A unique window into the world of Cajun music between 1928 and 1965. Compiled histories from websites, books, news articles, liner notes, and interviews. Most come from my personal 78 collection. Also covering Creole, Cajun-Country, and Cajun swing.
During the Breaux Brother's first session in 1929 where they recorded the first version of Jole Blon called "Ma Blonde Est Partie", they also recorded "Vas Y Carrément" better known as "Step It Fast". Columbia and Okeh released this song on the flip side. This instrumental melody would be a hard driving, rhythmic song with a relatively quick tempo for Cajun music of the time. Cleoma can be heard strumming the guitar vigorously. Alan Lomax would travel to Louisiana in 1934 and record the Segura Brothers sing and play a similar melody entitled "Les Filles a Albert Moreau". The songs was about a fictional pimp named "Albert Moreau" and his ladies of the night. Leo Soileau used the melody in one of his first string band recording sessions, entitling it "Paroi Acadia Breakdown". In 1937, the song title would change slightly with the Hackberry Rambler's song called "Pas Aller Vita", also referred to as Step It Fast. This Cajun swing instrumental would be recorded in New Orleans for Bluebird stylized by Luderin Darbonne's fiddle playing. In 1949, Nathan Abshire would record this melody live at a radio station in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Amedie Breaux, 1960
Even though Nathan Abshire would eventually wax the tune as "Step It Fast" on Khoury's, in 1949, and "Ain't No More" by the Texas Melody Boys, it would Joe Bonsall and The Orange Playboy's 1963 recording of the song "T'en as eu, T'en auras plus" that brought along the melody's popularity.
It's one of the quickest melodies in all of Cajun music.
After WWII, plenty of musicians began using the Cajun music lyrics they were hearing and mixing them with their country music sounds. One of these was Gene Rodrigue (also known as Gene King) from Lockport, Louisiana. His country band would take the lyrics of certain Cajun french phrases and write English lyrics around them. He would eventually record other swamp pop tunes as well, including live shows over radio stations in New Orleans and appearing with Hank Williams, Jim Reeves and Carl Smith. Gene had given Vin Bruce his early break. He had started playing jobs in 1946 as a guitarist with his father, and old time fiddler. Harry Simoneaux, a member of Gene's Hillybilly Swing Kings, remembers Ed Shuler's Folk-Star recording session in 1953:
The song was titled "Dans Le Coeur De La Ville" and recorded by Ed Shuler in Lake Charles. The solo part of this side was performed by me on alto sax along with a fiddle player, Leroy LeBleu from Jennings, who harmonized. In those days, this harmony combination was rather unique. We had no French accordion in our band, there were no accordions in our part of Southeast Louisiana".
Gene Rodrigue
Shuler remembers recording Gene:
Gene was from South Louisiana, down around Golden Meadow, somewhere down there. He had a good band. "La Ville" was one of my favorite songs that I liked. That was the reason I recorded him.
He would have greater success with his tune, "Jolie Fille". It would be released for a small label out of New Orleans called Meladee Records in 1954 (#101). The Meladee label was owned and operated by Mel Mallory in New Orleans, where the famous Cosimo Matassa served as his studio producer. In addition to country music, they also recorded polka. That same year, Charlie Adams would re-record the tune and release it on Columbia records (#21239).
Down on the bayou where you meet the jolie fille,
That's where I long to be, down where they say "Oui, oui",
Down on the bayou where you meet the jolie fille.
They love you, caress you, c'est l'amour taton(?),
They please you, they appease you, hold me, C'est si bon!
That's all they live for, that's all they care for,
Down on the bayou where you meet the jolie fille.
Down on the bayou where you meet the jolie fille,
That's where I long to be, down where they say "Oui, oui",
Down on the bayou where you meet the jolie fille.
Some day I'll settle down and raise a family
But I'm not quite ready if you get just what I mean
I've played of this town with all the sweet meon(?)
Down on the bayou where that's the place for me.
The song was a seminal Southeast Louisiana Cajun song, catchy and flowing, with a backing comprised of strong fhythmic guitar, soaring fiddle, and steel guitar, even a barroom piano. He recorded 6 songs along with Dudley Bernard and his Bayou Boys, however he was briefly forced out of music by rock n roll. Later, he would later come backin in 1960, and record the hit "Little Cajun Girl". It would be recorded for Richland Records out of Morgan City, Louisiana and Floyd Soileau's Jin label and ROD label (named after swamp pop musician Rod Bernard). He would also record for Patt's Recording Barn out Raceland, Louisianan and pressed on the label Starbarn Records. He would form the Mecaton Band and record for Montel Michelle records and Houma Records. His band would play around the Houma and Thibodeaux areas including the Bellevue Hall.
