"Alons Kooche Kooche" - Louisiana Rounders

In the early 1930s, country music from Texas began it's large scale influence on local Cajun music in Louisiana.  Several bands from west Louisiana and east Texas popped up using country music instruments and sang Cajun French lyrics. Joe Werner had alot of success with Happy Fat's early band and made a name for himself.  It wouldn't be long before Decca would ask him to travel to Dallas for a recording session where he invited Julius "Papa Cairo" Lamperez to come along and record with Wayne Perry as the Louisiana Rounders.

Papa Cairo was a lap steel guitarist originally from New Orleans, living in Crowley.  Having become friends with Joe Falcon and Cleoma Breaux, he would play with several musicians around the Crowley area, including Leo Soileau, until he joined Werner's group in 1937. He started out playing guitar flat across his knees with a metal finger attachment, and when the first steel guitars appeared he was quick to buy one, mystifying his audiences by taking his hands off the instrument and holding the notes with his feet on the pedals. Happy Fats noticed he always wore a diamond-shaped gem on his tie and finger and gave him the nickname based on the Cajun French word for "diamond" ("carreau", pronounced "cairo"). 

Although the first recording of this melody as a Cajun tune was by the Guidry Brothers called "Le Garcon Negligent" in 1929, his tune was based on the Jolly Boys of Lafayette called "Abbeville", the band used the melody to record the song the 1937 song: "Alons Kooche Kooche" (#17040).

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller à l'anse Kooche Kooche

Pour t'en aller toi tout(e) seul(e) à l'anse Kooche Kooche

Criminelle! Comment j'va faire moi tout seul?

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller, pour t'en aller

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller

Pour t'en aller toi tout(e) seul(e) à l'anse Kooche Kooche

Criminelle! Comment j'va faire moi tout seul?

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller, pour t'en aller

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller

Pour t'en aller à l'anse Kooche Kooche toi tout(e) seul(e)

Criminelle! Comment j'va faire moi tout seul

Tu m'as quitté pour t'en aller dans l'anse Kooche Kooche

Hey !  Kooche Kooche !

Julius "Papa Cairo" Lamperez

In the 1940s, he was drafted into the US Army, became a Sergeant. Lamperez would enter WWII, end up being captured by the Nazis, and held as POW in a stalag.  His sister explains that he escaped four times but never got very far. While captured, he had made a fiddle to entertain the guards and his popularity kept him from being executed. After his last prison escape with a group of men, the Germans killed all the escapees except for a dentist and Julius. However, after the war, he would return to music, recording with many local musicians, yet he never forgot the melody of this song.

You left me to go to the Kooche Kooche cove,

You went all alone to the Kooche Kooche cove,

Criminal! How will I handle this by myself?

You left me to go far away, went away.

You left me to go far away,

You went all alone to the Kooche Kooche cove,

Criminal! How will I handle this by myself?

You left me to go far away, went away

You left me to go far away,

To go to the Kooche Kooche cove all alone,

Criminal! How will I handle this by myself?

You left me to go far away to the Kooche Kooche cove

Hey there! Kooche Kooche!

Chuck Guillory's band.
Herman Durbin, Jimmy Newman, 
Chuck Guillory, Kersey "Pork Chop" Roy, 
R.R. Sagg (emcee), Papa Cairo

While the title is labeled with the misspelled Cajun french word allons (which means "to go"), given the context of the lyrics, it actually a different word, l'anse, which can mean cove or a "bend in the river" or "bend in the trees". It's named after the community "L'anse Couche-Couche" located along Hwy 92 between Mermentau and Morse in Acadia Parish.   Couche-couche, itself, is the Carribean Creole cornbread dish served around South Louisiana.  Unlike the Arabic version of couscous (kuskus) which uses durham wheat, the Cajuns replaced this with cornmeal mush. 

The melody would be used in Lamperez's recording of "Big Texas"; first with Chuck Guillory's band.  Eventually he would form his own group, Papa Cairo and His Boys which included Don Lane on xylophone, Murphy Smith on fiddle, Herman Durbin on piano, Albert Roy on guitar and possibly Pete Duhon on bass. He had spent years trying to get his song noticed, later recording it for J.D. Miller's Feature label in French and then later in English.  That same year, he and Jimmy Newman re-recorded the tune for Modern's Colonial label, simply known as "Kooche Kooche".  However, after his recording was used by Hank Williams for his famous song, "Jambalaya", and the song's success went nationwide, Lamperez turned his back on recording in disgust.

1. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven
2. Discussions with Kevin Fontenot
3. Kevin Fontenot (August 15, 2012). "Over These Prison Walls I Would Fly: Country Music POWs During World War II". Interview with Margie Lamperez 
4. Cajun Breakdown : The Emergence of an American-Made Music By Ryan Andre Brasseaux
5. Kevin Coffey, liner notes.  Swingbillies: Hillbilly and Western Swing on Modern/Colonial/Flair 1947-52.  Ace Records.

Find: 

Cajun: Rare & Authentic (JSP, 2008)

"Parting Waltz" - Iry Lejeune

After six months recording his first record with Virgil Bozeman and the Oklahoma Tornados in Houston for Eddie Shuler's Goldband label, Iry Lejeune (spelled LeJune) returned home.  There, he would meet Ed Shuler and together they would begin a series of Cajun recordings for his Folkstar label, including one entitled "Parting Waltz" (#1198) in 1955.  Shuler commonly added his name to the list of song credits, in order to maximize his royalties on any song's popularity, however it's generally believed Iry wrote everything he recorded.  It's commonly referred to as "La Valse De Separation".

Oh chère! 

Oh oh catin, ton papa et ta maman t'a toujours dit: 

t'es pas capable d'aller ta chercher 

j'ai dis quoi faire, même moi si je connais pas

Hey ah ah !

Oh toi tous les soirs, t'es là après chère, ma guetter

À ta fenêtre me dire quoi faire t'es après faire

Tout ça, juste rapporte que ton papa.

Oh fait pas ça!

Oh rappelle toi toutes ces paroles

Toutes ces paroles que tu m'as dit avant d'partir

Tu m'as fait des accroires t'allais venir

C'est pas la peine que moi je t'espère.

(Hey petite fille!)

Based on Amede Ardoin's "La Valse De Amities", several of the phrases are difficult to discern.  The term "accroires" is similar to the phrase "fais croire" which means "believe", however, it is seldom used in France.5  Most of the recordings afterward were made at the artists's home south of Lacassine.  Shuler recalls:

We would take the tap recorder (after they came out) and set it on the table in the kitchen. 

Eddie Shuler

Folk Star was Shuler's attempt to record "folk" music.

I intended that to be a folk type of music label because that's what I termed Cajun music as: folk music.  I decided that  I’d have those kind of songs on my folk label. On top of that, if I had them all on Goldband, when I’d go out to the jukebox operators, they could only buy so many copies of one label. So I started this other label, so then I’d have two labels to get on the jukeboxes. That’s how I wound up with all those other labels. And, in later years, I found out that it worked the same way with radio stations. They could only play so many of one company’s records. So, I said, "Well, I’ll give them other labels, and they won’t know they’re mine." So that’s what I did.3   

(Hey dear!)

Oh you, doll, 

Your papa and your mom 

Always told you 

That I am not capable 

Of going to get you. 

It is just because 

You don't know me.

Hey ah ah!

Oh, all night long 

You are there watching, dear, 

At your window, I can tell what you are doing 

All that is just because of you papa.

(Oh, don't do that!)

Oh, remember all those words 

All those words that you told me before leaving. 

You made me believe that you would come back. 

It's no use that I wait for you.

Hey little girl!

According to some, the fiddle player is Milton Vanicor, however, it's most likely Wilson Granger on fiddle with Alfred Cormier on rhythm guitar.  This would be one Iry's last records before his untimely tragic death.  The record wasn't pressed until after Iry's death, causing Eddie to quickly rush the production of the recording.  It's captured in Eddie's plea to the California Record Mfg. Co. in October of 1955.

Eddie's letter after Iry's death
University of North Carolina

1. Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 2 By Steve Sullivan
2. "Iry Lejeune: Wailin the Blues Cajun Style" by Ron Yule
3. http://wired-for-sound.blogspot.com/2011/11/goldband-records-early-years.html
4. Lyrics by 'ericajun' and Raymond Francois
5. Goldband Recording Corporation Collection, 1930-1995.  #20245. PF-20245/678.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
6. Discussions with Stef Fan-Ni

Find:

Cajun's Greatest: The Definitive Collection (Goldband, 1993)

"Sugar Cane Festival" - Happy Fats

Leroy "Happy Fats" Leblanc recorded early in the Cajun music genre.  His band, the Raynebo Ramblers, had several releases in 1935 with RCA Victor.  Later, his music focused on hillbilly and country styles.  Occasionally, he'd have different people on vocals for different songs, including Bob Terry and Al Terry.  Leblanc recorded and played with many Cajun musicians and while he was influenced by Cajun culture, his music would more align with country hillbilly music which had gained popularity among southerners in Louisiana.

