De m' faire de l’argent,

Mais, ils m'ont tous dit d’aller me voir,

Elle voulait me voir avant de mourir.

Nonc Helaire Trahan
and Anita Babineaux Trahan

The song is a story of Nonc Helaire's daughters, each of whom had different colored hair.  The dark haired one was tough to love as a little girl since she seemed to desire expensive things such as "little size 9 shoes".   The author is clearly broke and only when he acquires enough money to make them happy, then he can visit their dying mother at her home.   In real life, "Nonc Helaire" was Helaire Trahan Sr, who came from such a large family that everyone knew him as "nonc".  A native of nearby Osson, Louisiana, he had three daughters, Nell, Verna and Joycelyn—the three filles referenced in Joe's song.1  

Aye ye yaille, the girls of uncle Helaire, 

They are all dear beautiful girls,

There's a brunnette, there's a blonde,

One who is too dark haired for me to love,

But, that hurts me so much.

Aye ye yaille, the girls of uncle Helaire, 

They are all dear beautiful girls,

There's a brunnette, there's a blonde,

One who is not my taste at all, 

But, that hurts me so much.

Aye ye yaille, the girls of uncle Helaire,  

They are all dear beautiful girls,

Everything disgusts me about them wearing little size nine shoes,

It's too much money for me to spend,

Don't do that to me.

I remember when I passed,

In front of your mother's door,

Not one of them wanted to see me,

I was lucky, today, to have money,

Well, they all told me to come see,

She wanted to see me before she died. 

Since then, the song has been recorded by many, including Beausoleil and the Basin Brothers, even taken on a caricature with Revon Reed as the famed "Nonc Helaire".  In 1996, Helaire's grandson, Horace Trahan, reworked the song in the studio and released it on his Swallow Records CD "Osson Blues".  

1. Discussions with Anita H
2. Lyrics by Marc C and Stephane F

Release Info:

BS-83852-1 La Fille A Oncle Elair (Uncle Elair's Daughter) | Bluebird 2191

BS-83853-1 Ils La Volet Mon Trancas | Bluebird 2191

Find:

Cajun Early Recordings (Important Swamp Hits Remastered) (JSP, 2004)