Sidney Brown was an accordion player and maker. In the 1950s, he recorded with his band, Sidney Brown and the Traveler Playboys. He would eventually be recognized as the first person to build Cajun accordions after WWII in Louisiana. Eventually, other Cajun musicians would play Brown's accordions, including Jo-El Sonnier, Boozoo Chavis and Marc Savoy. Recording Music By the age of 13, he was playing house dances and fais do-dos. After moving from Church Point to Lake Charles in 1948, he formed the band, The Traveler Playboys. He became well known around Lake Charles for his rhythmic, old-timey accordion playing. They began recording the Goldband Records label in the mid 1950s. Their record "Pestauche A Tante Nana" around 1957 would eventually become the third best-selling record in the history of Cajun music. He would also continue to record for Goldband's subsidiary label, Folk-Star records with the song "Sha Ba Ba (Dear Baby)". Given the English phonetic spelling of the Cajun phrase "chere bebe", it's about a someone convinced that his lover is going to regret leaving him as she walks away.
Ouais, catin, 'garde donc mais ça t'as fait,
Ouais, 't'après me quitter, mais ouais pour t'en aller.
Ouais, t'en aller rejoindre un autre que moi.
Ouais, vilaine manière, tu connais tu vas du regret.
Ouais jolie catin, rappelle toi les promesses, chère,
Et tu m'as fait, mais ouais y a pas longtemps.
Ouais, (z)aujourd'hui, c'est te voir après me quitter,
Ouais, chère bébé, moi je connais t'auras du regret.
Sidney Brown
"Catin" can be misunderstood since it directly translates to "whore" however, in Cajun french, the word has a more of a polite context of endearment, more closely translated to "little doll". Folkstar was Eddie Shuler's attempt to capture more of the local music. Shuler was born in Wrightsboro, Texas, and moved to Lake Charles in 1942 to work in an oil refinery. He played guitar with The Hackberry Ramblers before forming his own band, The All-Star Reveliers, which performed on radio station KPLC in 1945. Shuler formed Goldband Records that year, originally to record his own group, but soon diversified into releasing records by other local bands. In 1948 he began releasing records by accordionist Iry LeJeune, on two subsidiary labels, Folk Star and TNT, becoming some of the first Cajun recordings released after the war. Sidney Brown was another artist on his label.
Yeah, little doll, just look at what you did
Yeah, after you left me, yeh, you went away
Yeah, you went with someone else
Yeah, in an ugly way, you know you're going to regret this.
Yeah pretty little doll, do you remember the promises, dear,
And, that you made for me, but yeah, that's not too long ago.
Yeah, today I see you leaving me
Yeah, dear baby, I know you'll regret this.
By the 1960s, after realizing he had an arthritic left hand early on, Sidney quit playing accordions and picked up building accordions, stating:
Oh well, no more fooling around with that anymore.
Jo-El Sonnier and Sidney Brown
Building Accordions
Before World War II, Cajun accordionists favored German accordions, especially those made by the "Monarch and "Sterling" companies. With the advent of the war, German instruments were no longer available in the United States. Both the "Monarch" and "Sterling" factories were destroyed in the conflict, and after the war, many of Germany’s remaining accordion makers were isolated behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany.
The only new accordions available to Cajun musicians in the post-war period were generally inferior instruments, not particularly well-made and not loud enough to be heard over the electric guitar, steel guitar and drums of a full band. Companies such as C. Bruno and Sons of San Antonio and Bugleisen and Jacobson of New York were importing and selling these German accordions.
With good new accordions in short supply, Brown began experimenting with accordion making, eventually producing high-quality, hand-made instruments. He started by making replacement parts and later used the German model to begin making whole accordions. He would cannibalize the German accordions for reeds, bellows and parts he couldn't make. He recalls his early start:
If the Germans can make an accordion, Sidney Brown can. The first accordion I ever made took over three months. I learned the hard way. I took an accordion apart and learned how it was put together. There are about 500 parts to each accordion. The fingerboard alone has 300 parts.4
He not only was able to help meet the post-war demand for new Cajun accordions but also established a reputation as an accomplished repairman throughout southwestern Louisiana, keeping many old pre-war German-made "Monarchs" and "Sterlings" alive and playing in the hands of their owners. Marc Savoy describes playing an early Sidney Brown accordion:
After playing my first song on the Sidney Brown accordion, I was very very impressed, not just with the fact that it was handmade, but also with the way it handled. It had the response of my Hohner, but with a much smoother keyboard action. The tone was also a major improvement, but unfortunately it did not quite have the bass response that the old pre-wars had.
