"Louisiana Boogie" - Harry Choates

Cajun swing fiddler Harry Choates never worried or cared about he daily trials and tribulations of life.  Such things as far as he was concerned could be drowned in a liquor bottle.  Harry was addicted to the music.  The feelings of others were of no concern to him.  After the breakup of his first band, he continued to find recording opportunities; this time for Macy Henry's label with a song called "Louisiana Boogie" (#134). 

In this April 1950 recording session, he re-purposed an old Breaux Brothers 1929 recording of "Vas Y Carrement", better known as "Step It Fast".  Although not an actual "boogie woogie" tune, he took the quick paced melody and make it even faster, giving it a Texas swing flavor. 

Moi laisser, pour t'en aller,

Moi, j'connais, j'mérite pas ça,

Quoi t'as fait, ce pas de rien,

Eh, ça m'fait de la peine.

Eh petite, vilain moyens,

Moi j'connais, ça m'fait de la peine,

Moi j'connais, ça m'fait de la peine,

Quoi t'as fait, mais, pauvre vieux nègre.

B.C. Jennings, Harry Choates,
unknown, unknown
1948
Joe Watson Collection

No longer with his original Melody Boys, he regrouped with Macy Henry's studio musicians at the ACA Recording Studio in Houston, Texas accompanied by Earl Rebert on steel guitar, possibly Sue Romero on bass, and possibly Louis Oltremari on piano.   Fellow side musician, Roland "R.A." Faulk accompanied Harry to Macy's Recording Studio in Houston in April of 1950.  Although not on the recordings, R.A. was now considered a part of Harry's band.  He witnessed the decline of a musician's musician during the recording session. He could still play his fiddle, but the alcohol had taken its toll.  It was as if Harry was just going through the motions recording, so that he could earn enough money to tide him over until the next time.1  

I'm leaving, for you left me,

I know, I don't deserve that,

What you've done, it's nothing,

Hey, it's not worth it.

Hey, little one, (your) naughty ways,

I know, it's not worth it,

I know, it's not worth it,

What you've done, well, (to your) poor old man.

According to Tim Knight, whenever Harry would report to Macy's studio, he would sit against the wall with elbows resting on his knees, his much traveled fiddle crooked in his arm. Usually he was drunk, but he could still play.1  Although he performed with Jesse James & His Gang on radio station KTBC after the disbanding of the Melody Boys in 1951, Choates suffering ended a few months later.

Macy herself was a strong, steadfast lady who used the subtitle, "Queen of Hits", showing off her female proprietress which was rare for the time.  When Joe Bihari (of Modern Music's Bihari brothers) decided to check on his inventory at Macy's distribution shop, she exploded, telling him:

I paid for those records.  They're mine. Get your ass out of here!

By June 1951, many of Macy's signature artists moved to Modern Records and Aladdin Records ending the Macy's label production.

1. Poor Hobo: The Tragic Life of Harry Choates, a Cajun Legend by Tim Knight
2. http://therecordlive.com/2009/12/16/harry-choate-and-jolie-blon-cajun-musics-founding-father/
3. Blues Encyclopedia edited by Edward Komara
4. Mojo Hand: The Life and Music of Lightnin' Hopkins By Timothy J. O'Brien
5. Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues By Roger Wood
6. Billboard Magazine, Aug 13, 1949
7. Billboard Magazine, Jul 2, 1949
8. http://www.rootsandrhythm.com/roots/NEWSLETTER%20130/newsletter130_blues_6.htm
9. http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/labels_five.html
10. Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers By John Broven
11. Jim Reeves: His Untold Story By Larry Jordan

Release Info:

ACA 1556 Louisiana Boogie | Macy's 134-A

ACA 1560 What's The Use | Macy's 134-B

Find:
Cajun Capers: Cajun Music 1928-1954 (Proper, 2005)

"What's The Use" - Harry Choates

In 1947, Charles D Henry and Macy Lela Henry opened up a shop to distribute music to people of south east Texas.   In downtown Houston, they hired a young Steve Poncio to help stock their shelves with records at their new facility United Record Wholesalers.2  But once wartime shellac was no longer rationed, independent record companies began to pop-up, taking advantage of the talent in their local regions.  Soon, Steve and Macy decided to create their own label with Steve as general manager.   By 1949, the label took off as Macy's Recordings. 

