"Brow Bridge Waltz" - Floyd Leblanc

Floyd LeBlanc was born in Mermentau, Louisiana and his musical career began at an early age.  He had learned to play music from his father and grew up around music.  He had moved to Texas and after WWII, joined Bennie Hess' Houston-based Oklahoma Tornadoes as their fiddle player.1  Riding the wave of Cajun music resurgence, in 1947, Floyd recorded several of his own French fiddle tunes, one called "Brow Bridge Waltz" (#110) for Bennie Hess' Opera records in Houston, Texas. 

Moi, j'connais, t'es après me quitter, chère, 

Pour t'en aller dedans les chemins,

Pourquoi-donc mais tu me fais ça, chère, 

Moi, j'connais, jolie fille, tu vas pleurer.

Rappelles-toi tout ça t'as dit, chère, 

I(l) y pas longtemps de ton papa,

Si jamais que j'vas te revoir, chère, 

Moi, j'connais, jolie fille, tu vas pleurer.

Floyd Leblanc

Here, Floyd gave it the name of a small Cajun town called Breaux Bridge, misspelled as 'Brow' Bridge.  It was a key town settled by Firmin Pierre Breaux, a son of a Acadian settlers.  Born in Acadie, Firmin acquired land along the busy commercial waterway known as the Bayou Teche in 1771.  He and his son built a footbridge in 1799 across the Bayou Teche and maintained it in order to ease the passage of his family and neighbors across the Teche.2  Being one of the few crossing points along the Teche river, a town grew around the location and was named after the bridge.   

I know, you have left me, dear, 

Headed along the road,

Why, well, did you do that, dear, 

I know, pretty girl, you'll going to cry.

Remember, all that you've said, dear, 

Not long ago with your dad,

If I ever see you again, dear,

I know, pretty girl, you're going to cry.

The melody was an extremely popular one among musicians in the region stemming from Angelas Lejeune's 1929 version of "La Valse de Pointe Noir" which would become more popularly known as Nathan Abshire's "Kaplan Waltz" in 1949.  Even Abe Manuel used the same melody for his "Ville Platte Waltz" when he played with Jelly Elliot.   The melody can be found in the recording of Bixy Guidry & Percy Babineaux as "Vien A La Maison Avec Moi" and even earlier by Dudley and James Fawvor as "La Valse De Creole" in 1928.  Amede Ardoin's "Valse De Ballard" carried some similarities.

1. http://library.mcneese.edu/depts/archive/SWLAMusicians/encyclokr.htm
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmin_Breaux
3. Lyrics by Stephane F

Find:

Cajun Music - The Early 50's (Arhoolie, 1975)
Bayou Two-Step - Cajun Hits From Louisiana 1929-1962 (Jasmine, 2015)

"Saut Crapaud (Jump, Frog)" - Columbus Fruge

In September 1929, Moise Robin and Leo Soileau left the prairies of Cajun country to record again, this time with accordionist Columbus "Boy" Fruge in tow.  The three musicians traveled to Victor's Memphis, TN field session with the promise of $50 per record.1  

Fruge recorded four sides, including a solo performance of the popular folk song "Saut Crapaud (Jump, Frog)" (#22184).  While in the studio, they trio along with sponsor Frank Dietlein met Jimmie Rodgers and Victor A&R representative Ralph Peer who was recording the Blue Steel orchestra.  According to Dietlein,

We stood on the sidelines listening to the lilting music of Steel's orchestra, and finally it became Fruge's turn to begin his recording.  He had chosen the old time Cajun tune, "Saute Crapaud".  Anyway, Columbus asked me to get Ralph Peer to bring him a heavy board of lumber.  This done, he placed the piece of wood on the floor in front of this chair.  As he sat playing the accordion he began stomping on the board with his feet in a kind of musical cadence which kept time with his accordion music and singing.5    

Columbus "Boy" Fruge

The accordionist earned $100 for his services, and specifically asked for his fee to be paid in $1 bills.  Upon his return, Columbus' wife, who according to Robin did not understand money, stared in awe at the wad of cash, believing the sum to be an enormous fortune.1  

Saute crapaud!

Ta queue va brûler!

Mais, prends courage,

Elle va repousser.

Va y donc, crapaud!

L'hiver après prendre!

Saute crapaud!

Ta queue va brûler!

