"La Stompe Clreole (Creole Stomp)" - Harrington-Landry & Steward

Many musicians are familiar with Cajun accordionists Nathan Abshire's "Hathaway Two Step", but many aren't aware of the melody's original release by two musicians, Harrington and Landry.  Although their names have been lost to time, it's remotely possible the two musicians were Lloyd Harrington and Bob Landry of Kaplan.  Lloyd played the harmonica and the two often traveled to St. Martin Parish for dances.  This also happened to be the same place where W.J. Lemoine signed Patrick "Dak" Pellerin for the same Okeh session in which they all performed.  Given that Mina Stubbs was there, it's also possible her friend Mrs. W.T. Stewart, a renown music director in the region, could have been supervising the session.  

Record store owner and sewing machine seller Winter Lemoine hand selected the musicians for the late 1929 recording in which they waxed "La Stompe Clreole" (#45411), a clear misspelling of the word "creole".  Like the late Pellerin sides, the Harrington-Landry pressings were meant to offer a unique mixture of local music to the community.    The results of this venture ranged from from Harrington and Landry's traditional Cajun material to Pellerin & Stubb's operatic French Creole selections.  The melody lends itself to dancing, in particular, a shuffle style dance.  According to writer and musician Ben Sandmel, 

When I was with the Hackberry Ramblers, if we played this around Eunice, Lake Charles, Jennings, etc., people would line-dance to it, although nobody ever line-danced to any other song that we played.1  

1. Discussions with Ben S

Release Info:

403444-B Tu Aura Regret | Okeh 45411

403445-A La Stompe Clreole | Okeh 45411

Find:

CAJUN-Rare & Authentic (JSP, 2008)