It was April of that year when he got word that Macy wanted him to record for her.  He was already contracted to Bill Quinn, but that never was a consideration for Cajun fiddler Harry Choates.  He jumped in his vehicle and headed to the ACA studio to meet other musicians lined up such as Earl Rebert on steel guitar, possibly Sue Romero on bass, and possibly Louis Oltremari on piano accordion.   There, he recorded the poignant "What's The Use" (#134), a fatalistic predetermination that he was killing himself with every drink he took.1 

Toi t'après m'a laissé,

Avec une autre tu m'a quitté,

Oh, moi, j'connais mérite pas ça, haha.

Oh, quoi ta fais, mais, ça ta fais

Moi, j'connais, mais, chère 'tite fille,

Moi, j'espoire, mais, quelle espoire, mais, chère mignonne.

Il y a pas longtemps, tu voir tu regret,

Chère 'tite fille, pour quoi ta fais,

Oh, moi, j'connais t'as fait de la peine.

Liberty Vindicator
Oct 19, 1950

According to Port Arthur musician, Roland "R.A." Faulk, he remembered the Macy sessions with Harry. On the way to Houston, Harry was driving and was pulled over in Liberty, TX for speeding in a school zone. Harry told the officer that he had bad brakes and would have them fixed as soon as possible.  The police officer told Harry to drive to the nearest repair shop and have the brakes tended to, and he would follow along in his patrol car.  When the officer was content that Harry had made arrangements to have his brakes repaired, he drove away leaving Harry and R.A. parked in the front of the brake shop.  As soon as the police was out of sight, Harry started up his Ford and drove through the back door of the shop on his way for his recording date at Macy's.1  

You, you are leaving me,

With another, you left me, 

Oh, I know I don't deserve that, haha.

Oh, what you've done, well, that you've done,

I know, well, dear little girl,

I hope, well, what hope is there, well, dear little cutie,

There it won't be long, you'll see you'll regret,

Dear little girl, for what you've done,

Oh, I know you hurt me.

Undecided on the song title, ACA ledger notes show the alternate French title "C'est pas la peine", misspelled as "Sapala Pan".3  Poncio and Macy's most notable recordings came that same year with her experimental zydeco recording of Clarence Garlow's "Bon Ton Roula" and Lester Williams's "Wintertime Blues".  Macy took advantage of the industry's "double payola" where during this period, deejays were paid to play a Macy's record and then paid extra not to plug the competition.  Once Steve left to create United Recording Distributing Co. a year later and her husband's health began to fail, Macy closed her business.

1. Poor Hobo: The Tragic Life of Harry Choates, a Cajun Legend by Tim Knight
2. Roadkill on the Three-chord Highway: Art and Trash in American Popular Music By Colin Escott
3. Audio Company of America, Master Book, 1950-1951

Release Info:

ACA-1556 Louisiana Boogie | Macy's 134-A

ACA-1560 What's The Use | Macy's 134-B

Find:
Harry Choates: Five-Time Loser 1940-1951 (Krazy Kat, 1990)
Cajun Fiddle King (AIM, 1999)

"Gra Mamou" - Harry Choates

Harry Choates was the total and complete musician and entertainer. All of this life he ate, drank and slept music. It is sometimes very difficult to unravel the facts and myths surrounding the life and times of the man who wrote what has been called the Cajun national anthem, “Jolie Blon.” What Jimmy Rogers was to country music, Harry Choates was to French music.2

Originally recorded in 1928 by Leo Soileau and Mayuse Lafleur, the Victor recording "Basile Waltz" is a staple of Cajun music, with a variety of names given to the melody.  Leo had renamed the tune "Le Gran Mamou" in the 1930s, re-recording it as a string band song and played the tune for years across the Louisiana dancehalls.   Harry, an avid fan of Leo's music had joined his band in the early 40s, covering all their tunes.  Harry used this opportunity to cover Leo's signature song. 

Hé ha ha, hé hé hé

Oh mais ça t’as fait ton bon vieux chien.