Mettre chère Pauline,

Une tasse de café.

Oh, crapaud,

Qui q'as fait ton gilet?

C'est Rose Martin,

La fille à maman.

Crowley Daily Signal
Nov 23, 1929

It's an extremely old song in south Louisiana, with possible origins in Acadie or France. As a children's tune, many Cajun recall hearing the song sang by their parents for fun.  Others remember the song while attending grade school.   Today, if you ask the older generation about it, you'll hear the common response: "I remember my grandfather singing this song to me when I was little."  The lyrics, however, contain a double entendre, with the "tail" signifying the male sexual organ. According to Moise Robin:

Yes, me and "Boy" Fruge went to Memphis, Tennessee to make some records.  "Boy" had no musicians with him.  When we arrived there, he found a pop bottle case made of wood and turned it upside down and stomped on that for his drum effect while recording.  The first song he recorded was Saute, Crapaud.4

Jump, frog,

Your tail will burn,

But take heart,

It will grow back.

So get going, frog.

It's winter, soon.

Jump, frog,

Your tail will burn,

Pour dear Pauline,

A cup of coffee.

Oh, frog.

Who has made your vest?

It is Rose Martin,

Mom's little girl.

1. Cajun Breakdown: The Emergence of an American-Made Music By Ryan Andre Brasseaux
2. https://oldweirdamerica.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/37-saute-crapaud-by-columbus-fruge/
3. http://theanthologyofamericanfolkmusic.blogspot.com/2010/02/saut-crapaud-jump-frog-columbus-fruge.html 
4. Ye Yaille Chere by Raymond Francois
5. Daily World (Opelousas, Louisiana) 28 Oct 1965, Thu Page 4
6. Lyrics by Neal P

Find:
Anthology Of American Folk Music Volume Two: Social Music (Folkways, 1967)
Les Cajuns Best Of 2002 Les Triomphes De La Country Volume 12 (Habana, 2002)
Cajun Capers: Cajun Music 1928-1954 (Proper, 2005)
Cajun Country, Vol. 2, More Hits from the Swamp (JSP, 2005)
The Best Of Cajun & Zydeco (Not Now, 2010)
The Very Best of Cajun: La Stomp Creole, Vol. 1 (Viper, 2016)

"Paper In My Shoe" - Boozoo Chavis

As we delve into the influences of modern Cajun music, we must take note that these same influences came together to create a uniquely different sound among the same Cajun prairies, referred to as 'zydeco'.   Its root origins come from the earliest recordings of Afro-Creoles before WWII, however, with the advent of R&B, soul, and pop music, the mixture of Louisiana instruments popular among Afro-Creoles and the French language blended together to create today's zydeco genre.   

However, if you ask a group of people which song was the first zydeco song, you may get a slew of answers.   Was it the 1929 recording of Douglas Bellard?  How about the 1930 recordings of Amede Ardoin? Aurally, their music is considered by most people too primitive to be contenders.  As far as it's usage in music, it's commonly believed that the first occurance was by Clarence Garlow in 1949 in the lyrics of his song "Bon Ton Roula".   Even though Garlow's sound was closer to zydeco than Ardoin or Bellard, it contained a lot of elements more closely aligned with brass bands that march along the streets of New Orleans.   Today, many researchers and experts agree that it's not until Wilson Anthony "Boozoo" Chavis enters the studio with Eddie Shuler in 1954 when we hear the earliest beginnings of zydeco's modern form in his recording of "Paper In My Shoe" (#1197).  The song put zydeco music on the map.

Boozoo Chavis

Chavis was heavily influenced by his great-uncle Sidney Babineaux, a famed accordionist.  Babineaux was one of the earliest Creole musicians to play the piano accordion.  Even Joe Falcon cited Sidney as the origins of some of his tunes, such as the famed "Ils La Volet Mon Trancas".  In 1954, Lake Charles record producer Eddie Shuler wanted to record a Creole musician for his Goldband label. Cajun accordionist and instrument builder Sidney Brown told Shuler about Chavis. Shuler recalled:

He said there's a little black boy out there that's got a real good song.  So I said, "Well, bring him in."10

Shuler auditioned Chavis, and then hired Classie Ballou’s rhythm and blues (R&B) band to accompany him on the record after Guitar Gable suggested the band.3,9  According to Shuler:

I came into contact with one Boozoo Chavis, a colorful character, to put it mildly.  He talked in short, clipped sentences and was a natural-born clown.  Boozoo played a German button accordion in a style known in this part of the country as zydeco and had no band of his own.  I decided to record him and went out and found Classie Ballou, who then had the best R&B band in the area.5

Classie Ballou

Lake Charles had a rich R&B scene at the time, and young Classie was soon playing with Shelton Dunaway and Ernest Jacobs (later of Cookie & the Cupcakes of Mathilda and I'm Twisted fame), and then formed his first band-- Classie Ballou and the Tempo Kings which featured Dunaway on sax and vocals, another sax player known simply as Biscuit, and eventually Cookie Thierry himself joined the group.11  Chavis' song contains strong sexual innuendo, common for Chavis who was known for his "danceable tunes and risqué sense of humor."3    Another of the most interesting items of the song is the fact that many of musicians are playing in different keys.  Shuler had met with Ballou before the session.

So I told him I got a boy down there that plays this black Cajun music.  I said "Can you play this stuff?" "Oh yeah".  Well, he was lying, because he couldn't.  In the studio, the styles of the accordion player -- who had previously only played with a rubboard or by hitting his foot on a Coke box -- and the Ballou's band collided head-on.10 

The resulting session was chaotic. The band did not know how to back Chavis, who was well known for “breaking time.” The resulting tracks reveal an unresolved tension between Chavis’s accordion style and the band’s spirited R&B style.3  Allegedly, he would tell his band members "If it's wrong, do it wrong, with me, if I'm wrong, you wrong, too!"1   According to Shuler:

I didn't know it, but Ballou's band had never heard of zydeco music, let alone played it, and after eight hours in the studio no mentionable results were forthcoming.  Ballou's boys just couldn't dig Boozoo's music and Boozoo didn't know that they weren't with him!5

According to Shuler he had to give him something to drink.  He told author John Broven:

At last someone decided to give Boozoo something stronger than water to help things along and we got a little jug and carried on rolling the tapes.  The door to my studio was just an ordinary front door with no glass, so I couldn't see in from the control room, but I knew Boozoo was getting saturated.  Suddenly there was a colossal crash in the studio, but as the take was the best so far I didn't check what had happened until the number was finished.  When I opened the door there, before me, lay Boozoo.  He had fallen off his stool but managed to keep his accordion in the air and play on without missing a note!  We laughed until we were hysterical.  It was about the most comical sight anyone could hope to see!.5

Shuler also told a similar story to author Michael Tisserand:

It kept going downhill, and on the third day it was worse off than it was when we started.  So I said, "Boozoo, do you drink any at all?"  He said "Yes sir." So I went out and got a pint of Seagram's Seven, and after about halfway into that jug of whiskey, it started to sound better".10 

Eddie Shuler

Shuler wasn't sure what to do with all the tapes and found himself broke after paying for the long session.  He says he paid the band $250 and figured it for a loss.10

Afterwards I played the tapes back to see if there was anything there worth all the trouble and expense.  The number where Boozoo fell on the floor was still the best, so I thought I would edit it and then release it as a feeler to test public reaction.  The song was "Paper In My Shoe" and it was just one of those natural hits that seldom come along.  I am used to surprises, but that was amazing!  I had a friend called Johnny who was a salesman for A-1 Distributors out of New Orleans and I got him to handle the record.  He took it to Lew Chudd of Imperial, who leased it from me.  It sold over 100,000 copies and at that time you had a hit if you sold 25,000.  This was the biggest seller I had had so far!5

It was released on the Folk-Star label, a subsidiary of Goldband, before being reissued by Imperial Records. The record was a regional hit, subsequently acknowledged as a zydeco standard, but Chavis was convinced that it was more successful than the record companies claimed, later saying: 

I got gypped out of my record. I get frustrated, sometimes. I love to play, but, when I get to thinking about 1955... They stole my record. They said that it only sold 150,000 copies. But, my cousin, who used to live in Boston, checked it out. It sold over a million copies. I was supposed to have a gold record.1,2

Chavis continued with Shuler for several years, recording a handful of tunes, but soon tired of hectic touring and what he felt were unfair business practices in the music industry.   Chavis continued to deny the details in Shuler's drunken story, telling author Ben Sandmel "Shit! How the hell you gonna keep playing like that? They made that up."6   In the 60s, after Chavis' brother convinced him that Shuler wasn't paying him the correct royalties, he left the professional music field and returned to training racehorses.3  Chavis was a prolific writer of zydeco songs, some including references to his friends and acquaintances and others too raunchy to be sold openly.4

I got a paper in my shoe,

I got a paper in my shoe,

Oh what your mama don't know,

And what your papa don't mind,

Oh what your mama don't know,

And what your papa don't mind,

I got a paper in my shoe.