Happy Fats

The Bella label was created by John Pusateri out of San Jose, California.  John, a native of Franklin, Louisiana, had moved to San Jose in the 1920s but kept close contact with musicians in south Louisiana.  He produced and created a wealth of great music, mostly doo-wop in the 1950s. He was also a prolific writer and composer for other labels as well.  According to his John's grandson:

Sugar Cane Festival was one of John Pusateri's songs.  I have records of my mother singing that song when she was a teenager in the 1940s.

Hank Williams and John Pusateri

By 1952, he had met Pusateri and recorded 4 songs, one of them which was "Sugar Cane Festival" (#BPT-2).  Sugar cane is one of many strong, vibrant agricultural crops in the low lying marsh areas of south Louisiana.  The song refers to the annual Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival held in New Iberia, Louisiana located along the Bayou Teche near the town in which Pusateri grew up. Happy and John were good friends for many years.  John also wrote others for Happy's recordings, including "Bayou Man" and was currently working on Hank Williams' biography when he suddenly passed away. 

Although the recordings were slated to be recorded in California, they were done in Houston at the ACA studio to have them in time for the New Iberia sugar cane festival.  

Rayne Tribune
Sep 12, 1952

Down where the beautiful Bayou Teche flows,

There's a place I know I'm longing to go,

From far away, they all come down to see,

The fun and the frolic in the bayou country.

Oh, Sugar Cane Festival, Sugar Cane Festival,

Yonder way down the bayou,

Sugar Cane Festival, Sugar Cane Festival,

Yonder way down the bayou.

Sound of the cane ring clear on the air,

The folks are in laughter and heard everywhere,

Troubles are over and praises are high,

And even the sun seems to shine in the sky.

Queen as she reigns on her thrown for a day,

The boys in their vests are all dancing and gay,

Sugar is fine, molassis is flowing,

The whole bayou country's like a bird in the wind.

Father he blesses the fruits of land,

for friends, for all, there's a welcoming hand,

the fun and the frolic, for the cane that is grown,

as sweet as the beautiful queen on her thrown.

Oh, Sugar Cane Festival, Sugar Cane Festival,

Yonder way down the bayou,

Sugar Cane Festival, Sugar Cane Festival,

Yonder way down the bayou.

His musical groups contained many members, which came in and out, including names such as Happy Fats and the Southerners and Happy Fats and his Bayou Buckaroos. Happy Fats made personal appearances with Tex Ritter, Alan Lane and Hank Williams, and was featured several times on the world famous Louisiana Hayride.  This spontaneous Houston session had Happy Fats, Al Terry, Bobby Terry, Curley Doucet, Doc Guidry, and Jack Leblanc. 

In 1956, since recording companies were recording music elsewhere, Leblanc had to seek employment outside music, mostly due to the influence of rock n roll.  

1. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven
2. Billboard Magazine, May 23, 1953
3. http://www.hillbilly-music.com/artists/story/index.php?id=12840
4. Discussions with Billy D.

Early Cajun Music - Volume 2 on PDF

I've released the second volume on PDF.  For those that want to print out copies of this for themselves.  Download below.  Enjoy!

Early Cajun Music - Volume 2 on PDF

"Manual Bar Waltz" - Milton Molitor & Austin Pitre

One of the later independent Cajun music recording engineers was Floyd Soileau.  His early attempts at recording Cajun music started with two brief labels: VEE PEE and Big Mamou Records.  Soileau's first label, Big Mamou, was formed in partnership with Ed Manuel, a Mamou, Louisiana, jukebox operator, nightclub owner, and regular customer of Floyd's Record Shop, who had the financial backing to assist the young entrepreneur. Manuel had also taped Cajun musicians Milton Molitor and Austin Pitre at a party where they performed "Manuel Bar Waltz" (#101) in 1957.  By releasing the recording, it would become Floyd's entry into the music business.

Hey chère regarde donc quoi toi t'as fait,

Mais aujourd'hui avec moi ma criminelle.

Hey bébé tu pourrais plus.

Hey t'aurais eu le coeur aussi criminelle.

Hey semaine en semaine, jour en jour ici,

J'ai jongler à toi criminelle que t'as tout le temps été.

Hey bébé tous les soirs quand je me couche,

Hey tout le temps de la nuit, je me capote de bord dans mon lit.

Hey je peux pas dormir moi pour moi.

Hey c'est juste rapport a tout ce que toi tu m'as fait.