S’en aller dans Grand Mamou, mais jolie fille,

C’est pour voir ma jolie mignonne, petite fille, joli petit cœur,

Hé petite fille, hé ha ha, oh mais quoi t’as fait à ton papan.

Oh toi, quoi, tit monde, chérie,

Quoi t’as fait à ton pauvre vieux nègre,

Ça me fait de la peine, je ne mérite pas ça,

Hé petite, villaines manières,

Oh mais moi, je connais ça sera pas longtemps.

Hé villaines manières, quoi t’as fait ton pauvre vieux nègre,

Ça sera pas longtemps, ha ha.

Helen and Harry Choates

Between 1946 and 1949, Harry had a successful career pushing his swinging style of Cajun music with his group called the Melody Boys.  But after internal issues broke the band apart, Choates continued searching for any recording opportunities he could find.  He found an upstart recording label run by Charles and Macy Henry in Houston, Texas.


By 1950, Harry entered the ACA Studios of Bill Holford with a new set of musicians and re-record the tune as "Gra Mamou" (#124) on the Macy's label.  Copying the same tactic Leo Soileau and Bluebird Records did by changing the name to "Le Grand Mamou", it's possible he could avoid any conflicts with song copyrights on a separate recording label.  The song featured Frank Juricek or Earl Rebert on steel guitar and possibly Louis Oltremari on piano, but by this time, most of Harry's second band were unknown.  It's most likely these were studio musicians that Henry used to back Harry up on the session.

Hey, ha ha, hey heh hey,

Oh well, what you did to your old dog.

Going to Grand Mamou, well, pretty girl,

It's to see my pretty cutie, little girl, pretty sweetheart,

Hey little girl, hey ha ha, oh well, what you've done to your dad.

Oh why, my little everything, dear?

What have you done to your poor old man?

It hurts me, I don't deserve that,

Hey little one, your naughty ways,

Oh well, I know it will not be long.

Hey, your naughty ways, what did you do to your poor old man,

It will not be long, ha ha.

It must have sold well since Harry was back in the studio later that year recording "Answer to Gran Mamou" however, for unknown reasons, the follow-up was never released.  Either done previously at Goldstar and later sold to Hummingbird or done at a Houston studio in 1951 for Hummingbird, Harry re-recorded the tune as "Big Mamou" (#1012).   

Oh mais, moi, je connais, mais malheureuse,

Quoi t’as fait mais avec moi, je mérite pas ça, chérie,

Hé petite, mais, joli cœur,

Oh mais, moi, je connais ça sera pas longtemps.

Oh, mais chère petite,

Moi, je connais mais ça t’as fait il y a pas longtemps, malheureuse,

Hé ha ha, hé hé hé, oh pour ça t’as fait ton pauvre vieux chien.

Oh yeah.

Tenor banjoist and Port Arthur resident Ivy Gaspard, who toured with Choates, recalled the Cajun music of southeast Texas:

This area was a hotbed of good musicians. You had as many good musicians here as you had anywhere. Some of the dancers who would come to our dances were amazed; they’d never heard French music played the way I played it on tenor guitar but (really) I was playing western swing. I didn’t care to play French, ’cause the musicians weren’t that good. They’ve got some good French musicians now but Harry’s the one who put the idea in their heads how to play that kind of music. Before that, French music, I hated to play it ’cause it was just the same thing over and over and over. But I didn’t mind playing French music with Harry ‘cause he had that beat.1

Oh well, I know, oh my,

What you've done, well, with me, I don't deserve that, dear,

Hey, little one, well, pretty sweetheart,

Oh well, I know it won't be long.

Oh, well, dear little one,

I know , well, that was done not long ago, oh my,

Hey ha hah, hey heh hey, oh, that you've done to your poor old dog.

Oh yeah.

