"Hey Cushmall" - Eddie Shuler

An immigrant from Texas, musician and record producer Eddie Shuler was operating a tiny music store when he started Goldband as a private label around 1945 to promote his western outfit, the All Star Reveliers.1  An excellent group that went toe-to-toe with Cliff Bruner, Leo Soileau, Harry Choates, the Hackberry Ramblers, and the other top Gulf Coast swing bands of the time.2  He recalls:

I had this eight-piece band and I had a packed house because I had a radio show down there on KPLC Radio.  That was a thirty-minute show in the afternoon.1

Eh, jolie, 

Moi j'm'en va, va à la maison,

C'est pour t'voir, mais, chère 'tite fille, 

Que si mignonne, mais, pour ton nèg.

Eh, couche mal, tu m'a dit, mais, tu m'aimais,

Oh, jolie, mais, aujourd'hui, t'après m'quitté. 

Eh, jolie, 

Moi j'm'en va, va à la maison,

Tout fais ça, mais, tu m'aimer, ça m'fait du mal, mais, aujourd'hui.

Sears in Lake Charles
Johnny Babb, Pee Wee Lyons, Johnny Reems,
Ronald Ardoin, possibly Johnny Porter,
unknown, Eddie Shuler

Many of Eddie's singles are solid western swing, Cajun, and country efforts comparable to anything else coming out in those genres at the time.2  Shuler cut his first records using the facilities of two Lake Charles radio stations, KPLC and KAOK, since the nearest dedicated recording studios were in distant New Orleans and Houston.  He said:

There wasn't no tape recorders back in those days.  You had to cut the thing on an acetate disc. So you'd go into the radio station and give the engineer ten dollars and a bottle of booze, and he'd make you an acetate.1  

Hey, pretty one,

I'm going, going home,

It's to see you, well, dear little girl,

That's so cute, well, for your man.

Hey, naughty one, you told me, well, you loved me,

Oh, pretty one, well, today, you're leaving me.

Hey, pretty one,

I'm going, going home,

All that's done, well, you loved me, that makes me sad, well, today.

Norris Savoie

During one of those sessions in 1948 or 1949, Eddie and Norris Savoy recorded the french tune "Hey Cushmall" (#1017) for his Goldband records.  The slang term "couche mal" was a Cajun nickname used to describe a "naughty person", which fell out of favor soon after the war.   It wasn't an overly impressive recording, sounding more like a country hillbilly band rather than a Cajun recording. Eddie was very much into English country tunes but Norris helped change that.

We was into the Bob Wills sound. Oh, we played French music ‘cause I had a French singer. I wasn’t crazy; I wanted that money too. I had a couple of [French singers], but the one who stayed the longest was Norris Savoie. He sang high, higher than a woman, and he played the fiddle.2  

1. Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers By John Broven
2. http://wired-for-sound.blogspot.com/2011_11_24_archive.html

Release Info:
Hey Cushmall | Goldband G-1017-A
Faded Love Waltz | Goldband G-1017-B

Find:
Eddie Shuler & His All Star Reveliers: Grande Mamou (BACM, 2016)