John J. Mrnustik
But before there was Sidney Brown accordions, there was a Czech-German immigrant who owned a music and furniture store near Houston, Texas around the Heights suburb. His name was John J. Mrnustik and he began making accordions after WWII out of his furniture store. Living in east Texas, he was familiar with the Hohner and Monarch accordions which the German polka musicians were playing around the area. The polka music would be a fundamental influence in conjunto and tejano music of the area. John would have been familiar with Cajun music since many were moving westward during the oil boom. According to Accordion builder, Larry Miller:
He claimed he would only make them when he had an order for five or more, and he sold them locally and to Cajuns in Southwest Louisiana. His widow said that he made "over ten accordions." Sidney Brown, of Lake Charles, had been repairing accordions, and may have picked up the idea of making accordions from Mr. Mrnustik.
As Cajuns were looking for other sources of accordions, a few turned to Mrnustik to repair, and then eventually, build them. John spent his time repairing and learning the delicate workings of these small accordions. His wife would later claim that he only built about 10 in total and therefore his influence on Cajun accordions was insignificant. Even though he did stamp his own corners and reeds, however, recently Miller doubts that Mrnustik ever made any accordions from scratch since none have ever surfaced. Allegedly, an unknown man in Cecilia also repaired accordions during the 1940s. However, it would be Sidney's accordions that would spawn other players to build their own and create a local industry of hand-made accordions in South Louisiana. In 1963, Brown was forced to abandon performing due to a heart condition. He spent the remaining years of his life building and repairing accordions. He produced about 50 instruments a year, totaling about 1500, many of which are still in use. In his later years, in a 1978 interview, he recalled:
I don't make them as fast as I used to. I can only make about one every 10 days. I sell everything I make. I can't put any on my shelf. It's funny to see French music is sticking. It's in Nashville right now. I don't have to work if I don't want to. But this has kept me going.4
Cajun Dance Tunes Vol.1 (Goldband, 1988) American French Music From The Bayous Of Louisiana (Goldband) Bayou Two-Step - Cajun Hits From Louisiana 1929-1962 (Jasmine, 2015)
"El Huracan del Valle"! This title would be given to the founder of a specific type of Tejano music called "conjunto". His name was Narcisco Martinez from Reynosa, Mexico but was raised in La Paloma, Texas. In 1928 he learned the accordion and by 1930, he began recording with his accordion and friend Santiago Almeida. Santiago played a bajo sexto (a type of 12-string instrument) and together they recorded polka music in their native style. He recalls:
I started playing the accordion around 1927 or 28...playing on very bad accordions, because one couldn't buy good accordions-nothing but little pieces of junk, with one row, and then two, but-well, nothing but junk.I didn't get to buy my first new accordion until about 1930. It was a Hohner.
Many of their recordings would sell throughout Texas. However, in one San Antonio session in 1937, Martinez would record 4 songs that would be marketed to Louisiana. Bluebird realized his cultural music wouldn't sell well in other areas and some confusion exists about Bluebird's marketing attempts. In order to market his music in Louisiana, they either re-issued (or solely issued) the songs as Cajun music and he was called "Louisiana Pete" on the Bluebird Cajun 2000 series. For example, his conjunto "Delfo (Vals)" (B-3073) was one of them that was rebranded as Cajun entitled "Delta (Waltz)" (B-2032) and in northeast Texas, the song was entitled "Wdowsk" while the duo was billed as "Polski Quartet" on the Victor label (V-16403). According to Richard Spottswood's Ethnic Music On Record, "La Flueve" is the same as "El Colorado" and "Ma Fiancee" is the same as "Muchacha Bonita" (B-3048). Some of these were likely released on Montgomery Ward label as well.