J'ai un papier dans mon soulier,

J'ai un papier dans mon soulier,

Pour ça ta maman connaît pas,

Et ça ton père veut pas,

Pour ça ta maman connaît pas,

Et ça ton père veut pas,

J'ai un papier dans mon soulier.

I got a paper in my shoe,

I got a paper in my shoe,

Oh what your mama don't know,

And what your papa don't mind,

Oh what your mama don't know,

And what your papa don't mind,

I got a paper in my shoe.

Oh don't you worry about your baby,

Oh don't you worry about your baby,

Oh don't you worry about your baby,

Oh don't you worry about your baby,

And what your mama don't know,

I got a paper in my shoe.

Today, his 1954 recording of “Paper in My Shoe” is generally cited as the first zydeco recording. So, what's the origin of the song title?  It's believed it came from the old folk tune "Pepper In My Shoe". Although Chavis was the first person to record the song in French, he acknowledges that he first heard it from Ambrose "Potatoe" Sam in the 1940s.10  Over time, it may have converted to the more popular title "Pebble In My Shoe", famously recorded by Ella Fitzgerald in 1938.   

Boozoo Chavis

So why did Boozoo change the title to "Paper"?  Some believe the paper is a sacramental record such as a marriage record between the lover and the love interest.  Jokingly, the phrase "Papal In My Shoe" is either a reference to a time when Acadians secretly carried a tiny picture of the pope in their shoes or a sly way to refer to the Catholic church documents themselves.    According to  L. C. Donatto of the Zydeco Slippers, he confirms it's about a "marriage license in his shoe that the parents do not know about", given that rural people used to keep their valuables in their shoes .   Other rumors suggest that he's putting a paper with a ladies phone number in his shoe to hide from his wife.  Hence the "what your mama don't know, your papa don't lie" line suggests he's talking to his kid that catches sight of the paper when he takes off his shoe. 

Yet, others argue that it has nothing to do with church documents.  Rather, the title is deeply rooted in African hoodoo practice.   According to legend, when a hoodoo practitioner puts a paper in their shoe, the name of their enemy is written on the paper. The paper is then put in the shoe to keep the enemy under the foot. Every time the hoodoo steps down, the enemy is ground beneath the heel. It's very basic and very effective magic. Hence the line "Don't you worry about your baby." In other words, "the situation is being handled. I got a paper in my shoe."8

Musician Larry English, who asked Boozoo this very question, confirms the more popular belief: a lover that is so embarrassed because he is so poor, he has to put paper in his shoes to cover the holes; wanting to impress the girl and her parents.   According to English: 

[Boozoo] explained that it means he was so poor, his shoes had holes and he put paper in the shoe so his feet wouldn't be on the dirt.7

He even stated something similar to author Michael Tisserand, inferring the paper was to keep his feet warm:

If you got some socks, well you'd rather keep it for on the weekends, for going to church.  But in them days, it was just rough for everybody.10

Regardless of the truth behind the title, the song's popularity eventually took off once other zydeco artists such as Clifton Chenier recorded it and performed it live all over the world. According to Shuler, who was shocked with Boozoo's denial:

He's always denied falling off that stool, but that's the best commercial he could ever have.  You couldn't even dream up something that valuable.10

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boozoo_Chavis
2. Biography by Craig Harris, Allmusic.com.
3. http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/boozoo-chavis
4.  Jon Pareles, "Boozoo Chavis, 70, Accordionist Who Spread the Zydeco Sound", New York Times, May 7, 2001
5. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven
6. Zydeco! By Ben Sandmel
7. https://www.quora.com/Zydeco-What-is-the-meaning-of-Paper-in-my-shoe
8. Paper in My Shoe: Name Papers, Petition Papers, and Prayer Papers in Hoodoo, Rootwork, and Conjure by catherine yronwode
9. http://thehoundblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/classie-ballou.html
10. The Kingdom of Zydeco By Michael Tisserand
11. http://thehoundblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/classie-ballou.html
12. NOTE:  Contrary to popular information on the internet, there is no early reference to zydeco in 1929.  Gid Tanner's band was never called the Zydeco Skillet Lickers.   

