with Sleepy John Estes on guitar, Yank Rachell on vocal and mandolin and Jab Jones on piano.

I said expressman, expressman, lord, 
You have parked your wagon wrong.
Lord, you have parked your wagon wrong.
You took and moved my good gal, 
When I was a long long way from home.

Don’t a woman make a man do things, 
And she know darn well that’s wrong.
Lord, she know darn well that’s wrong.
Lord that’s why you hear poor James,
Singin’ these lonesome song.

Babe if you never, 
You never hear me any more.
Lord, hear me any more.
Lord you can ‘member one morning baby, 
When I walked up on your porch.

Well I’ll sing this song. 
Jim ain’t gon’ sing no more.
Lord, ain’t gon’ sing no more.
I’m gonna put this mandolin under my arm, 
To the North Memphis Cafe I’ll go

The unique and exciting sound of “Expressman Blues”, with its mandolin/piano/guitar combo and plaintive vocals is the result of the meeting of three great Tennessee Blues musicians, “Sleepy” John Estes, Yank Rachell and Jab Jones (called themselves the “Three J’s”). John Estes had a long career as a Blues guitarist and singer, starting at the end of the 1920′s and kept on playing and performing until his death in 1977. (

The unique and exciting sound of “Expressman Blues”, with its mandolin/piano/guitar combo and plaintive vocals is the result of the meeting of three great Tennessee Blues musicians, “Sleepy” John Estes, Yank Rachell and Jab Jones (called themselves the “Three J’s”). John Estes had a long career as a Blues guitarist and singer, starting at the end of the 1920′s and kept on playing and performing until his death in 1977. (Full bio here). Yank Rachell (1910-1997) was one of the greatest mandolin Blues player and, like his friend John Estes, with whom he recorded a lot, had one of the longest career in the Blues world. (Go and read more on this tribute page). He was the singer on “Expressman Blues”. Jab Jones, piano and jug player for the Memphis Jug Band, played piano with them for a few recording sessions in 1929 and 1930.

-”Illustred Discographies” of “Sleepy” John Estes and Yank Rachell.

-A nice article about Sleepy John

Here are the early recordings of “Sleepy” John Estes and Yank Rachell, from 1929 and 1930. (You’ll find them and plenty of other great recordings on a 4cd box set from JPS records)

1. The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair
2. Broken-Hearted, Ragged And Dirty Too
3. Divin’ Duck Blues
4. Little Sarah
5. Black Mattie Blues
6. T-Bone Steak Blues
7. Milk Cow Blues
8. Street Car Blues
9. Expressman Blues
10. Watcha Doin?
11. Poor John Blues
12. Stack O’Dollars 
13. My Black Gal Blues
14. Sweet Mama

Click on Harry!

To read more on Blind Lemon, go here and his complete discography is available through Document Records and Jsp Records. (More about Blind Lemon Jefferson on future posts)

Blind Lemon Jefferson “Rabbit Foot Blues” (recorded in Chicago, December 1926, issued on Paramount)

Blues jumped a rabbit, run him one solid mile.
Blues jumped a rabbit, run him one solid mile.
That rabbit sat down, cried like a natural child.

Well, it seem like you hungry. Honey, come and lunch with me.
Seem like you hungry. Honey, come and lunch with me.
I wanna stop these nice looking women from worrying me.

I have Uneeda biscuits, gal, and a half a pint of gin.
Uneeda biscuits, gal, and a half a pint of gin.
The gin is mighty fine, but them biscuits are a little too thin.

Baby, tell me something about the meatless and wheatless days.
I want to know about those meatless and wheatless days
This not being my home, I don’t think that I should stay.

I cried for flour and meat, I declare, it was strong.
Well, I cried for flour and meat, I declare, it was strong.
Keep a feeding me cornbread, I just can’t stick around long.

Got an airplane, baby, now we’re gonna get a submarine.
An airplane, now we’re gonna get a submarine.
Gonna get that Kaiser and we’ll be seldom seen.

Mmmm, hitch me to your buggy, mama; drive me like a mule.
Hitch me to your buggy; drive me like a mule.
Reason I’m going home with you, sugar, I ain’t much hard to be fooled.

There’s no mention of a rabbit foot (a well-known talisman against bad luck) in “Rabbit Foot Blues” and except for the common Blues verse “Blues jumped the rabbit”, of no rabbit either. The text is full of double-entendre lines, some of sexual nature, that can be hard to understand out of context. The guitar is tuned in Spanish tuning (open G tuning) and feature, like always with Jefferson, some beautiful licks up and down the neck.

As I couldn’t find other interesting versions of “Rabbit Foot Blues”, I’ve compiled instead all the tunes recorded in his first years with Paramount in 1925 and 1926. Enjoy!

Click on Harry!

“Le Vieux Soulard et sa femme” is a cajun-french version of an old folk song usually known under the title “My good old man”. It’s an humorous dialog between a wife and his husband. The wife asks her husband a few questions and get some rude answers… Here are a set of lyrics in english:

My Good Old Man

Where are you going, my good old man?
Where are you going, my honey, lovey dove?
Where are you going, my good old man?
Best old man in the world

     spoken:  Well, I'm going hunting.

What do you want for breakfast, my good old man?  (as above)

     Eggs

How many do you want, my good old man

     A bushel

A bushel will kill you, my good old man

     I don't care

Where do you want to be buried, my good old man

     Over there in the chimney corner

The ashes will fall on you, my good old man

     I don't care

What'll you do then, my good old man?

     I will haunt you

A haunt can't haunt a haunt, my good old man

Many versions omit the ghost reference at the end and the lyrics vary from performer to performer. Sometimes the husband answers are very short, just one word, which add some comic to the dialogue. In the cajun version, the husband is a drunkard who went to the “café”.

Here are the wrench-cajun lyrics and its translation:

You-c-que t’es parti?
Dis mon bon vieux mari,
Et you que t’es parti
Toi qui vieux fair ma mort?
Et you que t’es parti
Dis mon bon vieux mari
Qu’il est l’meilleur buveur du pays?

J’suis parti au cafe!

Quoi t’es parti faire?
Dis mon bon vieux mari,
Et quoi t’es parti faire
Toi qui vieux fair ma mort?
Et quoi t’es parti faire
Dis mon bon vieux mari
Qu’il est l’meilleur buveur du pays?

J’suis parti m’saouler!

