Cajun Music

Early Cajun Music

20h  ·

On this day, March 5, 1929, Dennis McGee with Sady Courville made history by recording as a Cajun fiddle duet for the first time at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans.

Richard Voynow, record scout of Vocalion Records, arrived in New Orleans, mainly to record more Blind Uncle Gaspard. However, when he traversed the Evangeline countryside, he caught word that two fiddlers, Dennis McGee and Sady Courville, were popular musicians in the area. A socialite in the community pointed him to the duo and likely sponsored their trip. Sady recalled, "There was an old man in the community who was always promoting different things. He asked this man that I was working with if he thought we would like to make some records. He said, 'I wonder if Dennis and Sady would go and make some records'."

With nothing but their instruments, they hoped on a train to New Orleans. Sady recalled, "That was the old 78s at that time. So [Wade] Fruge asked me and I asked Dennis. He had said, 'They would pay all your expenses' but that was it. Just our expenses you know. And I had this old fiddle here. I had it in a flour sack. I didn't even have a case for it. So we got on a train here one morning and went to New Orleans, somewhere in the French Quarter on the second floor, and we made those records. We made about either or ten of them."

When Sady arrived at the hotel, he recalled the event. "We went to the second floor of an old building on St. Charles Street. There was a machine like a phonograph in a little room. The machine made the recording on wax disks. The songs were supposed to be played not less than three minutes, not more than four. There were three or four lights on the machines, blue, yellow and red, that warned us when time was up."

Mon Chere Bebe Creole, Dennis' pinnacle tune, he recalls, "It came to me in a dream and I woke up and I caught my violin and played that tune." Dennis considered his Madame Young a 'valse à deux temps'. He recalls, "People would dance in pairs, boy-girl. Then, they'd let go of each other and they would turn on one side, then another. This is why it's called 'valse à deux temps' because they were turn on each side. One time on one side for one, and then the other; 'deux temp'."

Only one of the 8 songs had Courville's name. He explains, "People used to make fun of me and other Cajuns who played Cajun music. That was the reason you won't find my name on some of the records Dennis McGee and I made. They asked me why I didn't want my name on those records. I said 'Because people are making fun of me and I want to try and better myself'. But, I am for the program of Cajun culture. Then, the last number we made, I let them put on there Courville and McGee Waltz. That's the only record my name was on."

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