Find:
Rural Blues Vol 2: Saturday Night Function (Liberty, 1969)

"Pine Grove Boogie" - Nathan Abshire

Marking the height of Nathan Abshire's second music career, he and Virgil Bozeman teamed up with a band of musicians to lay down some of Nathan's favorite type of music... the blues!  Nathan's accordion, full of "blue" notes of tonal purity, was outstanding behind Roy Broussard's vocals.  

Bozeman worked both as a musician and as a house painter.  But then found himself in San Antonio stationed in the military. After the war, he joined Bennie Hess' Oklahoma Torndados band as a rhythm guitarist.  He was in Lake Charles, pushing his cowhorn sales when he gained an interest in what record producer Eddie Shuler was doing.  Originally, Bozeman had met with Eddie Shuler during one of his radio programs, trying to get into the recording business.   Virgil figured he'd work alongside Shuler to get Nathan to record a batch of songs, including a 1949 follow up to his Pine Grove Blues entitled "Pine Grove Boogie" (#111).   By this time, he, Will Kegley and Ernest Thibodeaux formed a new group with Nathan and added Atlas Fruge and Jim Baker.  Ron Broussard joined in for this particular session.  But Eddie referred Bozeman to a record salesman named George Khoury.  According to Eddie:

He came by, I still had a radio show at the time he came by. Well, first he came to me and I didn't want him. That's because I wasn't too enthused about what he was doing because he was singing and all that stuff.  He came and he got affiliated with George Khoury.5

Nathan Abshire

Oh, ayou toi t'as passé, ma chère petite négresse, que toi(?)

T’es partie avec un autre que moi,

Mais moi, je connais qu’il t’aime pas mieux, ouais, petite négresse.

Oh, ayou toi t’as passé avec un autre qui t’aime pas mieux, ouais, que moi?

Avec un autre qui t’aime pas mieux que moi,

Mais moi je connais t’auras du regret ’tite fille, ma négresse, (mais fait pas ça avec moi!)?

Although moderately successful, the recording was unable to duplicate the success of "Pine Grove Blues".  Bozman was running out of money and Khoury was no longer financially supporting him.  His meager band income was supplemented by an unusual profession: cowhorn salesman. According to Ernest Thibodeaux:

Virgel Bozman

Bozman tried to make a living any way he could.  He would walk around fields looking for the old Brahma bull horns.  He would take them, clean them up real nice and put a finish on them.  He didn't have any trouble selling them.  People would mount them in their house to hang their hats or coats.  I can bet they still might be in use.

Oh, where have you gone, my dear little woman, you,

You have left with someone other than me,

Well, I know he loves you no better, yeh, little woman.

Oh, where have you gone with another who loves you no better, yeh, than me,

With another one who loves you no better than me,

Well, I know you will have regrets, my woman. (Well, don't do that to me!)

It would be Virgel's last release near Lake Charles.  Realizing his business wasn't successful, he moved back to San Antonio.  He continued his O.T. label alongside Bob Tanner's facility by mailing his masters to Stephen Shaw and George Weitlauf in Cincinatti, OH.  His last Cajun release was Abshire's "Step It Fast".

1. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven
2. The Encyclopedia of Country Music
3. http://45rpmrecords.com/date_shaw.php
4. Louisiana Music, Vol. 1 by Lyle F
5. http://arhoolie.org/eddie-shuler-goldband-records/
6. Lyrics by Jordy A

Find:
French Blues (Arhoolie, 1993)

"The Old Ice Man" - Leroy "Happy Fats" Leblanc

One of Harry Choates's more colorful musician companions was Harold "Popeye" Broussard.  Broussard by all accounts was an excellent piano man and singer.  His specialty was his rendition of the dance hall favorite "How Would You Like To Be The Old Ice Man".  Harry's fiddle and Broussard's piano complimented each other at times.  Other times, Harry and Popeye at times appeared to be in competition with each other to see who could raise the most hell.1 

Together, along with Happy Fats' Rayne-Bo Ramblers band, recorded the tune as "The Old Ice Man" (#8537) in Dallas, Texas in 1940.  They drew crowds and complimented any band they performed with.1 With Harry on fiddle and Popeye on vocals, their group consisted of Sandy Lormand on guitar, Pee Wee Broussard on banjo, Ray Clark on steel, and Happy Fats on bass.