Quand tu t’en reviens?
Dis mon bon vieux mari,
Et quand tu t’en reviens
Toi qui vieux fair ma mort?
Et quand tu t’en reviens
Dis mon bon vieux mari
Qu’il est l’meilleur buveur du pays?

Oh d’main ou aut’jour!

Quoi to veux j’fais cuire?
Dis mon bon vieux mari,
Et quoi to veux j’fais cuire
Toi qui vieux fair ma mort?
Et quoi to veux j’fais cuire
Dis mon bon vieux mari
Qu’il est l’meilleur buveur du pays?

Cuis moi cinq douzaines d’oeufs,
puis un gallon d’couscous!

Ca, ca va te tuer.
Dis mon bon vieux mari,
Ca, ca va te tuer
Toi qui vieux fair ma mort.
Ca, ca va te tuer
Dis mon bon vieux mari
Qu’il est l’meilleur buveur du pays.

Oh, c’est pas qu’j'veux mourir quand meme.

Et you qu’tu veux qu’j'enterre?
Dis mon bon vieux mari,
Et you qu’tu veux qu’j'enterre
Toi qui vieux fair ma mort?
Et you qu’tu veux qu’j'enterre
Dis mon bon vieux mari
Qu’il est l’meilleur buveur du pays?

Enterr’ mois dains l’coin d’la ch’minee;
tu l’eteins un peu avant, autrement, elle va
et’chaude!

Where are you going?
My good husband.
Where are you going,
You, who’ll be the death of me?
Where are you going, my good old man,
The biggest drunk in the countryside?

I’m going to the cafe!

What are you going to do there?
My good husband.
What are you going to do there,
You, who’ll be the death of me?
What are you going to do there, my good old man,
The biggest drunk in the countryside?

I’m gonna get drunk!

When will you come back?
My good husband.
When will you come back,
You, who’ll be the death of me?
When will you come back, my good old man,
The biggest drunk in the countryside?

Oh, tomorrow or another day!

What do you want me to cook for you?
My good husband.
What do you want me to cook for you,
You, who’ll be the death of me?
What do you want me to cook for you, my good old man,
The biggest drunk in the countryside?

Cook me five dozen eggs and a gallon
of couscous!

What, that’ll kill you!
My good husband.
What, that’ll kill you,
You, who’ll be the death of me!
What, that’ll kill you, my good old man,
The biggest drunk in the countryside!

Well, maybe I want to die anyway!

Then where do you want me to bury you?
My good husband.
Then where do you want me to bury you,
You, who’ll be the death of me? 
Then where do you want me to bury you, my good old man,
The biggest drunk in the countryside?

Bury me in the chimney corner, but put it out
a little before or it’ll be hot!

This song is a good follower to “Single Girl, married Girl” and the two Stoneman family duets and the uplifting Cajun rythm makes it one of the more joyful track on the Anthology.

I selected 18 versions of “My Good Old Man”, some from commercial recordings (mostly from the folk revival but also some contemporary ones), some from field recordings like The Max Hunter Folk song collection and many cajun versions (usually under the title “Mon bon vieux mari”) are included as well. Enjoy!

The Drunkard and his Wife Variations

• My Good Old Man Peggy, Penny & Barbara Seeger The Three Sisters
• My Lovin’ Old Husband Texas Gladden  Ballad Legacy (1941-1946)
• My Good Old Man Elizabeth Butters Sings Folk Blues for Appalachian Dulcimer and Guitar
• My Good Ole Man Mrs Laura McDonald and Reba Glaze Max Hunter Folk song collection
• My Good Old Man Hedy West Pretty Saro & Other Appalachian Ballads
• Mon bon vieux mari Richard Fontenot Cajun Country Guitar
• My Kind Ole Husband Charley W. Igenthron Max Hunter Folk song collection
• Mon bon vieux mari D.L. Menard, Dewey Balfa & Marc Savoy Under a Green Oak Tree
• My Dear Old Husband Odis Bird Max Hunter Folk song collection
• Mon Bon Vieux Mari Jambalaya Cajun Band Instrumental Collection
• Where Have You Been, My Good Old Man? Mike Seeger & Peggy Seeger Fly Down Little Bird
• My Good Old Man Joan Baez In Concert, Vol. 1
• Mon Bon Vieux Mari Renaissance Cadienne Mon Pere Aussi Ma Mere
• My Kind Old Husband Mrs Pearl Brewer Max Hunter Folk song collection
• Mon Bon Vieux Mari  Hackberry Ramblers Jolie Blonde
• My Good Old Man Jean Ritchie Courtin’ And Other Folk Songs Of So. Appalachians
• My Good Old Man Burl Ives Burl Ives Sings For Fun
• Mon Bon Vieux Mari Anna Laura Edminson Allons Boire un Coup

(on the pictures above: Elizabeth Butters, Mike and Peggy Seeger)

Click on Harry’s picture to go to the zip file

Here are the two versions:

For more info and music of the Carter Family, see my other posts about “John Hardy”, “Engine 143″ and “Little Moses”.

The Single Girl (and boy) Variations

The theme of the single girl’s life versus the married girl’s life is an universal topic found in many folk songs traditions around the world, so much more relevant in the old days where the women were married at a young age and depended exclusively on their husband in order to survive. But men also sung about the joys of the bachelor’s life and the despairs of being married to a shrew…

I’ve selected some of my favorite renditions of “Single, Girl, Married Girl” with also a few versions of the similar song “I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again” coupled with other songs, some from the man’s point of view on unhappy marriage and the bachelor’s life.

• Come All You Virginia Girl Foghorn Stringband (Outshine the Sun)
• Single Girl Frank Proffitt (Essential Folk Masters)
• Bachelor’s Hall Fiddlin’ John Carson (Times Ain’t Like They Used To Be – Volume 4)
• Single Girl, Single Girl The Pearly Snaps (The Pearly Snaps)
• The Bald-Headed End of a Broom Smith Walter (Good For What Ails You)
• I Wish I Was A Single Girl, Again Cousin Emmy (Kentucky Moutain Ballads)
• Pleasure of a Single Life John M. Salyer  (Digital Library of Appalachia)
• Single Girl Roscoe Holcomb (An Untamed Sense of Control)
• Stern old bachelor Gladys Pace (I kind of believe it’s a gift:Traditional music from Kentucky)
• Single Girl Ruby Vass (Southern Journey vol.2- Ballads and Breakdowns)
• Single Life Roba Stanley (Women In Early Country Music 1923-1939)
• Single Girl The Spontaneous String Band (String Band Project on Elektra Records)
• Single Girl, Married Girl Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin (Songs Of The Carter Family)
• Single Girl Silver Thread Trio (Silver Thread Trio)
• Single Girl Married Girl Woolum Dave & Noah Crase (Bluegrass – Historic Cuts)
• The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man  Parker & Woolbright (Good For What Ails You)
• Married Life Blues Roscoe Holcomb (The High Lonesome Sound)
• Single Girl, Married Girl (Orpheus Supertones Going to Town)

Click on Harry Smith to enjoy the music!

