"La Valse De Gueydan" - Amede Ardoin & Dennis McGee

Amede Ardoin’s specific sound is built around his masterful accordion playing — accompanied by fiddler Dennis McGee — and his heart-breaking hi-lonesome singing. The music is bright, jovial, celebratory, and perhaps best understood as dance music.  According to author Nate Knaebel, he considers Ardoin's music designed to get couples drinking, dancing, and generally carrying on. 

Like any kind of dance music, repetition is essential.You can’t find your groove without a groove. Whether or not Ardoin was thinking in those precise terms, he clearly knew it to be the truth.2  

Comment je vas faire, malheureuse,

Il faudra moi, je m'en vas,

Oh, catin, mais, ouais, t'es tout seule,

Mon, je connais, c'est pas ta faute,

C'est pas toi qui fait tout ça,

Oh, 'tite fille, toi, jamais tu brailles.

Fais pas ça, 'tite fille, fais pas ça t'après me faire,

Oh, catin, fait pas ça t'après me faire,

Donc, cependant, je t'ai rien fait,

Toi, aperçois, toi, tu me fais,

Oh, catin, toi, tu me fais autant do mal.

Toi, 'tite fille, catin, comment je vas faire, moi, je m'en vas

À la maison, catin, toi, jolie, dimanche au soir.

J'ai jamais d'agrément de rentrer, toi, et de m'assis

À la table pour moins manger quand t'as déjà venu faire, à rapport à toi.

Amede Ardoin

The 1929 title "La Valse De Gueydan" (#513) is an ode to the small town of Gueydan, Louisiana. An original melody in it's own right, it should not be confused with John H. Bertrand and Milton Pitre's "Valse De Gueydan", Happy Fats' "Nouveau Grande Gueydan", Leo Soileau's "La Valse de Gueydan" or Tan Benoit's later recording of "Gueydon Waltz".  No one argues the influence Ardoin had on codifying the Cajun sound and paving the way for the more blues- and R&B-inflected offshoot of zydeco.2  Fiddler Wade Fruge recalls a night when Ardoin was challenged by a rival player from the town of Breaux Bridge:

Ardoin started the dance by listlessly covering a couple of tunes, and then went outside and drank a half bottle of whiskey and returned to the dance.  My uncle [Arteman Bijoux Fruge] said he'd never forget that.  When he and Amede went back to play again, he took his accordion and opened the bellows up as far as they'd go.  Then he'd make it tremble, ...holding it all the way down to the floor, before they started to play.  Then, man! He said he got on that accordion!  Nobody could play better than Amede when he wanted.1

How am I going to do this (all alone), oh my,

I have to, I'm going,

Oh, pretty doll, well, yeah, you're all alone,

I know, it's not your fault,

It's not you that did all that,

Oh, little girl, don't ever cry.

Don't do that, little girl, don't do what you're doing to me,

Oh, pretty doll, don't do what you're doing to me,

So, however, I didn't do anything to you,

You see, you make me,

Oh, pretty doll, you, you make me hurt so much.

You, little girl, pretty doll, how am I going to do this, I'm going,

To the house, pretty doll, you, pretty one, Sunday night,

I never thought I'd be able to enter and sit down,

At the table to eat when you had already, it's all because of you.

1.  The Kingdom of Zydeco By Michael Tisserand
2. http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6308
3. NOTE: The listing on Cajun Country, Vol 2 is mis-titled

Release Info:

NO-6721 Two Step D'Elton | Brunswick 513

NO-6722 La Valse De Gueydan | Brunswick 513

Find:

I'm Never Comin' Back: The Roots of Zydeco (Arhoolie, 1995)

Cajun Country, Vol. 2, More Hits from the Swamp (JSP, 2005)

Mama, I'll Be Long Gone : The Complete Recordings of Amede Ardoin, 1929-1934 (Tompkins Square, 2011)