Narciso Martínez and Santiago Almeida
After Bluebird quit recording ethnic music, Martinez ended up recording for other labels and continued his career. However, he never made a living off of his music and ended up working other jobs. To support himself in the 1930s he often played at outdoor public dances throughout the Valley. He also entertained at bailes de negocio, public "for-pay" dances where women earned money for their families by selling dances to men. He was inducted into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in 1982 and was honored the following year with a National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts for his contributions to the nation's cultural heritage. None of the four songs would constitute anything resembling Cajun music. After listening to his music, it's clearly an attempt by Bluebird to sell more records in difficult markets. One of the Cajun songs was called "Ma Fiancee". The fact that his diatonic accordion is similar to the Cajun diatonic accordion, creates the only similarity between his music and early Cajun songs of the time. His playing style and wet-reed sound are way more related to Tejano music than Cajun. It makes an interesting story adding to the narrative of the Cajun recording industry in the 1930s. Only one of the four songs Bluebird released as Cajun, "Silencio De La Noche", can be found on a compilation CD entitled "Father of the Texas Mexican Conjunto" (361 Arhoolie, 2009).
This artist could easily be considered the most influencial Cajun musician after WWII. Iry Lejeune was a virtually blind accordionist from around Church Point, Louisiana who brought back the same bluesy, soulful playing that Amede Ardoin brought to the culture 20 years before. Many of Iry's songs have the same melodies that Amede used, including being influenced by his cousin's music, Angelus Lejeune. He was among a handful of recording artists who returned the accordion to prominence in commercially recorded Cajun music and dance hall performances. The return of the accordion contrasted with the popular Cajun recorded output of the late 1930s and 1940s, a time during which fiddles and Western Swing sounds from Texas were influencing Cajun music. At the conclusion of World War II, LeJeune moved west to Lacassine, Louisiana (near Lake Charles) where there were many more venues in which to play music. Nearly blind, music provided happiness for LeJeune, and as he grew older. Unable to work in the fields because of his poor eyesight, as a youth, LeJeune entertained the local sharecroppers. By the time he reached his teens, LeJeune was making a few dollars on weekends playing dances. Luckily, in 1948 LeJeune met fiddler Floyd LeBlanc. Together they traveled to Houston, Texas where they recorded "Love Bridge Waltz" and "Evangeline Special" on Leblanc's Opera label with Virgil Bozman's Oklahoma Tornadoes supporting. Bozman's band backed up many artists who had songs to record. Upon returning to Lacassine, LeJeune went to radio station KPLC in Lake Charles and asked to perform on the air. The station manager wasn't keen on hearing the primitive, wailing accordion, but disc jockey Eddie Shuler liked what he heard and featured him on several broadcasts.
Iry Lejeune
"I felt sorry for the kid," admitted Shuler. "He was nearly blind and he had no other way to make money."
"He said 'Eddie, I want to make records and I want you to make them,'" said Shuler. "I didn't know anything about making French records. Finally I agreed though because there was nobody around here making French records. Nobody was interested in making them because there was no money in French records. But as it turned out, I had the market to myself."
LeJeune knew Shuler was making his own records on Goldband and asked whtat her record him. It costs $200 to press copies at about 9 cents a copy. Shuler struck a deal. They would record one record, and if it made any money, they'd continue working together. If not, they would part ways. Bribing the engineer at KAOK with a bottle of Old Crow, in 1950, Shuler had LeJeune record "Lacassine Special" and "Calcasieu Waltz" on a disc cutter at the radio station used to record commercials and jingles. He sent the metal masters to Houston where several hundred 78s were pressed on the Folk Star label. Backed by Iry's group consisting of Milton Vanicor on fiddle, Ellis Vanicor on fiddle and Ivy Vanicor on rhythm guitar, the record made a profit of $72.
"I was in high cotton", Shuler says. "By that time, I was hung up in this record business, and I didn't want to play anymore. I just wanted to make records. That's how I got into the record business."
"Lacassine Special" was based on an older set of tunes. It's about a husband threatening his wife with an end to their marriage by telling her that "tu peux voir le chemin et t'en aller" (but you can see the road and go"). In 1937, the melody appears in J.B. Fusilier along with Miller's Merrymakers song "Elton Two Step", recorded for Bluebird records, and Joe Falcon's "Step On It", recorded for Decca records. The same melody appears even earlier in Amede Ardoin's 1929 recording "Two Step de Mama".(In Tisserand's book, he mistakely states it's based on Ardoin's "Tante Aline" however, that song would become Iry's "Viens me Chercher".)