1. I Packed My Suitcase, Started to The Train
2. State of Tennessee Blues
3. Bob Lee Junior Blues
4. Kansas City Blues
5. Beale Street Mess Around
6. I’ll See You In The Spring, When The Birds Begin To Sing

“Kansas City Blues” was first recorded by Jim Jackson (see “Old Dog Blue”) nine days earlier and was his big hit song and one of the most popular Blues song to come out of the 1920′s.

“Kansas City Blues part 1 & 2″ by Jim Jackson (0ctober 10, 1927)

The chorus of “I’ll See You In The Spring, When The Birds Begin To Sing” is also know as “Fare Thee Honey” or “Fare Thee Well Blues”, a well-know Blues song as well.

“Fare Thee Well Blues” by Mississippi Joe Calicott  (February 20, 1930)

On “Bob Lee Junior Blues”, Jennie Clayton takes the lead vocals and sing this woman’s Blues love lament with her shrilling voice while the banjo/mandolin, kazoo and guitar play the typical 12-bar Blues/Jug band accompaniement.

Lyrics to “Bob Lee Junior Blues”

(with a picture of Will Shade and Jennie Clayton in the 1960′s and The Bob Lee Junior steamboat)

I can’t sleep for dreamin’.
I can’t stay awake for tryin’.
I can’t sleep for dreamin’.
Can’t stay awake for tryin’.
That man I’m lovin’,
He’s trouble all the time.

Wish my man could holler
Like Bob Lee Junior does. Wish my man could holler
Like Bob Lee Junior does.
I would follow my daddy
Most everywhere he goes.

And I asked the conductor,
“Let me ride the blinds.”I asked the conductor,
“Let me ride your blinds.”
He said, “Buy you a ticket, This garbage (?) train ain’t mine.”

Oh, I hate the train 
That take my man away.
I hate the train
That take my man away.
But the same train carry him
Gonna bring him back someday.

The Bob Lee Junior referred in this song is in fact a famous river boat that used to plied the Mississippi river out of Memphis and had a loud and strong whistle.

The band concludes the song by an instrumental rendition of the Blues/Jazz standard “Careless Love”.

The Careless Love Variations

This true classic song of american popular and folk music have uncertain origins. the tune is basically “the sprig of thymes” and some verses are similar to old english folk songs like “died for love”.In the us, it was popularized  in the early 20th century mostly by new orleans jazz bands and blues singers but was also on the repertoire of many folk singers during the folk revival.

Since I couldn’t find any other versions of “Bob Lee Junior Blues” I compiled 20 variations of “Careless Love” for your listening pleasure.

1. Careless Love Sydney Bechet Blues In My Heart
2. Careless Love Dock Boggs His Folkways Years 1963-1968 (Disc 2)
3. Careless Love Lonnie Johnson A Life In Music Selected Sides 1925 – 1953
4. Careless Love Fred Cockerham Recordings From The Collection Of Ray Alden
5. Careless Love J.W Warren The George Mitchell Collection
6. Careless Love Lead Belly Lead Belly’s Last Sessions
7. Careless Love Big Bill Broonzy Recorded In Club Montmartre 1956 
8. Careless Lover Emry Arthur Old-Time Music From Southwest Virginia
9. Careless Love Ernest Stoneman and His Dixie Mountaineers Bluegrass Bonanza (Disc 1) 
10. Loveless Love King Oliver King Oliver’s Dixie Syncoptors
11. Careless Love Riley Puckett Country Music Pioneer
12. New Careless Love Sonny Terry Deep River Of Song – Black Appalachia
13. Careless Lover Snooks Eaglin New Orleans Street Singer
14. Loveless Love Billie Holiday Best Of Billie Holiday
15. Careless Love Lee Wiley Lee Wiley 1931-1940
16. Careless Love Tim Eriksen Every Sound Below
17. Careless Love Blind Boy Fuller Complete Recorded Works
18. Careless Love Joan Baez, Bill Wood Folksingers ’round Harvard Square 
19. Loveless Love Mills Brothers Chronological, Vol.1 (1931-1932)
20. Careless Love Dave Van Ronk The Folkways Years, 1959-1961

Click on Harry!

For more on The memphis Jug Band:

-Wikipedia article, Jugstore biography, The Memphis Jug Band and Cannon’s Jug Stompers Box set (4cd) on Jsp records

-In the 1970′s, Bengt Olsson issued this great book about the Memphis Blues (and Jug bands). It’s now out-of-print but worth looking for a used copy.

Ernest and Hattie Stoneman: “The Mountaineer’s Courtship” (recorded on May 12, 1927) & “The Spanish Merchant’s Daughter” (recorded on October 31, 1928, with Bolen Frost on banjo and Uncle Eck Dunford on fiddle)

It’s only justice that Harry Smith included two tracks by Ernest Stoneman on his Anthology of American Folk Music as he was certainly an important but somehow forgotten figure of the early days of country and old-timey music on records. He and his vast family recorded in various combinations more than 300 sides between 1925 and 1934, a vast repertory of old and new country songs, topical ballads, sentimental and religious numbers and old-time dance music.

Ernest Stoneman’s first recording was also his first (and only) hit, a version of the topical ballad about the sinking of the Titanic, sung with Autoharp and with a harmonica held on a rack, a novelty accompaniment for the time.

“The Titanic” (January 8, 1925)

In the summer of 1927, “Pop” Stoneman acted as a talent scout and helped Ralph Peer conduct the famous Bristol Sessions, where two of the most famous early country acts, Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family, were discovered. There, he recorded with his Dixie Mountaineers mostly religious songs.

