"Valse A Alcee Poulard" - Amede Ardoin & Dennis McGee

Although Creole accordion player Amede Ardoin played with many fiddlers in his lifetime, including the incomparable Douglas Bellard, his most enduring creative partnership was with Dennis McGee, an orphaned white sharecropper from Eunice, Louisiana, who is credited on twenty of Ardoin’s thirty-four sides. Such interracial alliances weren’t unprecedented, but it’s likely the relationship was socially fraught. McGee probably recommended Ardoin to Columbia Records, which would make him ultimately responsible for Ardoin existing outside of his time and place.2 

Oh, ye yaille, je m'en vas.

Moi, je me'en vas, malheureuse, moi, je m'en vas, catin,

Je m'en vas, mon tout seul à la maison.

Comment je vas faire, toi, 'tite fille, ayou je vas aller, jolie?

Pour moi être capable t'rejoindre, ouais, encore,

Moi, je connais tes parent, ça veut pas, catin,

Ayou, moi je vas aller pour t'rejoindre?

Toi, jolie, fait pas ça, ye yaille,

Comment moi je vas faire? C'est si dur.

Amede Ardoin

The Columbia session was short lived and the label closed the doors to any more Cajun sessions due to The Depression.  The only name in the Cajun recording game at the time was Brunswick Records of Chicago.  In late November of 1930, the recording team made one last trip to Louisiana where they recorded Dennis and Amede; kicking off with the performance of "Valse A Alcee Poulard" (#495); a melody more familiar as "Quel Étoile".  Alcee Poulard is believed to be the husband of Amede's aunt, Oline Ardoin Poulard, who is mentioned in the title of another Ardoin song called "Taunte Aline".  McGee's backing of Ardoin's tune provided unique support that seems to be noticed to musicologist Jared Snyder.

Only "Valse a Alcee Poulard," in the cross key of A, needs the fiddle to state the chord progression while the other waltzes, played in D, barely need McGee's contribution to work.3   

Oh, ye yaille, I'm leaving.

I'm leaving, naughty woman, I'm leaving, little doll,

I'm leaving, I'm all alone at home.

How will I do this, you little girl, where am I going to go, pretty girl,

In order for me to meet you, yeah, again?

I know your parents, don't want me to, little doll,

Where am I going to meet you?

You, pretty girl, don't do that, ye yaille,

How will I do this?  It's so hard.

Although the recording didn't hit the market until over a year, the duo continued to play house dances across south Louisiana. According to record producer Christopher King,

You would primarily go to a bal de maison, or a house party, where essentially, the owner of the plantation would go out and collect the musicians in a horse and carriage and bring them to the house. And then the whole community would show up, and they would roll up the carpets and hang the chairs up on the wall.

And then Dennis McGee and Amede Ardoin would take what would be a stage, which is a little platform, and just play from, say, 7 o'clock in the evening until the next morning, essentially. Back then, they were essentially sharecroppers, but they were valued by the plantation owner not for their work-work but for their ability to entertain and to keep the morale up of all the other workers.1   

1. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=135638265
2. https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/244-amede-ardoin-accordion-virtuoso
3. "I'm Never Com in' Back" Amede Ardoin.  Liner notes.

Release Info:
NO-6735 Valse A Alcee Poulard | Brunswick 495
NO-6736 One Step D'Oberlin | Brunswick 495

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)