Gra Mamou - 1950 - Macy's

Big Mamou - 1951 - Hummingbird

1. http://www.offbeat.com/articles/harry-choates/
2. http://therecordlive.com/2009/12/16/harry-choate-and-jolie-blon-cajun-musics-founding-father/?mobile=true
3. Lyrics by Jordy A and Carol B

Find:

Harry Choates: Five-Time Loser 1940-1951 (Krazy Kat, 1990)
Cajun Fiddle King (AIM, 1999)

Cajun Capers: Cajun Music 1928-1954 (Proper, 2005)

"Basile Waltz" - Harry Choates

By 1940, fiddler Harry Choates had left Happy Fat's Rayne-Bo Ramblers band and found work with Leo Soileau during the war years.   It would be during these years playing guitar and fiddle where he would master some of Leo's traditional Cajun songs as well as form a relationship with two band members, Abe and Joe Manuel   The brothers along with Harry stayed with Leo until 1946 when they ventured off to form the Melody Boys with Harry leading the group.   It would be that year in which they'd wax their first recordings for Goldstar record producer Bill Quinn including this tune called "Basile Waltz".   Named after a the town of Basile, Louisiana where he played at the Avalon Club dance hotspot, Harry Choates (misspelled Coates) would record the song a few months after his famed "Jole Blon".  

Contrary to popular belief, this was not a cover of the 1928 Leo Soileau "Basile Waltz", but a rendition of Happy Fats and Doc Guidry's "Tit Maurice".   

C’est nous autres, oui, qu’est si joyeux,

C’est nous autres qu’aiment autant oui, l’amuser (?).

Si vous voulez, oui, mais (z)un bon temps,

Viens nous r’joindre sur l’samedi au soir à Grand Basile.

Tu m’as quitté, oui, pour t’en aller,

T’en aller aussi loin (z)avec un autre.

Si vous voulez, oui, vous amuser (?),

Viens nous r’joindre ce samedi soir à Grand Basile.

Oh, chérie, tu m’fais pitié,

T’avais été t’en aller aussi loin.

T’en r’tourner oui, t’auras du r’gret,

Ça t’as fait (z)avec moi, y a pas longtemps.

Joe Bihari

Modern Records was run by the Hungarian family of Lester Louis Bihari, Julius Jeramiah Bihari, Saul Samuel Bihari, and Joseph Bihari. Jules got a job servicing and operating jukeboxes in the Watts district, and found difficulty in locating and stocking the blues records his customers wanted to hear.   With his younger brothers Saul and Joe, he decided to set up a new label, Modern Records, in 1945. The Bihari Brothers were interested in the local Texas music and wanted to press more of it at their California pressing plant.  Quinn, overwhelmed by the response of his label, licensed his music to labels such as Modern and Deluxe. 

The song featured Esmond "Eddie" Pursley on guitar, possibly Abe Manuel on rhythm guitar, Joe Manuel on vocals and banjo, and B.D.Williams on upright bass.  According to musician Crawford Vincent, he noted that Harry learned alot from Cliff Bruner, a western swing fiddler who moved into the Houston/Beaumont area in 1937.  Vincent believes Bruner was a main influence on him.  The tune is sung by Joe Manuel and revolves around asking a lover to come back and enjoy some time having fun on a Saturday night in the town of "Grand Basile".   

After his father's death, Choates spent a lot of time in Basile where he played guitar in fiddle-master Leo Soileau's band in the late 1930s.  Canray Fontenot, a fiddle player that learned quite a bit from Harry, recalled his earliest years:

When he first came to Basile, he was playing with Leo Soileau. He was playing the steel guitar. He was a good musician. He had bought a fiddle with an old black man from Mississippi.  Harry bought the fiddle for $5 dollars on credit and never paid the man.  That's the way he was. That was a little messy son of a gun; a little red head.  He didn't care about nobody but himself.9  

While playing steel guitar in Leo's band, he was learning how to play the fiddle.  Once he got good enough, every time they'd play a dance, Leo would let him play a tune on his fiddle.  

Then he got better than Leo.  That son of a gun could sing French and English.  He took off on his own.9  

Billboard
Oct 4, 1947

Once he formed his own band in the 1940s, they worked for music mogul Quincy Davis.  Davis had a habit of taking in musicians, feeding them, and hiring them seven nights a week plus radio shows and matinees for the meager fee of $10 a week. The musicians rare complained since for most of them it was better than picking cotton in hot fields.8  Due to band finance management, Harry had a hard time keeping a band. Canray remembered:

Most of the time he'd change musicians.  I don't know how many times.  He didn't want to pay them.   He'd go collect the money, then state they hadn't paid him.  They'd raise all kind of hell.  He was messy, but talk about a good musician.9   

That's us, yes, so joyful,

We're so beloved, yes, the fun.