“Sweeping Through The Gates” (July 25, 1927)

Originated from a rich musical area of the Appalachian mountains, the Galax area of Virginia and a carpenter by trade, Ernest Stoneman had to move with his large family (he and Hattie had 23 children but only 13 survived to adulthood) to Washington D.C in 1932 after losing his home and most of his possessions. In 1941, Stoneman bought a lot in Carmody Hills, Maryland, where he built a shack for the family and eventually obtained a more or less regular job at the Naval Gun Factory. In 1947, the Stoneman Family won a talent contest at Constitution Hall that gave them six months’ exposure on local television. In 1956, Pop won $10,000 on the NBC-TV quiz show The Big Surprise and sang on the show as well. That same year, the Blue Grass Champs, a group composed largely of his children, were winners on the CBS-TV program Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, and Mike Seeger recorded Pop and Hattie for Folkways. (from Wikipedia) -Read here for a fuller biography of Ernest Stoneman and his family

In 1934, in the midst of The Depression years and struggling with poverty, Ernest Stoneman recorded again a song he already did in 1928.“All I Got’s Gone” (January 9, 1934, with Ben Stoneman on banjo)

Another classic Anthology song, in probably its best interpretation. Bascom Lamar Lunsford recorded the song many times during his career and it was a widespread tune in the south, sharing its simple melody with many other songs (New River Train, More pretty girls than one, Lay down my old guitar…) It was sung by many during the folk revival and is still popular today. Many sing it with the 5-string banjo played in the clawhammer style (Lunsford picked it in a index -lead picking style) and the pace varies from one version to another.

LYRICS:

I wish I was a mole in the ground.
Yes, I wish I was a mole in the ground.
‘F I’se a mole in the ground, I’d root that mountain down,
And I wish I was a mole in the ground.

Oh, Kimpy wants a nine-dollar shawl.
Yes, Kimpy wants a nine-dollar shawl.
When I come o’er the hill with a forty-dollar bill,
‘Tis, “Baby, where you been so long?”

I been in the Bend so long.
Yes, I been in the Bend so long.
I been in the Bend with the rough and rowdy men.
‘Tis, “Baby, where you been so long?”

I don’t like a railroad man.
No, I don’t like a railroad man.
‘Cause a railroad man, they’ll kill you when he can,
And drink up your blood like wine.

Oh, I wish I was a lizard in the spring.
Yes, I wish I was a lizard in the spring.
‘F I’se a lizard in the spring, I’d hear my darlin’ sing,
An’ I wish I was a lizard in the spring.

Come, Kimpy, let your hair roll down.
Kimpy let your hair roll down.
Let your hair roll down and your bangs curl around.
Oh, Kimpy, let your hair roll down.

I wish I was a mole in the ground.
Yes, I wish I was a mole in the ground.
‘F I’se a mole in the ground, I’d root that mountain down,
An’I wish I was a mole in the ground.

Some of the best reading I’ve found on the Anthology is in Robert Cantwell’s book/essay about the Folk Revival  ”When Were Good ». In his chapter on Harry Smith’s Anthology, here are some pages devoted to Lunsford’s “Mole in the Ground “:

I’ve compiled 22 versions of Mole In The Ground (or Tempie as many called the song ) reflecting my own personal favorites among the many versions you can find out there.

1. Mole In The Ground Dirk Powell & Tim O’Brien Songs From The Mountain
2. Tempie Tommy Jarrell The Legacy of Tommy Jarrell, Vol. 2: Rainbow Sign
3. Tempie Eddie Bond & Josh Ellis John Brown’s Dream
4. I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground Green Bailey Kentucky Mountain Music
5. I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground Bascom Lamar Lunsford Anthology Of American Folk Music 
6. I Wish I Were a Mole in the Ground Charlie Parr 1922
7. I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground Eden & John’s East River String Band Drunken Barrel House Blues
8. I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground Frank Fairfield I’ve Always Been A Rambler
9. Mole in the Ground Holy Modal Rounders Holy Modal Rounders
10. Kimbie Jackson C. Frank Jackson C. Frank 
11. Tempie Rafe Stefanini Ladies Fancy 
12. Mole In The Ground Karen Dalton 1966 
13. Tempie Pine Tree String Band Bluegrass Favorites
14. Mole In The Ground Doc Watson Songs for Little Pickers
15. Tempie roll down your bangs Tommy Jarrell Come And Go With Me
16. Songs Mole in the Ground Dave Fredrickson Songs of the West
17. I wish I was a mole in the ground The Chancey Brothers Black & White, Recorded in the field by Art Rosenbaum
18. Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down Roan Mountain Hilltoppers The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers in Concert
19. Mole in the Ground Dan Zanes and Friends Rocket Ship Beach 
20. Kimbie Marianne Faithfull Easy Come, Easy Go
21. Mole In the Ground Elizabeth LaPrelle Lizard In the Spring
22. Mole In the Ground/Old Dan Tucker Larry Hanks Tying a Knot In the Devil’s Tail
23. Mole in the Ground Pete Seeger Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Fishes Little and Big

Dock Boggs (vocal & 5-String banjo) with Hub Mahaffey on guitar

“Sugar Baby ” & “Down South Blues”

Recorded in New York on March 9, 1927 and issued on 78rpm record (Brunswick 118)

A few artists from the Anthology were truly rescued from oblivion by the american folk revival of the 1960’s and experienced an unexpected new musical  career as they were entering their last decade. Men like Mississippi John Hurt, Furry Lewis, Clarence Ashley and Dock Boggs, thanks to the Anthology and a new generation of folk music lovers who searched out for them, had a second chance to play their down-home music in front of an appreciating audience (although a quite different one than 40 years before) and record again. In the case of Boggs, his rediscovery was single-handedly orchestrated by Mike Seeger, who found his home in Norton, Virginia, recorded his music on four lps’s for Folkways Records and put him on the stages of various universities and folk festivals.

From all these rediscovered performers, Mississippi John Hurt and Dock Boggs really stand out as the most important folk figures the Anthology helped to revive and the lives of this two men shared in fact, many similarities. They both spent most of their lives close to their home and worked hard jobs (coal mining for Boggs, farming for Hurt)  in a relatively isolated community (Avalon, Mississippi and Norton, Virginia), made a trip to New York City in the 1920’s to record for a commercial recording company before returning to their daily routine. In the case of Boggs, this unique chance to record made him believe he could escape working in the coal mines and he did tried for a few years to make his living as a musician but the Depression and family life stopped him to achieve this. Both men were contacted by W. E Meyers, a store-owner and aspiring songwriter from Richlands, Virginia to record for his Lonesome Ace record label in the 1930’s. Meyers would provide the lyrics and asked the musicians to put them into music. They were also very influenced by the « other » ethnic group music around them, old-time country music for Hurt and african-american Blues for Boggs. They both had two of their songs chosen by Harry Smith for his Anthology of AMerican Folk Music and enjoyed a second career in the 1960’s, both on records and on many folk festivals.

