"Crowley Waltz" - Hackberry Ramblers

When Louisiana musicians Edwin Duhon and Luderin Darbone founded the Hackberry Ramblers, the country was mired in the Great Depression and FDR had just moved into the White House.3 

The son of an oil field worker, Duhon was born in Youngsville. A Cajun, he grew up speaking French. He later recalled that he was forbidden to speak French in school and that whenever he did, he was spanked.3  Edwin Duhon, played both guitar and accordion, though later in his career he focused exclusively on the latter instrument. Luderin Darbone, a fiddler, spent part of his youth in East Texas, where he acquired a taste for country music to complement the Cajun sounds of his native South Louisiana. Duhon and Darbone formed the Hackberry Ramblers in 1933, and the band went on to become one of the most innovative and long-lasting in American popular music.1  According to the group's producer, Ben Sandmel:

Edwin had a really good ear for music.  He could hear a song as it was being played for the first time and jump right in with either playing a really inventive solo or playing a backup part that would fit perfectly. And he could do that with any style of music -- Cajun, country, rockabilly, the blues.3

Lennis Sonnier, 
Edwin Duhon,
Luderin Darbone
www.mastersoftraditionalarts.org

The group became popular playing for dancers in Louisiana and Texas and in 1935 began recording more than 100 tunes on 78-rpm records for RCA’s Bluebird label.1  However, Edwin had left the group before they had a chance to record their first song.   After nine months as a member, however, Duhon got married and left the group to take a job working in the oil fields.3   Darbone recalls:

Since he was married, he had to earn a living.  With the music, we were lucky to make $3 a night apiece.3

Replaced with Floyd and Lonnie Rainwater, the group recorded a tune in which they called  "Crowley Waltz" (#2173), as their first Cajun single in 1935 at the New Orleans' St. Charles Hotel.  Not to be confused with Cleoma Breaux's earlier recording of "La Valse Crowley", she would also take the melody and recorded it the following year as "Ma Valse Favori"; not all that different from their earlier recording of "Poche Town".  Other renditions at the time were Lawrence Walker's 1929 "La Vie Malheureuse" and Happy Fats' 1935 "La Valse De L'Amour".  Crowley was a small town in Louisiana where most of the band members would end up moving, in order to play more often.  

Lake Charles American Press
Mar 28, 1947

Luderin states:

When I moved to Crowley, I had Lennis. He moved down. Lennis is from Vinton, a little town west of here. We decided if we moved to Crowley it would be more of a central location for us so that's what we did.4  

Later in 1947, under Luderin's direction, the group re-recorded the tune for Deluxe Records.  This time, Edwin had rejoined the band and they added Chink Widcamp on bass.

In 1963, the group reworked the tune for Arhoolie Records in a session located in Lake Charles.  Edwin kept on playing with the group until he was 95. Ben Sandmel stated:

Edwin was a tough, tough old guy. He played as recently as November [2006] in Baton Rouge, even though he was playing in a wheelchair and it was difficult for him to go.3

Edwin Duhon2

1935 - Crowley Waltz

1. http://www.mastersoftraditionalarts.org/artists/76?selected_facets=name_initial_last_exact:L
2. National Endowment for the Arts
3. Edwin Duhon, 95; Co-Founded Cajun Band March 19, 2006|Dennis McLellan | Times Staff Writer (http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/19/local/me-duhon19)
4. http://arhoolie.org/hackberry-ramblers/

Find:
Raise Your Window: A Cajun Music Anthology 1928 - 1941 (The Historic Victor-Bluebird Sessions Vol. 2) (CMF, 1993)

Cajun Champs (Arhoolie, 2005)