If you want, yes, to have a good time,

Come join us Saturday night in Grand Basile.

You left me, yes, you went away.

You went far away with another,

If you want, yes, to have fun,

Come join us Saturday night in Grand Basile.

Oh, honey, you make me pitiful,

You have been so away far.

You'll return, yes, you'll regret this,

You were with me there, not long ago

Helen and Harry Choates

Quinn claimed ownership of both "Jole Blon" and "Basile Waltz" and in 1946 issued them on his Gold Star label.  After a Houston DJ began playing the “Jole Blon,” the song exploded in popularity and Gold Star was unable to meet the public’s demand.   In 1947, Lester Bihari, who was now a Galveston-based jukebox operator in Galveston, Texas, decided to ask Quinn to press the Harry Choates record on his brother's Modern label (#511).  Broven claims the Bihari's used the Gold Star masters however, the quality of these re-issues pales in comparison to the bright, crisp sound Gold Star had produced.  Unfortunately, Joe Manuel missed his opportunity to become a star of the song, since Quinn decided not to credit his vocals on the label.  

It seems record producer Joe Lieberwitz of DeLuxe records got word of the Quinn-Modern deal and attempted to copy the same tactic in 1947 that worked so well for the Biharis.  However, when the co-release on Deluxe's #6000 came out, the pressing suffered from low overall volume.  This technical difficulty along with poor marketing probably led to DeLuxe's dismal sales, comparably.  

By 1951, Bill was more interested in recording the music instead of maintaining his label and Quinn would sell his Lightning Hopkins masters off to Modern records in Sep 1951  In 1952, he would outsource some of his masters for reissuing to Harold "Pappy" Daily of Houston's "D" Records (later "Starday" label out of Beaumont).  By 1955, Pappy bought the remaining Choates masters after Quinn decided to just focus on recording.  Quinn turned his basement into the largest basement studio in the region. Even in the late 50s, he expanded it hoping to jump into the TV recording business that was booming. However, he retired by the early 60s.   

Saul Bihari

Harry would eventually die in 1951 in an Austin, TX jail cell as a result of his alcohol addiction. Quinn's Gold Star Studios eventually became SugarHill Studios in 1971, purchased by legendary producer Huey Meaux who had earlier used it for his Crazy Cajun label. Jules and the Bihari brothers would effectively steal music from up and coming black artists by taking advantage of the artist's financial situation.  B.B. King had said: 

"The company [Modern] I was with knew a lot of things they didn’t tell me, that I didn’t learn about until later... Some of the songs I wrote, they added a name when I copyrighted it,"..."Like 'King and Ling' or 'King and Josea.' There was no such thing as Ling, or Josea. No such thing. That way, the company could claim half of your song."

1. Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers By John Broven
2. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ebr02
3. Interview with Sugar Hill's co-owner and chief engineer Andy Bradley
4. Billboard Magazine, Sep 29, 1951
5. Louisiana Fiddlers By Ron Yule
6. Cajun Breakdown : The Emergence of an American-Made Music by Ryan Andre Brasseaux
7. “Jole Blon”—Harry Choates (1946) Added to the National Registry: 2005 Essay by Ryan Brasseaux
8. The Encyclopedia of Country Music : The Ultimate Guide to the Music: The ... edited by Paul Kingsbury
9. http://arhoolie.org/canray-fontenot-interview/
10. Lyrics 

Find:

Devil In The Bayou - The Gold Star Recordings (Bear, 2002)

"Bon Ton Roula" - Clarence Garlow

While leaving the arena of Cajun music briefly, we can't ignore it's influence on another genre of music: Zydeco. While some can debate it's origins for years, many can agree it falls in line with the same similar origins of Cajun music.   Determining the first zydeco recording can be difficult, with as many opinions as there are artists.  Was it Clifton Chenier in 1955? How about Boozoo Chavis in 1954?   Was it Amede Ardoin in 1929?   One can make a strong case for either of these artists.  Yet, researchers and authors point to a briefly popular R&B musician in the late 1940s named Clarence Garlow.