One of the lp Mike produced when he discovered Boggs in 1963 was “Excerpts  from interviews with Dock Boggs“. Let’s take a listen to this record, but be aware that the recording quality of these interviews are not great, especially on side one. Nevertheless it constitute a unique document and a great chance to hear a folk musician tell about his life and musical influences in his own words

Side 1:

Side 2:

Click here to read the transcriptions of the interviews in pdf format

Now let’s listen to a few songs (some of my favorites) he recorded for Mike Seeger in the 1960’s:

1. Wild Bill Jones
2. Oh Death
3. Bright Sunny South
4. Mistreated Mama Blues
5. Cuba

Dock’s repertoire was a mix of old and new folk ballads and songs typical of the Kentucky/Virginia region with some Blues numbers he adapted to the 5-String banjo, playing the instrument in his own unique way, which combines thumb and finger picking techniques with some strums with the back of the finger. He usually picked the melody while he sings and used some different banjo tunings to fit the modes of the tunes and songs he played. (We will discuss his special D tuning on a future post about his song “Country Blues “). His vocals had a lot of characters also, his raw delivering on the 1920’s recordings would mellow a bit with age but didn’t loose its intensity and honesty.

There are some nice biographies and essays on Dock Boggs that you can read on the web:

-Christopher Milne biography

-Barry O’Connell’s essay on the Smithsonian/Folkways website

I especially recommend reading O’Connell’s long in-depth writing as it reveals a lot of the context and complexity of Dock’s life.

Dock Boggs ’s recordings are available on two must-have compilations:

-“Country Blues” Complete Early Recordings (Revenant)

Wonderful artwork and package from the John Fahey label, it includes all of Dock Boggs early recordings, including alternate takes.

-“His Folkways Years “(Smithsonian/Folkways)

A 2-cd compilation of the 3 lps produced by Mike Seeger in the 1960’s

There are also two cds on the Field Recorder’s Collective label: A 1966 concert and some home recordings made by banjo player Reed Martin in 1967.

-Here’s a clip featuring Mike Seeger playing Dock’s Mastertone banjo and playing « Davenport ». it includes at the end some footages of Dock playing at his home.

The Sugar Baby/Red Rocking Chair Variations

“Sugar Babe” belongs to a family of “rounder” songs, cultivated especially by young men, carefree and assertive in spirit, often risqué and in the Appalachian South associated in the early part of the last century with the five-string banjo. Afro-american influences show up frequently in the “rounder” songs and it is possible that “Sugar Babe” itslef has afro-american connections

Liner  notes from  ”The Hammons Family » lp (Rounder/Library of Congress)

Sugar Baby or Red Rocking Chair is a widespread folk song, found in the repertoire of a lot banjo players in the South, and still very popular today with old-time and folk musicians. Its simple modal melody can be played on several open-tunings on the 5-string banjo and harmonized in different ways either using major or minor chords (or a combination of both) on a guitar. Its lyrics are easy to remember and can include as many floating verses as a performer can recall. One of its famous verse “Who’ll rock the cradle when I’m gone” is found in an old Scottish ballad ” The Lass of Roch Royal”.

Oh, I’ve got no sugar baby now.
All I can do for seek peace with you,
And I can’t get along this a-way.
Can’t get along this a-way.

All I can do, I’ve said all I can say.
I’ll send it to your mama next payday.
Send you to your mama next payday.

Got no use for the red rockin’ chair,
I’ve got no honey baby now.
Got no sugar baby now.

Who’ll rock the cradle, who’ll sing the song?
Who’ll rock the cradle when I’m gone?
Who’ll rock the cradle when I’m gone?

I’ll rock the cradle, I’ll sing the song.
I’ll rock the cradle when you gone.
I’ll rock the cradle when you gone.

It’s all I can do, said all I can say.
I will send you to your mama next payday.

Laid her in the shade, give her every dime I made.
What more could a poor boy do?
What more could a poor boy do?

Oh, I’ve got no honey baby now.
Got no sugar baby now.

Said all I can say, I’ve done all I can do,
And I can’t make a living with you.
Can’t make a living with you.

Here are 27 versions of the song that I’ve compiled for you, and you’ll hear a lot of different banjo variations, some Bluegrass numbers and some very nice and unique ways of singing and playing this quintessential american folk song. Enjoy!

1. Sugar Baby Dock Boggs Close to Home (Old Time Music from Mike Seeger’s Collection 1952-1967)
2. Red Rocking Chair Big Medicine Pine to Pine
3. Red Rocking Chair The Country Gentlemen Country Gentlemen Sing and Play Folk Songs and Bluegrass
4. Got No Sugar Baby Now Frank Proffitt Essential Folk Masters
5. Sugar Babe Jo-Ann Kelly Do It And More
6. Sugar Baby Morgan Sexton Shady Grove
7. Sugar Baby New Lost City Ramblers There Ain’t No Way Out
8. Red Rocking Chair Dan Gellert  Forked Deer
9. Red Rocking Chair Dana Robinson Native Soil
10. Sugar Babe (version 1) Burl Hammons  The Hammons Family
11. Sugar Babe (version 2) Burl Hammons  The Hammons Family
12. Sugar Babe Paul Brown Red Clay Country
13. Sugar Babe Norman Edmonds Norman Edmonds & The Old Timers, Vol.2
14. Sugar Babe Down Trodden String Band Land of the Sky
15. I Ain’t Got No Sugar Baby Now Roscoe Holcomb An Untamed Sense Of Control
16. Sugar Babe John Renbourn Another Monday
17. Sugar Babe Scott Ainslie Banjo Gathering
18. Red Rocking Chair Uncle Sinner Ballads and Mental Breakdowns
19. Red Rocking Chair Bob Webb Full Circle: The Solo Banjo Sessions
20. Red Rocking Chair Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin A Song That Will Linger
21. Red Rocking Chair Doc & Merle Watson Red Rocking Chair
22. Red Apple Juice Dick Rosmini Feuding Banjos – Bluegrass Banjo Of The Southern Mountains
23. Got No Honey Babe Now Aunt Jenny Wilson Field Recording
24. Red Rocking Chair Lily May Ledford Gems
25. Red Apple Juice Spider John Koerner Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Been
26. Red Rocking Chair Charlie Monroe & His Kentucky Pardners Recordings
27. Honey Babe Blues Clarence Ashley  Original Folkways Recordings 

