"Hathaway Two Step" - Nathan Abshire

"Hathaway Two Step" (#103) is one of the more obscure Nathan Abshire instrumentals from his earliest post-war years.  The recording's location is not known, but believed to be done in Lake Charles like many of his earlier O.T. sessions with record producer Virgil Bozeman and George Khoury.    Their business contemporary, record producer Eddie Shuler, had met Nathan early on while Shuler was touring with his own band. 

I went out there to Midland, where Nathan was from at that point. He was living somewhere around Midland. I played in a club out there in Midland. I already had a record out on Iry LeJeune at this point. They had this guy that wanted to sit in with my band because I had a a popular string band. I said, "Well what is his name?" They said, "His name is Nathan Abshire". I said, "What does he play?" "He plays the accordion." I said, "Oh, one of them things, huh?" He came in and, man, them people just went crazy over that thing.1 

Nathan Abshire

The 1949 song is based on a 1929 recording by three obscure musicians named Harrington, Landry & Steward, entitled "Le Stomp Creole", a song that some consider a one-step.  The melody resembles is a slow, modified version of Joe Falcon's "Fe Fe Ponchaux", not all that different from Bixy Guidry's "I Am Happy Now".  Hathaway is a small town in Jeff Davis Parish; a locale attributed in other Abshire songs such as the "Hathaway Waltz".

Record producer Bob Tanner had started Hot Rod Records briefly before he began his TNT label.   We do know Eddie Shuler had recorded his own songs and chose to issue them on Tanner's TNT label.  Eddie recalls:

I sent them to Tanner. He wanted a Cajun record.  I let him have the other stuff to get him to put out a record on "Eddie Shuler". He put out the Cajun stuff and the Eddie Shuler stuff. 1

Crowley Daily Signal
Jul 26, 1969

Quite a bit of this recording's history is lost.  Nathan's band had Atlas Fruge on steel guitar, either Wilson Granger or Will Kegley on fiddle, and maybe Earl DeMary on guitar with possibly Elridge "Coon" Guidry on bass.  It's quite possible Bozeman and Khoury recorded Nathan in 1949 but Bozeman released it at Tanner's plant after their split in 1950 (maybe as late as 1953). One lingering question remains: Is it possible that Shuler actually recorded Nathan's band without Virgil and Khoury; releasing it for Tanner to press it in San Antonio?   It seems highly unlikely.  

1. http://arhoolie.org/eddie-shuler-goldband-records/
2. Image by Bill McClung

Release Info:

HR 103(1) Chere Te Mon | Hot Rod 103

HR 103(2) Hathaway Two Step | Hot Rod 103

Find:

Cajun Honky Tonk: The Khoury Recordings Vol. 2 (Arhoolie, 2013)