Manuel's Bar

The word "capote" is an old French marine term for saying "turned upside down" "overthrowing" and finally, "aground".  In Cajun French, the verb "jongler" is a mysterious, old French word and seems to translate as "to think" or "reminiscence".  Although these songs were recorded merely to advertise a couple of Manuel's nightclubs, Soileau shipped the masters to Don Pierce's Starday Records in Nashville. During his days at KVPI, Soileau had often run across promotional fliers from Starday, which read "If you've got a tape, we can press a record for you." The Big Mamou releases sold encouragingly and began to revive interest in Cajun music around Ville Platte.  He said

Ed said, "We're gonna call this 'Manual Bar Waltz' and 'Midway Two Step'" because those were two nightclubs he had an interest in and he wanted some publicity. We put our first record out and started selling it.

Austin Pitre, Lurlin Lejeune and Milton Molitor

Milton had his start early on with Chuck Guillory and his Rhythm Boys as the accordion player. Eventually, Molitor and Pitre recorded for Dr. Harry Oster and Chris Strachwitz in the 1960s.

Hey dear, just look what you've done to yourself,

However, now, you've done it with me, it's cruel.

Hey baby, you could do more.

Hey, you should have a heart, also cruel.

Hey, from week to week, day by day,

I remember you always have been cruel.

Hey baby, every night when I go to bed,

Hey, all hours of the night, I'm tossing and turning in my bed,

Hey, I, myself, can not sleep,

Hey, it's just everything that you've done to me.

After the records were released, Ed was no longer interested in the recording business.  He had obtained the publicity he needed for his clubs.  Floyd was on his own:

So I changed the label to VEE-PEE Records. I had seven hundred 45s and three hundred 78s done, and it started selling very well.  

Later that year, Floyd would record Lawrence Walker and Aldus Roger.  Soon afterwards, in 1958, he would continue his business with 45 vinyl releases on his Swallow label, using the English pronunciation of his last name.  Soileau recalled the name change:

"I knew damn well I couldn't put S-O-I-L-E-A-U on there," he says. "They wouldn't be able to pronounce it in most places out of here." "When my dad saw that, he said [with a thick Cajun accent] 'What's the matter! You 'shame of your name?' I said 'It's not gonna fit. . . . Besides, that's the bird, . . . it's not necessarily my name." And he had a hard time—I don't know if he ever bought that entirely"

1. http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/miller_and_soileau.html
2. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven

Find:
Floyd's Early Cajun Singles (Ace, 1999)

"Lulu's Back In Town" - Cleoma Breaux

Not only were the blues influential on Cajun music, even jazz played a part in early Cajun recording artists.  In 1937, Cleoma Breaux Falcon covers this swingy tune called "Lulu's Back In Town" (#17030) for Decca in Dallas, TX.   Recorded at the Adolphus Hotel, the recording consisted of Cleoma Falcon on vocals and guitar with Moise Morgan on violin.  

Mon j'ai pour avoir mon suit bien r'passé,

Pour côde ain bouton sus mon gilet,

Pace qu'a soir j'ai pour m' bien m' préparer:

Lulu est r'venu dans l' village.

J'ai pour trouver ain ciquante-sou en queque part,

J'ai pour briller mes souiller, bien peigner mes chfeux,

Pace qu'assoir j'ai pour m' bien m' préparer:

Lulu est r'venu dans l' village.

Ti peux dére à tous mes préférées:

Mes blones et mes brunes,

Que monsieur Otis regréttait

Il etait pas à l'entour.

Aw ti peux dére au postillion d' pas vnére;

J'vas pas ête à la maison avant automne; 

J'vas peutête pas m'en r'venere ditout:

Lulu est r'venu dans l'village.

Daily Advertiser
Aug 18, 1937

Cleoma was born into a musical family.  Contrary to popular belief, the song was not written for her daughter Loula, however one wonders if the song was recorded with her in mind.  It's a Cajun french cover version of the popular Fats Waller song. Originally written for the 1935 musical Broadway Gondolier, Waller, whose innovation of the Harlem stride style which laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano, recorded the tune for Victor records. Taking a more moderate tempo than Waller, the limiting structure of the song inhibited the full power and range of Cleoma's vocal abilities as she casually swung through the tune backed by Morgan.  It's one of the clear evidences of popular music influencing Cajun musicians in the 1930s. The song would later be popularize again by Mel Tormé in the 1950s.