-Here are his five remained recordings (one, “North Country Blues” was never released by Victor):

1. James Alley Blues
2. I’m Not Jealous
3. Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice
4. Mystery Of The Dunbar’s Child
5. Sinking Of The Titanic

TIMES AIN’T LIKE THEY USED TO BE:
RABBIT BROWN, NEW ORLEANS SONGSTER

By Kevin S. Fontenot

In 1900 they were everywhere. Singing on street corners, in front of circus entrances, or just moving down the dusty roads of the South, playing anywhere a crowd might be cajoled into donating a dime to the cause. To survive they played any request–ballads, popular tunes, white hillbilly music, hymns, and the newly emerged blues. Songsters were the first folk musicians to be “professional.” Southern social occasions required a wide variety of music and the songsters strived to fill the need. Essential was the ability to provide a steady dance beat, but on the street corner a sentimental number could bring forth both tears and coins. By the 1930′s, however, the songster was becoming a thing of the past, nudged out by an expanding national entertainment industry that reached into the deepest parts of the South. Most songsters faded into the past. A few waxed recordings, leaving a tempting glance into their world–and many questions.

Such is the case with Richard “Rabbit” Brown, one of the most celebrated songsters and the only one from new Orleans to record. On March 11, 1927, Brown cut six sides for the recording pioneer Ralph Peer. An interesting mix of original blues, pop covers and “event” songs, this brief catalog represents all that is known for certain about him. Where was he born? Where did he die? How did he learn to play? Why did the few fellow musicians who recall him remember him as a “clown man” who sang “all the funny kind of songs–made up songs”?1

In 1927 Richard “Rabbit” Brown was already at least middle aged. He was probably born around 1880, just as the first rumblings of Jim Crow moved across the South as the Federal army went home. The place of his birth remains a mystery. New Orleans usually receives the honor, but doubts cloud the issue. Local bluesman Ernie Vincent remarked on hearing the recording that Brown sounded like he came from north Louisiana or perhaps Mississippi. Indeed, Brown’s vocal and phrasing does show hints of a rural origin, particularly if he is compared to singers like Joe Harris and Kid West, who hailed from new Iberia and had lived near Bunkie for a while.2 Then there is Brown’s testimony in “James Alley Blues”: “Cause I was born in the country, she thinks I’m easy to rule.” Brown sings the line with a conviction that seems to indicate that his woman did think he did come from the country. A rural origin for Brown also fits the general pattern of migration of African-Americans in the late nineteenth century. Thousands moved to the city to escape sharecropping and festering racial tension which exploded at the turn of the century. Even if Brown was not born in rural Louisiana, his parents probably migrated into New Orleans shortly before his birth. The Browns would have settled in one of the “neighborhoods uptown above Canal Street.” His father may have worked as a longshoreman or in the cotton presses. His mother might have sought work as a domestic. Regardless, poverty would have dogged them and they would have had to suffer the displeasing stares of the black Creoles.3

If Brown was not born in New Orleans he was probably there by 1890 because he composed a ballad about one of the most controversial events in New Orleans history. On the night of October 15, someone shotgunned Police Superintendent David Hennessey to death on Basin Street. Accusations fell on immigrant Italians, also suspected of being members of the Mafia. When a March trial ended in acquittal for six and a retrial for three others, a lynch mob descended on the parish prison and soon eleven men were shot or hanged for the murder. The lynching caused an international incident and captured the imagination of Brown. He composed a ballad in honor of Hennessey titled “The Downfall of the Lion.” All that remains of the song is a verse recalled by guitarist Lemon Nash, who played with Brown in the 1920′s: “I’m gonna tell you racketeers, Something you can understand, Don’t let your tongues say nothin’ That your head can’t stand.”4

Brown also took note of another incident central to the lore of the New Orleans underworld. “Gyp the Blood” told the story of the murder of restauranteur and bar owner Billy Phillips by Charles Harrison (a.k.a. “Gyp the Blood”), a New York hoodlum on the lam. Harrison was employed as a waiter at the Tuxedo Dance Hall owned by Harry Parker, a former business associate of Phillips. On Easter Sunday 1913, after several altercations, Phillips went to the Tuxedo to make up with Parker. While the two drank at the bar, Harrison stepped behind Phillips and fired a shot at the unsuspecting bar owner. A gunfight ensued, resulting in the deaths of Phillips and Parker. Public outrage at the violence forced the police to close the five dance halls in Storyville and helped to convince the authorities that closing the District might be a good idea. The closing of the dance halls also limited the places of employment for musicians, some of whom later plyed the riverboats and began to move north. According to newspaper reports, no musicians were playing in the Tuxedo that night. Brown could have been there and obtained his information first-hand or he could have heard stories from other witnesses. One of those witnesses was a prostitute named Josephine Brown. Her relationship, if any, to Rabbit Brown is unknown, and, unfortunately, so is the text to “Gyp the Blood.” Brown did not record the song, and no one recalled the words.

“The Downfall of the Lion” and “Gyp the Blood” reveal several aspects of Brown’s life. First, he obviously knew the “sporting life” of New Orleans well. Second, Brown was also aware that these stories attracted great attention and people wanted to hear about crimes. Such “event songs” composed a core of the songster tradition and served as a method of disseminating some of the more sensationalistic news stories before the consolidation of the tabloid press in the 1920′s. How many event songs Brown knew is impossible to discover, but he knew at least two others. And it is known that his songs were original compositions, either dealing with local events such as the Hennessey and Tuxedo murders or one of the most important international events, the sinking of the Titanic.

The local event song that Brown chose to record recounted the 1914 kidnapping of Bobby Dunbar from a resort near Opelousas, Louisiana. Brown’s song is the only musical account of the crime, which strongly suggests that “The Mystery of the Dunbar’s Child” is a Brown original.” If “Dunbar’s Child” recounts an obscure event, “Sinking of the Titanic” tells one of the most famous disasters of all time. The underlying message of Brown’s account is the need to be prepared for disaster at any moment. “None thought of danger, or what their fate may be,” Brown sang. But “accidents may happen most any time, and we know not when an’ where.”5 Brown ends with a snippet of “Nearer My God to Thee,” falsely believed to be the last song played as the ship sank. Nevertheless, Brown proves his familiarity with religious music by performing this popular hymn.6

“Sinking of the Titanic” brought Rabbit Brown a form of recognition seldom given to a songster in his time. Abbe Niles noted the song in his music column in The Bookman for July, 1928. The entire text of the song was reproduced and a meager biography, courtesy of Ralph Peer, also accompanied the lyrics. Brown “sang to his guitar in the streets of New Orleans, and he rowed you out into Lake Pontchartrain for a fee, and sang to you as he rowed.” His work exhibited “character,” Niles said, but he was hard to understand, thus the transcription of the lyrics.7

Lemon Nash was one of the few musicians who remembered Brown. In an interview in 1959, he substantiated the portrait in Nile’s article. Brown made his money playing on the streets of New Orleans’ sporting district. He was a regular at Mama Lou’s on Lake Pontchartrain. If “business was slow and [Brown] need a ride home, he would turn in a false fire alarm.” The firemen answered the call and found out it was only their friend, who sang to them as they went back to the station. “He knew all the firemen,” Nash recalled, and they did not seem to mind the inconvenience.

