"Les Tete Fille De Lafayette" - Happy Fats

Cajun country musician, Leroy "Happy Fats" Leblanc took chances with musicians filling in his group and Harry Choates was definitely one of them.   In 1940, Harry began playing with Leo Soileau and Happy in their Cajun band. He started playing with a borrowed fiddle. For the rest of his career he played with borrowed instruments and may never have actually owned his own. If he did, he would have bought it from a pawn shop and then later sold it to buy something to drink. Choates could play anything with strings, and occasionally, the piano. Once, when the strings on his bow were broken, he cut them off in a ceiling fan, rosined the wood of the bow and played the fiddle with that.4,5   

By February of 1940, Harry joined Happy in Dallas, Texas for his earliest recording session for Bluebird records.  In their ode to the 'belles' of Lafayette, the Rayne-Bo Ramblers expanded on the arranging style employed during their recording of "Lafayette" by emphasizing vocal harmonies, dramatic pauses, and fiddle and steel guitar breaks.1  According to author Ryan Brasseaux:

The Rayne-Bo Rambler release "Les Tit Fille de Lafayette" represents a high point during the Cajun swing era.  Happy Fats Leblanc and his string band combined French lyrics with Southern gospel harmonies and jazzy fiddle breaks.  The arrangement was sophisticated, urbane, and absolutely cosmopolitan, just like the musicians and culture from which the music sprang.1 

Rayne Tribune
Aug 23, 1940

Allons là-bas à Lafayette,

C’est pour voir les belles petites filles,

On va danser, on va traîner,

On va avoir les meilleurs temps de nos vies.

Tu connais, moi, je connais,

C’est la place pour moi à aller,

Hé, petite fille, après espérer,

Loin, là-bas, dans Lafayette.

The song "La Tete Fille Lafayette" (#2083) was led by two vocalists: Kaplan native and guitarist Stafford "Sandy" Lormand and Texas swing fiddle player Harry Choates. The rhythm section's bouncing 2/4 backbeat with Happy on bass, Harold Broussard on piano, Choates' cascading fiddle runs, and Ray Clark's bright steel guitar accents painted a jovial musical backdrop for the romantic lyrics to "Les Tit Fille De Lafayette," which describe a bachelor's paradise at a Lafayette dance.1  According to music author Michael Hurtt, 

"Les Tit Fille De Lafayette" was a song so swinging that when he bursts into the French vocal it’s a shock to the listener that it isn’t sung in English.3

Let's go over there to Lafayette,

It's to see the beautiful little girls,

We're going to dance, we're going to hang out,

We're going to have the best times of our lives.

You know, I know,

It's the place for me to go,

Hey, little girl, I hope,

Far away, over there, in Lafayette.

Daily Advertiser
Jun 12, 1940

More than anything else, Harry’s gig with the Ramblers combined all of the rural, bluesy overtones, advanced jazzy improvisations and sprightly musicianship that would come to define his unique style.3  

But Harry's stint with Happy didn't last.   His heavy drinking and unreliability was too much for Happy's style and Harry left after three months with the group.  During this time, the Ramblers would be featured on KVOL.  It was Lafayette's oldest radio station, opening in 1935 and featured Happy Fats on their program.   For a short while, a fiddler from Port Arthur, TX, named Billie Mack "Tiny" Moore, joined the group for a short stint.   Moore recalls playing during the KVOL years:

Then I went to Louisiana with a Cajun band by the name of "Happy Fats and His Rainbow Ramblers". We lived in Rayne, Louisiana and our radio program was in Lafayette, Louisiana on KVOL, I'll never forget it. I was over there for about a year. A steady job. A very low-paying job, but it didn't cost much to live. For instance, my room and board and laundry, I lived with his mother, Happy Fats' mother, Leroy LeBlanc was his real name. I lived with Mrs. LeBlanc, marvelous French cook, for two dollars a week. My room and board and laundry was two dollars a week. So if we made 15-20 dollars a week, we were still all right. I enjoyed that. We did play a lot of the old Cajun music which I wasn't too familiar with, and am still not even today. But with a swing feel I suppose. And a lot of the country songs back in those days.2 

Moore would later leave for Port Arthur joining the Jubileers swing band.

St. Joseph High School Gym, Rayne, LA, Jan 28, 1941
KVOL Hillbilly Jamboree
Billie Mack "Tiny" Moore, radio manager Robert Escudier,
radio host Alfred Bryant "A.B." Craft Jr,
Joseph "Pee Wee" Broussard, radio host Dick Haynes,
Ray "Professor" Clark, Stafford "Sandy" Lormand,
Leroy "Happy Fats" Leblanc

1. Cajun Breakdown: The Emergence of an American-Made Music By Ryan Andre Brasseaux
2. Eldon Shamblin, Tiny Moore, Dean McKinney Moore 1981 interview online
3. http://www.offbeat.com/articles/harry-choates/
4. http://therecordlive.com/2015/06/23/harry-choates-godfather-of-cajun-music/
5. "Poor Hobo: The Tragic Life of Harry Choates: A Cajun Legend" by Tim Knight
6. Lyrics by Jordy A and Eric C

Release Info:
BS-048014-1 Les Tete Fille De Lafayette B-2083-A Bluebird
BS-048012-1 La Polka A Gilbert (Old Time Polka) B-2083-B Bluebird

Find:

Harry Choates: Five-Time Loser 1940-1951 (Krazy Kat, 1990)

Devil In The Bayou - The Gold Star Recordings (Bear Family, 2002)

Cajun Capers: Cajun Music 1928-1954 (Proper, 2005)