Adolphus Hotel, Dallas, TX

Gotta get my old tuxedo pressed

Gotta sew a button on my vest

'Cause tonight I've gotta look my best

Lulu's back in town

Gotta get a half a buck somewhere

Gotta shine my shoes and slick my hair

Gotta get myself a boutonniere

Lulu's back in town

You can tell all my favorites

All the blondes and brunettes

Mister Otis regrets

That he won't be aroun'

Tell the mailman not to call

Ain't comin' home until the fall

And then again I might not get home at all

Lulu's back in town

Cléoma had an enormous impact on Cajun music. At the time, women had a significantly smaller presence in Cajun Music. Her vocals and guitar skills fascinated many people. This made her recordings very successful. 

1. Cajun Breakdown : The Emergence of an American-Made Music: By Ryan Andre Brasseaux

Find:

Cajun Music (Goldenlane, 2009)

"Jennings Two-Step" - Ernest Thibodeaux

Although Amede Ardoin used the name "Tostape de Jennings" on an early tune, the same name would be used on a different tune recorded around 1949 by a Cajun french band led by Nathan Abshire's guitarist, "Calcasieu" Ernest Thibodeaux (spelled Tipidoe), for Khoury records.  Between 1949 and 1951, he and Nathan recorded the "Jennings Two Step" (#105).  

Owner George Khoury would have the record pressed by an independent label out of San Antonio called Hot Rod Records. (This label is not to be confused with Hot Rod records started by Rob Petersen). After Virgil Bozeman's failed attempt at the Opera label, and then his finances for his O.T. label dried up, he moved back to San Antonio where he started the Hot Rod label with local record man Bob Tanner.  

Hey ! Quoi faire pour toi mais malheureuse ?

Hey y aïe ! Tu me fais mais avec moi ?

Hey y aïe ! Pourquoi mais malheureuse ?

Moi je suis là Catin mais pour moi même

Hey y aïe ! Pourquoi toi mais tu fais ça ?

Tu connais ça me fait mais ça de la peine !

Hey y aïe ! Pourquoi donc mais toi tu fais ?

Que toi mais t'es plus tard après mais sera plus tard !

Hey Catin tu me fais des sentiments !

There are only 7 known records made by this label, including songs by artists Nathan Abshire and Carrol Sammons. According to collector Lyle Ferbrache:

Nathan Abshire and Ernest Thibodeaux

"there was no rock & roll in sight . . . yet. Post-war hot rodding had just begun, so this label art actually was a cutting-edge development, though mostly unseen."

Jennings is a small town in Louisiana located along the interstate between Lafayette and Houston and the location of the band's featured dancehall, The Pine Grove Club.  It's this club where Ernest invited Nathan Abshire in 1948 to join with Will Kegley and Will’s sister Oziet Kegley to make the band called the Pine Grove Boys. After playing with four members until 1949, they took on Atlas Fruge and Jim Baker. The song's sound is rough compared to the quality of other independent labels involved in recording Cajun music.  The instruments are hard to hear with the vocals clipping loudly. 

Ernest started playing guitar at 10 years old and played professionally at the age of 13 with Will Kegley and the Lake Charles Playboys. Nathan often gave up the vocal duties to other singers, such as Ernest, to concentrate on his playing.  Thibodeaux would often sang short stories in French, with delightful funny, good natured lyrics or lamenting about a female cheating.  During this session, Ernest had asked Nathan if he could "take couple of sides".6  Most likely, all the musicians were part of Abshire's Pine Grove Boys band.  

Hey little doll! What can I do with you?  So unfortunate.

Hey, yaille! What are you doing with me?

Hey, yaille! Why? So unfortunate.

I'm here by myself, little doll.

Hey, yaille! Why are you doing that?

You know, it's punishing me.

Hey, yaille! Why are you doing this?

You're going to come back too late, and afterwards, it'll be too late.

Hey little doll! You'll get lonesome.

Tanner would go on to create his own label known as T.N.T (Tanner N Texas) releasing material by Iry Lejune and Aldus Roger.  Ernest would go on to play every Saturday at Fred's Lounge in Mamou, Louisiana alongside musicians such as August Broussard, Don Thibodeaux, Iry Lejeune, and Wilson Granger. Ernest was the last member of the Pine Grove Boys, playing music until the age of 75.

1. http://library.mcneese.edu/depts/archive/SWLAMusicians/encyclosz.htm
2. http://rockindownthehighway.blogspot.com/2006/10/rockin-big-apple.html
3. South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous By John Broven
4. http://www.bopping.org/nathan-abshire/
5. http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/jeffersondavis/obits/2006/t06obit.txt
6. Cajun Honky Tonk: The Khoury Recordings, Vol. 2. Liner notes.