For Nash, Brown seems to have been a comic figure with little musical talent. He “played so badly, I had to let him go,” Nash remembered. “He just hit the guitar and yell.” Brown was “what you call a clown man.”8 Clarence “Little Dad” Vincent’s remark that Brown played “funny kind of songs” seems to reinforce Nash’s negative comments. Brown’s recordings, however, cast doubt on the validity of Nash’s opinion. They reveal a seasoned player capable of dexterity and deep expression,and in the gravelly voice, perhaps the faint origins of the New Orleans vocal growl may be heard.

Young Louis Armstrong may have heard Rabbit Brown because the two lived in the same neighborhood. Jane Alley, where Louis was born and Brown kept his main residences, lay in the “very heart of what is called ‘The Battlefield’ because the toughest characters in town used to live there, and would shoot and fight so much,” Armstrong wrote in his autobiography.9 In such a rough and tumble atmosphere, Brown needed to be tough and wily himself and may have supplemented his singing income with money from other, more questionable, activities.

That may account for some of Nash’s negative comments about Brown’s singing and playing. But more subtle reasons probably explain Nash’s resentment. Perhaps Nash envied the older man’s skill at hustling and singing. But style seems to be the main issue. Brown was a “clown man,” which may mean that he “put on” or “Tommed” for white people. For a man who witnessed the tightening of Jim Crow and the rash of lynchings in the early years of the twentieth century, proper deference to whites constituted a survival tactic. Younger musicians, unable to openly criticize the system, may have displaced their disdain onto an older man who represented what they feared the most. Regardless, Brown was a survivor who carefully cultivated relationships with white firemen and the conductors of excursion trains. Brown, to paraphrase a well worn blues line, laughed to keep from crying, and he survived.

On March 11, 1927, Brown secured his place in history. With Ralph Peer watching, he waxed six sides, excellent performances that only hint at his talent and wide repertoire. “James Alley Blues” was a semi-autobiographical excursion into his personal relations. “Dunbar’s Child” and “Sinking of the Titanic” illustrated his ballad composing ability and a sense of what people wanted to hear. “I’m Not Jealous” and “Never Let the Same Bee Sting You Twice” revealed a debt to popular published music, though the latter bore no lyrical resemblance to Cecil Mack and Chris Smith’s song of the same name. Victor Records never released “Great Northern Blues,” so what treasure it held may never be known. After the session Rabbit Brown collected his fee and walked into the mists of history. Some authorities report that Richard “Rabbit” Brown died impoverished in 1937, but this has not been confirmed. “Richard Browns” died with regularity in New Orleans between 1927 and 1937. Brown may not have died in the Crescent City. Lemon Nash recalled that Brown had nephew in Chicago. Perhaps he went to Chicago and played on Maxwell Street. Or maybe he visited relatives in rural Louisiana. He might have got religion as he aged and turned to the church. Wherever Rabbit Brown ended up, he still beckons from a distant time, a time that “ain’t like it used to be.”

---

ENDNOTES

1. Lemon Nash interviewed by Richard B. Allen, William Russell, and Harry Oster, October 3, 1959, New Orleans, and Clarence “Little Dad” Vincent interviewed by Richard B. Allen, November 17, 1959, New Orleans, both in Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University.

2. See John Cowley’s notes to I Can Eagle Rock: Jook Joints from Alabama and Louisiana, 1940-1941, Travelin’ Man TM CD 09. This compact disc includes the complete recordings of West and Harris made for John A. Lomax.

3. Quote from Joy Jackson, New Orleans in the Gilded Age, 2nd ed. (Lafayette: Louisiana Historical Association, 1997), p. 187. Jackson provides an excellent overview of African-American life in New Orleans during the period.

4. Note by Richard B. Allen in the Richard “Rabbit” Brown Persons vertical file, Hogan Jazz Archive.

5. Richard “Rabbit” Brown, “Sinking of the Titanic,” on The Greatest Songsters, Document Records DOCD-503, which includes his complete recordings with the exception of “Great Northern Blues,” which seems to be lost. For an overview of the songster tradition, see Paul Oliver, Songsters and Saints (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp.20-23.

6. The last song played on the Titanic was probably “Songe d’Automne.” For an excellent discussion of the Titanic’s impact on popular culture, see Steven Biel, Down With the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996).

7. Abbe Niles, “Ballads, Songs, and Snatches,” The Bookman LXVII, no. 5 (July, 1928), 565.

8. Nash interview. Brown also played on train excursions to Baton Rouge, which suggests that he might even have been present at the picnic where Bobby Dunbar was kidnapped.

9. Louis Armstrong, Satchmo; My Life in New Orleans (New York: DaCapo Press, 1986; originally published 1954), pp.7-8.

Originally published in The Jazz Archivist 13 (1998-99): 1-6. The Jazz Archivist is a newsletter of the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University. Reprinted with permission.

The James Alley Blues Variations

“James Alley” (a corruption of Jane’s Alley) is a remarkable early Blues song that tells of the difficult relationships between two lovers from the man’s point of view (the previous Anthology track by Didier Hebert was the woman’s point of view).

Here are the great lyrics:

The times ain’t now nothin’ like they used to be.
Oh, times ain’t now nothin’ like they used to be.
And I’m tellin’ you all the truth. Whoa, take it from me.

I done seen better days, but I’m puttin’ up with these.
I done seen better days, but I’m puttin’ up with these.
I could have much a better time with these girls down in New Orleans.

Cause I was born in the country, she thinks I’m easy to rule.
Cause I was born in the country, she thinks I’m easy to rule.
She try to hitch me to a wagon, she wanna drive me like a mule.