You see me there, well I ain't no fool,

I'm one smart Frenchman never been to school,

Wanna get somewhere in a Creole town,

You stop and let me show you your way 'round,

You let the bon ton roula, you let the mule-ay pull-ay,

Now don't you be no fool-ay, you let the bon ton roula.

At the church ba-zar or the baseball game,

At the French la-la, it’s all the same,

Want to have fun now you got go,

Way out in the country to the zydeco.

Clarence Garlow

The song was an original 1949 Macy's recording "Bon Ton Roola" (#5002) considered the first zydeco recording by some.  Garlow recalls:

I happened to be coming through the town of Houston and stopped at he Coconut Grove. They had a band and I asked the guy if I could sit in.  I did and they must have liked it.  They called Macy Henry and Steve Poncio to come listen and they came over.  I didn't think I was good enough but they thought differently.  [Bon Ton Roula] was born in the studio when we was trying to find something to record. It caught like a shot in the arm and the crowds got bigger.

Garlow’s band stopped momentarily when he sang the line about zydeco, making it seem to hang suspended in time. Listening to it today evokes a dramatic sense of Louisiana music history in the making. Clarence Garlow brought critical mass to the word zydeco, but not to the music per se. Garlow’s forté was mainstream African-American rhythm and blues. His singing — in English, French, and “Franglais” — blended passion with sly street smarts, and his expert guitar work recalled the style of T-Bone Walker.5

It was a glorious cut that sounded rather more like an R&B garage band with a Mardi Gras beat than a full-baked zydeco performance.   Others consider it a "proto-Zydeco" recording in which other's after him had modernized and popularized into actual zydeco music.2  His band consisted of Clarence Garlow on vocals & guitar, Shelby Lackey on alto sax, Wilmer Shakesnider on tenor sax, Johnnie Mae Brown on piano, probably L.D. "Eldeen" Mackintosh on bass, and Johnny Marshall on drums.


By 1953, Macy's label had collapsed and he had made a deal with J.D. Miller to record a different version of the tune, calling it the "New Bon Ton Roola" (#1000).  Mysteriously, Miller re-used this catalog number for reasons unknown, however, given he'd record Clarence again using his 3000 series, there's a good chance this record listing should have been #3000.  Eddie Mesner of Alladin Records, heard about his performance in Beaumont and asked him if he was signed with anyone. Garlow eventually signed with Aladdin Records and re-record it a third time, spelled "New Bon-Ton Roulay" that same year with the Maxwell Davis Orchestra.  The Messner brothers even released it on their own distinctive label called "Roula". He was so known for this song, it became his nickname.

The sound is so vastly different from the Cajun music of it's era, it's a struggle to find a way to veer off into this record's article and maintain the connection to the commonly accepted sound of Cajun music. Regardless of the debate on it's origins, not long afterwards, pioneers of the genre like Clifton Chenier and BooZoo Chavis combined more traditional sounds with new rhythm and blues elements, creating a new style of music.  By 1957, he'd try once more with Eddie Shuler's Goldband but the song's success had died out, until 1967, when Clifton would cover Clarence's song.

1. "South To Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous" by John Broven
2. Music USA: The Rough Guide By Richie Unterberger
3. http://home.comcast.net/~cajunzydeco/zydemagic/whatiszydecomusic.htm
4. http://americanamusictriangle.com/timelines/cajun-zydeco/
5. http://blog.ponderosastomp.com/2015/09/if-you-cant-dance-to-zydeco-you-cant-dance-period/

Find:
Clarence "Bon Ton" Garlow ‎– 1951-58 (Flyright, 1983)
Louisiana Stomp-Clifton Chenier With Clarence Garlow (JSP, 2009)
Queen of Hits: The Macy's Recordings Story (Acrobat, 2011)

"She's Sweet Sweet" - Harry Choates

After 1946, Harry Choates ended up recording his music with a variety of labels in Texas. After WWII, shellac material was commercially available, cheaper than before, and small independent record companies began appearing.   A Houston-based department store owner named Macy Henry who was selling records in their store decided to create her own label along with her husband Charles and general manager Steve Poncio.  Originally, Macy ran a department store based in Houston, Texas (unrelated to the famous New York department store) and in 1948, they began distributing records for other labels, such as Modern Music, including their back catalog material; even having an office in Dallas.  

