"French Blues" - Nathan Abshire

While many remember Nathan Abshire after the war, helping create the resurgence of Cajun music, most are unaware his start began much earlier in the 1930s. By 1935, Abshire teamed up with guitarist Leroy "Happy Fats" LeBlanc and his Rayne-Bo Ramblers, whose line-up was a fluctuating one and began to record with them, as an accordionist – vocalist on 4 songs.  

This New Orleans session was split between Fat’s Rayne-Bo Ramblers and the Hackberry Ramblers, giving, among others, "French Blues" (#2177).  An Abshire arrangement based on Amede Ardoin's "Les Blues De Crowley", the song would achieve classic status during the later years. An itinerant studio was set up by the technicians of Bluebird (whom misspelled his name "Nason Absher") in a time when the majors of the recording industry were showing an interest in ethnic music. 

Oh! tu m’a fait du mal tit monde

Oh!

Tu pres ma quitté, j’vas tout temps aimé.

C’est malheurse de m'voir.

Avec deux mains j'pourrai pleurer.

Ah Haa!

Nathan Abshire

Abshire was especially taken with the spirited playing and singing of Creole accordionist/singer Amede Ardoin.  Ardoin’s influence was especially evident on Abshire’s first recording in 1935, "French Blues."  "French Blues" is a generic name Nathan gave to this lazy, swingy instrumental, with a few bluesy call-outs. While most won't recognize the song as traditional blues, it was what the Cajuns used to express the limited blue notes that the accordion could mimic. In this early version, you can hear Happy Fats and Simon "Warnest" Schexnyder on guitars and Norris Savoy on fiddle. It was a quasi-instrumental with Nathan interjecting different phrases throughout the song. According to author Ryan Brasseaux:

Like the Breaux family and Lawrence Walker, Nathan composed his blues numbers from the cross-cultural fodder that nourished Cajun music's evolutionary mechanisms.1

Little did he realize that his abilities would shine after the war when asked to bring the accordion back.  When the Pine Grove Boys needed an accordion player in the late 1940s, their memory of Nathan playing in these early years sealed their decision to invite him to join.  Nathan resurrected the tune he remembered and at the KPLC studio, Earl Demarcy and Nathan recorded his "French Blues" for George Khoury and Virgil Bozman's O.T. record label (#110).  The 1949 session would re-launch Abshire's music career. The group consisted of either Ernest Thibodeaux or Earl Demarcy on guitar, Atlas Fruge on steel, Jim Baker on bass, Oziet Kegley on drums, and either Will Kegley or Wilson Granger on fiddle.

Oh! you did me wrong, my little world.

Oh!

You're leaving me, yet, i've always loved you.

It's so sad to see me.

I could cry with both hands.

Ah Haa!

Like his "Pine Grove Blues", he would re-record the tune a slew of times throughout the 60s and 70s.  The group recorded a live session at The Frontier Bar in Basile, Louisiana in 1966 with the Balfas backing him up.  By 1968, the crew entered the Swallow Studios in Ville Platte, Louisiana and re-recorded it again. By 1973, Carol Rachou grabbed a triangle and with Merlin Fontenot on fiddle, Rufus Thibodeaux on bass, Joe Thibodeaux on drums, and Bessyl Duhon on guitar, they re-recorded the tune once more, entitling it "Le Blues Francais" for Carol's La Louisianne Records label. 

French Blues - 1935

French Blues - 1949

1. Cajun Breakdown : The Emergence of an American-Made Music By Ryan Andre Brasseaux
2. http://www.offbeat.com/articles/masters-of-louisiana-music-nathan-abshire/
3. http://www.bopping.org/nathan-abshire-pope-of-cajun-accordion/
4. Lyrics by Jerry M and Raymond Francois

Find:
Cajun Music - The Early 50s (Arhoolie, 1969)
Pioneers of the Cajun Accordion (Arhoolie, 1989)
Nathan Abshire & the Pine Grove Boys - French Blues (Arhoolie, 1993)
Cajun Louisiane 1928-1939 (Fremeaux, 2003)
Cajun Capers: Cajun Music 1928-1954 (Proper, 2005)
Bayou Two-Step - Cajun Hits From Louisiana 1929-1962 (Jasmine, 2015)