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50 East Baton rouge Parish Hosea Phillips, Eraste Vidrine, and Hart Perrodin In Baton Rouge, the Lomaxes recorded three Louisiana State University students, Hosea Phillips, Eraste Vidrine, and Hart Perrodin, all originally from Evangeline Parish . Although the Library of Congress card catalog ascribes the four songs from the session presented here to Perrodin and Vidrine, Phillips sings the two a cappella numbers , “Baiolle” and “Depuis à l’âge de quinze ans,” while Perrodin and Vidrine perform Cajun waltzes, accompanying themselves on twin fiddles on “Grand Basile” and solo fiddle on “J’ai passé devant ta porte.” Phillips also contributes the second verse of “J’ai passé devant ta porte,” indicating that the session included all three musicians. Ancelet points out that Phillips, a Ville Platte native and later a longtime professor of French at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, was a student at LSU at the time (pers. comm., March 2011). In a general sense, the songs in this session reflect a clear debt to early commercial recordings of Cajun music. With the exception of “Depuis à l’âge de quinze ans,” the songs performed by Vidrine and Perrodin were standards of the early, and the current, Cajun dance repertoire. Grand Basile y Whoa, s’en aller dans Grand Basile, Voir ma jolie petite fille, Malheureuse, t’auras du regret, Avant longtemps, ça que t’as fait. Whoa, chère ’tite fille, Moi je connais c’est pas la peine, [Whoa, I’m going to Big Basile, Whoa, my pretty little girl, Wretch, you’ll regret it, Before long, all that you did. Whoa, dear little girl, I know it’s no use, east baton rouge parish 51 Si tu viens donc te lamenter. Ces paroles tu m’as dit, moi j’pourrai jamais oublier. Whoa, chère ’tite fille, moi j’connais C’est temps moi je m’en vas à Grande Basile, Mais toi, ’tite fille, moi j’connais [je te voiras pas]. Quand même tu m’veux, malheureuse, j’veux pas de toi. One of the more ubiquitous waltzes in Louisiana French dance music, this song is more popularly known in its “Grand Mamou” variation, and it is also analogous to Joe Falcon and Cleoma Breaux’s “Ma Valse preféré” and Leo Soileau’s “La Bonne valse.” Although the lyrics tend to be highly formulaic and variable, they normally involve the speaker’s declaration that he will go to either Mamou or Basile (two small towns near Eunice, Louisiana) in order to escape a disintegrating relationship, as well as his threat that it will be useless to try to return. Like many songs recorded and released during the first wave of commercial recordings, the song permeates not only the Cajun swing and dance hall repertoire but also the black Creole repertoire (including zydeco). Not surprisingly, most of the seminal figures in Louisiana French music have recorded the song in one of its variations (usually “Grand Mamou”): Nathan Abshire, Dewey Balfa, Clifton Chenier, Harry Choates, John Delafose, Austin Pitre, and Leo Soileau, to name a few. While early Louisiana French recording artists often recorded French versions of popular English songs, “Grand Mamou” remains one of the only Cajun or Creole standards more widely known in its English translation. As recorded by Link Davis, Waylon Jennings, Jimmy C. Newman, and Hank Williams Jr., “Big Mamou,” like “Jolie Blonde,” is firmly ensconced, to this day, within the American country-rock song bag. J’ai passé devant ta porte y J’ai passé devant la porte, J’ai crié “bye-bye la belle.” Il y’a personne qui m’a répondu, Oh yé yäille mon cœur fait mal. [. . .] devant la porte, dont j’ai vu, Des chandelles tout allumée, Alentour de son cercueil, Oh yé yäille mon cœur fait mal. [I passed in front of your door, I cried out, “bye-bye, my belle.” There was nobody there to reply, Oh yé yäille, my heart is in pain. (. . .) in front of your door, I saw The candles aglow All around her casket. Oh yé yäille, my heart is in pain.] “J’ai passé devant ta porte” is widely recognized as the most notorious chestnut in the Cajun repertoire. Often the first song learned by beginning Cajun accordionists, it You come and complain. Those words you told me, I’ll never forget them. Whoa, little girl, I know It’s time I go to Big Basile. But you, little girl, I know I won...

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