How'd you like to be that old ice man,

Sell the coldest stuff in town,

How'd you like to be that old ice man,

I mean to turn you down,

Since bacon went up to a dollar a pound,

I ate so many rabbits I've been jumping around,

How'd you like to be that old ice man,

Sell the coldest stuff in town.

How'd you like to be that old ice man,

Sell the coldest stuff in town,

How'd you like to be that old ice man,

I mean to turn you down,

Now, I'm sitting in the parlor, mingling around,

I wasn't too dumb to hear the back door slam,

How'd you like to be that old ice man,

Sell the coldest stuff in town.

Eventually Harry went on his way, leaving Broussard to his own devices in the Lake Charles musical scene.   Without Harry, Broussard left and started a family.  According to author Tim Knight:

They were companions in deliquent behavior. If one was hired, both had to be hired; they were a matched set.1    

1. Poor Hobo: The Tragic Life of Harry Choates, a Cajun Legend by Tim Knight
2. Lyrics by Jerry M

Find:
Harry Choates: Five-Time Loser 1940-1951 (Krazy Kat, 1990)
Cajun Fiddle King (AIM, 1999)
Devil In The Bayou - The Gold Star Recordings (Bear Family, 2002)
The Best Of Cajun & Zydeco (Not Now, 2010)

"Courville and McGee Waltz" - Sady Courville & Dennis McGee

The main instrument of the 19th century Cajun musician was the fiddle.   Traditional old-time Cajun bands often included a lead and a second fiddle. An excellent representation of this style was the early recordings of Dennis McGee and Sady Courville.  Dennis and Sady met in the mid-twenties. As it happens, they had much in common, starting with Gladys, Sady’s sister and Dennis’ wife. Both men were well-known musicians of the time, along with Amadee Ardoin, Angelais Lejeune, and Ernest Fruge, to name a few. Certainly they were among the most important and respected Cajun fiddlers of the day. For the next several years they played dances regularly, as had Sady’s predecessors, the Courville Brothers, before them.1   Dennis explained:

I was successful with my music. It wasn't that it was so good, but it was some old music that no one had head before.2    

Sady recalled his musical legacy:

My father and his brother Arville were both violin players who learned the music from their mother, my maternal grandmother, who was a Fruge.  Her family were all musicians and she knew the tunes her brother played. She'd sing these folk tunes to my father and brother. These folk tunes were brought here by the Cajuns back in the late 1700s.2  

Eraste Courville (Sady's father) & 

Arville Couville (Sady's uncle)
1900, Chataignier, LA

By 1929, the duo headed to New Orleans and recorded some of the earliest Cajun fiddle-led tunes, one of them being a self-entitled waltz simply called "Courville and McGee Waltz" (#315). Many professionals learned quite about bit about Cajun fiddling from this duo.  According to fiddler Tracy Schwarz:

The striking differences heard in Cajun fiddling from other U.S. folk styles can be traced primarily to the use of the following noting hand techniques: drones, octaves, unisons, open strings with a lower tuning, slides, trills, and lack of vibrata. Briefly, these can be described this way: Cajun fiddling abounds in a ringing, sustained treble tone achieved by wide separation of notes played in harmony on adjacent strings.1

In waltzes, the most strikingly different bowing technique is the marking of rhythm. Where country fiddlers will bow one continuous stroke to sustain a note, Cajun fiddlers change direction with each waltz beat, thereby providing rhythm alongside the melody. It must be cautioned here that this is a general discussion and that personal observation of Dennis McGee and Sady Courville leads to the conclusion that older bowing styles were more complicated than this, and also that there are a number of different bowing sub-styles under the general title of “Cajun fiddling.”1

The uniqueness about this recording is the fact that it's the only pressing that lists Courville's name on the label.  In fact at the time of the recording sessions, Sady requested of the company that his name be omitted from the labels when the records were released. And omitted it was: only “Dennis McGee” appears. It was the stigma: since the music embodied “Cajun” more dramatically than any other cultural form (except perhaps the language), it bore that stigma most directly.1  Sady recalled:

People used to make fun of me and other Cajuns who played Cajun music. That was the reason you won't find my name on some of the records Dennis McGee and I made. They asked me why I didn't want my name on those records. I said "Because people are making fun of me and I want to try and better myself".  But, I am for the program of Cajun culture. Then, the last number we made, I let them put on there Courville and McGee Waltz.   That's the only record my name was on.2  

1. http://fieldrecorder.org/dennis-mcgee-and-sady-courville/
2. Ye Yaille Chere by Raymond Francois

Find:
The Early Recordings Of Dennis McGee: Featuring Sady Courville & Ernest Fruge (Morning Star, 1977)
The Complete Early Recordings of Dennis McGee (Yazoo, 1994)

"I Made A Big Mistake" - Iry Lejeune

"J'ai Fai Une Grosse Erreur".  In the 1940s and ‘50s, Iry LeJeune, a nearly blind accordionist who only lived 26 years, recorded Cajun songs that are still being imitated today.  Born near Church Point, Louisiana to a farming family, Iry, near blind from birth, turned to music as a young child. It was his cousin, Angeles LeJeune, who first introduced him to the accordion. But it was the records of Amedee Ardoin that most inspired him, influencing both his Cajun-French style and his recording future.5  Yet, the growing popularity of local country music stars during the 1950s also had impact on his creativity. Known for his soulful music, many consider LeJeune to be the greatest Cajun accordion player and recording artist of all time.

In the recording, Iry had Alfred Cormier playing rhythm guitar and Wilson Granger playing fiddle.  Wilson's first stint with Iry was around 1948 when Earl Demary occasionally would hire Iry to join his Musical Aces for dances around Lake Charles and southeast Texas.   Besides playing with Iry in the Musical Aces, he played with Iry for two stints in the 1950s, one where they recorded "I Made A Big Mistake" (#1057) on Eddie Shuler's Goldband label. Allegedly, written by record producer J. D. Miller, Iry chose to cover this song in 1954 after Jimmy Newman failed to garner any success with it in 1951.   

Quand j'ai quitté de la maison,

Moi, je croyais j'avais raison,

J'avais dit j'aurais jamais revenu,

Ça a pas été si longtemps,

Je t'ai eu te besoin z-à mon côté,

C'est là j'ai vu j'avais fait une grosse erreur.

Moi, je t'ai rejoint dessus la rue,

Avec un autre à ton côté,

Tu ressemblais si contente et aussi heureuse,

Avec des larmes dedans mes yeux,

Et mon cher cœur aussi cassé,

Moi je savais j'avais fait une grosse erreur.

Dans la clarté du soleil,

Et la lumière de la lune,

Moi j'ai vu personne qu'est si heureuse,

Avec des larmes dedans mes yeux,

Et mon cher cœur aussi cassé,

C'est là j'ai vu j'avais fait,

Une grosse erreur.

Robert Bertrand, Wilson Granger,
Iry Lejeune, Alfred Cormier

"I Made A Big Mistake" was recorded at Iry's house along with Wilson on fiddle. Wilson stated that many people thought that J. B. Fuselier played on this record because Wilson left the group soon after the recording and J. B. jumped in until the his death. Eddie would later release the song on 45 RPM, first using the maroon Folk-Star label and later on using his yellow Goldband label.

When I left home,

I believed I had a reason,

I said I'd never return,

It wasn't for very long,

I needed you by my side,

It's then I saw I had made a big mistake.

I met you on the street,

With another at your side,

You seemed so content and happy,

With tears in my eyes,

And my dear heart is also broken,

I knew I had made a big mistake.

In the clarity of the sun,

And the light of the moon,

I saw a person who was so happy,

With tears in my eyes,

And my dear heart so broken,

That's when I saw I had made,

A big mistake.

According to Walter Mouton, Iry was the only accordion player he ever saw in his life who could carry on a full conversation while playing.  

1. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven
2. Louisiana Fiddlers By Ron Yule
3. Discussions with Sarah Dover Savoy Gonzales
4. "Iry Lejeune: Wailin the Blues Cajun Style" by Ron Yule
5. https://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2011/10/12/iry-lejeune-cajun-accordion-player

Find:

Iry Lejeune: Cajun's Greatest: The Definitive Collection (Ace, 2003)