Hé, comment mais toi tu crois
Que moi mais moi je va's faire
Tout le temps dans les misères
Tout le temps après souffert
Juste rapport à tes paroles
À tes paroles que toi,
Catin tu m'avais dit
Hé, ta chère vilaine manière,
Que toi t’as tout le temps eu
I1 faudra t’oublies tout ça.
Si toi tu veux rester
avec ton cher vieux nèg’
Mais ’garde toi tu peux voir
Le chemin et t’en aller.
Hé, toi, chère,
il faut toi tu t’en reviens
Mon, j’suis tout le temps là
après jongler à toi
Après jongler à toi, catin,
c’est juste rapport
A tous mais ces jonglements
Que toi tu m’as mis dedans.
Keep in mind, "neg" and "negresse" are corrupted forms of the word "negre" which in Cajun french has an endearing meaning such as "hey, my man" or "hey, honey", completely void of racial tones. Author Stivale covers this topic quite well. The same can be said for "catin", which loosely translates to "little doll". At times, the words are not described at all, but are simply blamed for the man's misery, as when the singer says that he has suffered misery because of "tes paroles, que toi, catin, tu m'avais dit" ("Just because of your words, of your words that you, catin, you said to me"). Milton Vanicor remembers playing the song with Iry:
Iry complained that no one could see him because he was sitting too low. Iry said he'd like to be the same height as everyone else but he couldn't play standing up. They came upon the idea of stacking "Coke" flats high enough that he'd appear taller. They stacked them and put his chair in the middle of the two stacks. The legs of the chair were placed in the holes where the cokes fit.
He was now the same height as the others and he was happy. Milton told him, "Now that you're up there, play the 'Lacassine Special'. Man, he got on that thing. Everybody that was dancing stopped, you know, they came to the bandstand to hear." Milton said when Iry's hair flopped down in front of his eyes; it meant he was really getting into the music. He began rocking back and forth and before long the boxes started moving and opening up. All of a sudden on one backward sway he kept going and wound up on the floor. "Ellis always said he didn't stop, but he did. He did stop a little while. He fell on his back, and boy, he got on that 'Lacassine Special' layin' down. We had fun."
After his tragic death, his music carried on.
Angola to Zydeco: Louisiana Lives By R. Reese Fuller
http://www.louisianavibe.com/artists/lejeune-iry/
Iry Lejeune: Wailin The Blues Cajun style by Ron Yule
After WWII, several Louisiana labels began recording Cajun music locally. One of them was George Khoury, a Turkish-American businessman from Lake Charles and record store owner. In 1947, as an owner of a record shop, he noticed a lack of Cajun music being recorded in south Louisiana and decided to open a businees to compete with Ed Shuler's Goldband Records and J. D. "Jay" Miller's Fais-Do-Do and Feature labels. His base of operations was just around the corner from Eds on Railroad Ave in Lake Charles. After financing O.T. Records in 1949, he started two record labels, Lyric and Khoury's. Khoury never had his own studio however, he would rent out other studios and press the records in other places. Some of Khoury’s masters were destroyed when fire swept the California factory. He recorded more Cajun songs however, he ventured into swamp pop and other genres as well. He would record Cajun artists such as Lawrence Walker, Harry Choates, Jimmy Newman, and Nathan Abshire. Later, Khoury would backup Phil Phillips on the famous song "Sea Of Love" becoming one his greatest hits.
George Khoury
Les maringouins a tout mangé ma belle
Ils ont quitté que les gros orteils
Pour me faire des bouchons de liège
Pour boucher mes demi-bouteilles,
Ton papa ressemble à un éléphant,
Et ta maman ressemble à une automobile
Ton petit frère ressemble à un ouaouaron
Ta petite soeur ressemble à un coin de banquette.
One of his songs, "La Valse de Holly Beach", is about a small beach town in Louisiana known as the "Cajun Riviera". It was a rendition of the 1929 Segura Brothers song called "A Mosquito Ate Up My Sweetheart". His group in 1951 consisted of Ernest Thibodeaux on guitar, Jim Backer on bass, Shelton Manuel on drums, probably Atlas Fruge on steel guitar, and probably Will Kegley on fiddle.
Nathan Abshire
The mosquitoes ate up my old lady
They only left the big toes
So I could use them for small bottle-stoppers.
Your papa looks like an elephant,
And your mama looks like a car
Your little brother looks like a bullfrog and
Your little sister looks like a sidewalk bench!