In 1949, they created "Macy's Recordings: Queen of Hits". They used Bill Holford's "Audiophile Custom Associates" (ACA) Studios in Houston to record the music because the place was known for its high quality sound.  Bill only had a Raytheon 4 channel mixer and an Ampex mono recorder but became one of the most sought out engineers.9  Macy's released country sides with a noticeable undertow of Western swing, and even the most straightforward hillbilly material from the label featured solid songs, expert picking, and sympathetic A&R work. 

Launching his professional music career in Cajun bands led by Leo Soileau and Leroy "Happy Fats" LeBlanc, Choates formed his own group, the Melody Boys, in 1946. The same year, he rewrote the classic Cajun tune, "Jolie Blonde," for his daughter, Linda, and recorded it for the Gold Star label. Choates became known as "the fiddle king of Cajun swing." 

Oh, chère toutoute, moi je connais t'as pas fais bien,

Ton pauvre vieux nèg' ça fait pitié.

Moi je connais, je mérite pas ça.

Hey, chère toutoute, mais moi je connais,

Moi je connais t'as pas fait rien

Mais avec ça, ça fait longtemps, malheureuse.

Oh, chère toutoute,

Oh mais malheureuse, mais quoi t'as fais ton pauvre nèg'

Mais quoi t'a fais, ça fait de la peine.

Oh, chère toutoute, t'as pas fais rien,

T'as pas fais (rien), chere,

Oh, moi je connais mais ça t'as fais ça fais pas rien.

Oh, malheureuse, oh joli cœur,

Oh, mais moi je connais,

Mais moi je connais sera pas longtemps.

Moi je connais sera pas longtemps, vilaine manière.

Red Fabacher, Ronald Ray "Pee Wee" Lyons,
Johnnie Mae Smirle, Harry Choates,
Amos Comeaux, Curly Maples

The label only lasted two-and-a-half years however, they would host a variety of music from R&B to country to Cajun. The label launched the careers of several important Texas blues and country and hillbilly artists including country superstar Jim Reeves, Lester Williams, Clarence Garlow, Smokey Hogg.  Their biggest hit would be Lester Williams' song "Winter Time Blues". In 1950, They recorded the Cajun fiddler Harry Choates several times including the hot western swing number "She's Sweet Sweet" (#158).  With possibly Earl Rebert on steel guitar, possibly Louis "Pee Wee Hall" Oltremari on piano and possibly Sue Romero on bass, the tune is typical of the Cajun swing music of the era.  In it, Harry describes a lover feeling sorrow for the way a relationship has turned, knowing he has to leave, possibly blaming her for having "bad manners". 

Oh, my precious one, I know you're not doing well,

Your poor ole little one, it's pitiful,

I know, I do not deserve this. 

Hey, my precious one, I know,  

I know you did not do anything 

But, it's been unpleasant for a long time,

Oh, my precious one, 

It's unfortunate for you, poor little one,

But, what you're going to do, that will hurt. 

Oh, my precious one, you do not have to do anything

You did not do anything, dear,

Oh, I know but you do not have to do anything 

Oh, miserable, oh pretty heart, 

Oh, I know, 

But, I know I will not be long. 

I know I will not be long, you having bad manners.

1. Blues Encyclopedia edited by Edward Komara
2. Mojo Hand: The Life and Music of Lightnin' Hopkins By Timothy J. O'Brien
3. Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues By Roger Wood
4. Billboard Magazine, Aug 13, 1949
5. Billboard Magazine, Jul 2, 1949
6. http://www.rootsandrhythm.com/roots/NEWSLETTER%20130/newsletter130_blues_6.htm
7. http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/labels_five.html
8. Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers By John Broven
9. Jim Reeves: His Untold Story By Larry Jordan

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Cajun Fiddle King (AIM, 1999)

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