You know, I bought her the groceries and I pay the rent.
Yeah, I buy her the groceries and I paid the rent.
She try to make me to wash her clothes, but I got good common sense.

I said, if you don’t want me, why don’t you tell me so?
You know, if you don’t want me, why don’t you tell me so?
Cause it ain’t like I’m a man that ain’t got nowhere to go.

I been give you sugar for sugar, let you get salt for salt.
I give you sugar for sugar, let you get salt for salt.
And if you can’t get ‘long with me, we’ll it’s your own fault.

How you want me to love you, and treat me mean?
How do you want me to love you, you keep on treatin’ me mean?
You’re my daily thought and my nightly dream.

Sometime I think that you’re too sweet to die.
Sometime I think that you’re too sweet to die.
And another time I think you ought to be buried alive.

In the 1960’s, when a new generation of folk singers discovered the Anthology, “James Alley” Blues became a favorite to perform, with his catchy lyrics and simple Folk/Blues chord format. The song is still appealing today for numerous rock and folk performers and remains one of the most enduring Anthology classic.

-I’ve compiled eight versions of the song that I love, including a rare performance from Bob Dylan in the early sixties (from the “Minnesota Tapes”), before he even recorded his first lp. My favorite version is by Judy Roderick, from one of the best Folk/Blues lp of the sixties, “Woman Blue”. She called it “Born in the country” and made the song completely  her own. You will notice that half of the versions here are (beautifully) sung by women who reverse the gender of the original version.

Listen and enjoy!

1. Bob Dylan (The Minnesota Tapes)
2. Judy Roderick (Woman Blue)
3. Fox and Branch (Bootlegger’s Blues)
4. Alice Stuart (All the Good Times)
5. Jeff Tweedy (The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute to the Anthology)
6. Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard (Hazel & Alice)
7. Big Moe & Jolly Jumper  (Rooster Soup)
8. Sweet Ginger Heat (Healy Heartache)

Didier Hébert  “I Woke Up One Morning in May“

Here are the lyrics of the song in french, followed by an english traduction (thanks to the Mudcat Cafe):

Je me suis levé matin dans Mai
Mais bien de bon matin
C’était pour passer
Mais un beau jour dans ma vie.

Oh j’ai trouvé mon père en train de pleurer,
Ma mère qui pleurait dans ses bras.
C’est adieu pour longtemps,
Je me donnes à un jeune garçon.

Oh moi je l’aimais beaucoup,
Beaucoup plus que ma vie.
Il m’avait fait une promesse,
Et cette promesse c’est d’être sa femme

Oh j’ons ferait des enfants,
Il m’a quitté d’un abandon;
Moi bien malade dans mon lit,
Et mes enfants là crèvent de faim

Et mon mari à la table après gambler,
Et moi je ne souhaît que la mort;
C’est tous ces jeunes bébés, grand Dieu,
Dans les jambes de moi

Oh mettez-vous tous vous autres à méfier
De tous ces jeunes garçons;
Ça, ça conte autant de menteries
Qu’en a d’étoiles dans le ciel.

Oh depuis dans l’âge de quatorze ans
J’après misèré avec toi,
Et dès de jour en jour
Mais moi je m’en vas dans l’abandon.

Oh moi je connais je m’en vas dans ces grands chemins,
Misereux moi toute seule,
Et dès je suis une délaissée
Mais que personne en veut de moi.

I woke up one morning in May, very early;
It was to spend a fine day of my life.

Oh I found my father crying, my mother crying in his arms.
Farewell for a long time, I’m giving myself to a young man.

Oh I loved him very much, much more than my life.
He made me a promise that I was his wife.

Oh we had children, he left me a year ago nevertheless.
Me sick in bed, and my children dying of hunger;

And my husband in the tavern gambling, and I just wish I was dead;
It’s all those young babies, great God, around my legs.

All you girls, don’t trust those young men –
They tell as many lies as there are stars in the sky.

When I was fourteen years old, I was always with you;
Since then, from day to day I’m left more alone.

Oh I know I’m going on the highways, I’ll be there all alone,
And since I’m a deserted wife, I wish someone would make me a widow

Hébert’s performance of the song may seems strangely out of tune, especially to modern ears but I think it fits the   song quite well and has a certain haunting charm to it. I can really hear the despair of the woman in Hébert’s voice…

A similar cajun song was recorded the same year (1929) by another blind guitar player from Louisiana, Blind Uncle Gaspard with fiddler Delma Lachney. (Go to this post to hear more of Delma Lachney and Blind Uncle Gaspard’s music) Also in waltz time, the song was called “Le Bébé et le Gambleur“ 

Here’s a modern recording of the song (followed by the “Happy One-Step“) by The Savoy/Doucet Family on their cd « Home Music With Spirits »:

Here are the lyrics, followed by an english traduction:

Mon bébé est malade couché dans le lit
Mon mari au gamblage ce soir surement.
Il m’a dit des menteries autant qu’(il y a d)es étoiles. (2x)

Juste avant j’suis mariée
Mes joues étaient roses
Et après j’suis mariée
(Ils) sont plus vertes que des choux
Ma maman m’a dit, “Quo’ faire fu me quittes
Ma chère ‘tite fille pour te marier?”
J’ai répondu, “Ouais, ma chère maman,
Mais tu connais, donc, que je l’aime trop gros.”

Mais surement, si j’aurais connu tout ça,
Mais j’aurais écouté ma chère maman.
Mon bébé est malade, il pleur dans le lit,
Il appelle pour toi mais tu viens pas à lui.

———

My baby is sick, bedded down in his bed
My husband is out gambling, surely.
He told me more lies than there are stars. (2x)

Just before I got married my cheeks were pink
And since I’m married they are greener than cabbage
My mama said to me, “Why are you leaving me,
My dear little girl, to get married?”
I answered, “Dear mama,
But you know that I love him too much.”

Surely if I had known all this
I would have listened to my dear mother.
My baby is sick, he is crying in the bed,
He’s crying for you but you won’t come to see him.

Didier Hébert and Blind Uncle Gaspard represent an older tradition of Cajun musicians that sang old songs and ballads, so rarely heard on recordings. For more of this, be sure to get the cd compilation issued by Yazoo Records called “Early American Cajun Music“ that feature other recordings by Blind Uncle Gaspard, Delma Lachney and John Bertrand.

Here are the three recordings made by Dewey Segura with Didier Hébert on guitar for Columbia Records in December 1929:

1. Rosalia
2. T’es Petite, t’es mignonne (You’re small and sweet)
3. Far Away from Home Blues