In south Louisiana, mosquitoes are a huge issue in the humid climate. They can be found everywhere, especially in the summertime. Nathan tends to make fun of a family's appearance after being bitten so many times by mosquitoes at the Cajun resort town of Holly Beach. "Maringouins" and "ouaouaron" are both Native American words that Cajuns adopted from the Huron/Iriqouis and South American natives respectively.6 "Coin de banquette" in Cajun french can be a simple phrase to say "someone is ugly", however, given Nathan's pension for sexual innuendo in his lyrics, it likely means "doing something on the street corner that's ugly". Similarly, "maman ressemble à une automobile" likely means the mother was large.
Lawrence Walker would use the same melody to record his "Tu Le Du Po La Mam" for Khoury as well. Nathan and Dewey would record many songs for Khoury throughout the 1950s. The song "Pine Grove Blues" would be Nathan Abshire's biggest Cajun hit. Nathan Abshire would later tour with the Balfa Brothers yet never make living off of his music, retiring as the overseer of the town dump.
The original "Jole Blon". This Cajun melody is over 100 years old and originates as 3 different tunes almost all at the same time. The first instance is recorded by Amade Breaux, written by his sister Cleoma, entitled "Ma Blonde Est Partie" in 1929 for Columbia (40510-F) and Okeh (90010). It was almost a year after "Lafayette" was recorded. Joe and Cleoma were invited by Columbia to travel there and record more songs. This time, they brought along Cleoma's brothers, Amedie and Ophy. According to Cleoma's daughter, while Amede Breaux is credited with writing the song, it was his sister Cleoma Breaux who actually wrote the lyrics while Amede sang the song. The family claims Cleoma wrote the tune about Amede's first wife. However, Dennis McGee claims the melody was much older, performed by Angelas Lejeune during WWI. According to Wade Fruge', "We'd play 'Jole Blon' and my grandpa learned them from people before him. That makes the song about 200 years old".6 In those days, "Jolie Blonde" was known to musicians as the "Fruge Two Step", "The Courville Waltz" or "The Savoy Waltz". Cajun music was passed down from father to son.7
Cleoma Breaux and Joe Falcon
Jolie blonde, regardez donc quoi t'as fait,
Tu m'as quitte pour t'en aller,
Pour T'en aller avec un autre, oui, que moi,
Quel espoir et quel avenir, mais, moi, je vais avoir?
Jolie blonde, tu m'as laisse, moi tout seul,
Pour t'en aller chez ta famille.
Si t'aurais pas ecoute tos les conseils de les autres
tu serait ici-t-avec moi aujourd 'hui
Jolie blonde, tu croyais il y avait just toi,
Il y a pas just toi dans le pays pour moi aimer.
Je peux trouver just une autre jolie blonde,
Bon Dieu sait, moi, j'ai un tas.
Amede Breaux
Separately, Angelas Lejeune would record the same melody and call it "La Fille De La Veuve" in 1929 and both Amadie Ardoin and John Bertrand would record the melody calling it "La Valse de Gueydan" in 1929 for Paramount and Brunswick. The Leo Soileau's cousin Alius and Oscar Slim Doucet took this melody and created "When I Met You At The Gate" the same year. It wouldn't be until 1936 when the tune is recorded with the title "Jolie Blonde" by the Hackberry Ramblers.
The original Cajun version is a brief address to a "pretty blonde" who had left the singer and moved back in with her family, and is also now in the arms of another man. The singer concludes that there are plenty other women, and pretty blonde women out there that he can find.
Pretty blond, look at what you've done,
You left me to go away,
to go away with another, yes, than me,
What hope and what future am I going to have?
Pretty blond, you've left me all alone
To go back to your family.
If you had not listened to all the advice of the others
You would be here with me today.
Pretty blond, you thought there as just you,
There is not just you in the land to love me.
I can find another pretty blond,
Good God knows, I have a lot.
Yet, the song doesn't become famous until Harry Choates records it in 1946 for Goldstar giving it the title "Jole Blon". Afterwards, the song ends up getting recorded by many musicians including Bruce Springsteen. Jole Blonde is often referred to as the Cajun national anthem due to widespread popularity and due to the historical nature of the song. In 2017, the influence of their song made it's way into the PBS documentary "American Epic", discussing the life and times of the Breaux Brothers along with the importance of their signature song.
http://www.knowla.org/entry/1395/
Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 2 By Steve Sullivan
