OLD-TIME MEETS CAJUN - THE (ALMOST) LOST RECORDING
BY DENNIS MCGEE AND SADY COURVILLE
by Jack Bond (Maryland)
This article is about Dennis McGee and Sady Courville, two
icons of traditional Cajun music. They made many classic
recordings in 1929 and 1930. Their fiddling styles were
powerful and unique. In 1972, after not making any
recordings for forty-two years, they made a record for
Morning Star Records. It is in danger of being lost.
The following quote is from the book "Desert Solitaire" by
Edward Abbey. It was written about ancient pictographs and
petroglyphs in southern Utah, but it also applies to
traditional music and the musicians who played the music:
"Whether crude or elegant, representational or abstract,
very old or relatively new, all of the work was done in a
manner pleasing to contemporary taste, with its vogue for
the stylized and primitive. The ancient canyon art of Utah
belongs in that same international museum without walls
which makes African sculpture, Melanesian masks, and the
junkyards of New Jersey equally interesting - those voices
of silence which speak to us in the first world language.
As for the technical competence of the artists, its measure
is apparent in the fact that these pictures and
petroglyphs…still survive vivid and clear. How much of the
painting and sculpture (or music) being done in America
today will last - in the merely physical sense for even
half a century?"
On July 30, 1972, after an appearance at the National Folk
Festival in Washington, D.C.,, Dennis McGee and Sady
Courville traveled to Frederick, Maryland, to make their
first recording in more than 40 years. Dick Spottswood, who
worked for the Library of Congress and is a prominent
musicologist and authority on old-time traditional music,
had made arrangements with Richard Nevins, then the
President of Morning Star Records, to have them make the
historic recording. They went to the home of Joe Bussard,
one of the most well-known collectors of 78 rpm records (He
has more than 25,000 of them), to make the recording.
Charles Faurot was the recording engineer. Charles has
recorded numerous old-time fiddle and string bands from
Maryland to Texas. He was (or is) the best. Charles made
the master tapes for the recording. By a stroke of
brilliance, Joe also taped the entire recording session,
including the music and conversation among those in the
room. The completed album was released in 1972 on the
Morning Star label (#16001).
Although I knew of Sady Courville and Dennis McGee from
many of their 1920's recordings , their music came to life
for me in September 1998 at Festivals Acadiens when I heard
Eric and Clay Chapman play their music. Eric and Clay are
the grandsons of Sady Courville. The day was gray and hot;
severe thunderstorms were predicted. For one hour, they
played tunes in the style that their grandfather and Dennis
McGee had played. Most of the crowd stopped dancing to
listen. Many advanced to be near the stage. Eric and Clay
gave a magical, spellbinding sample of fiddle-playing in
the old style of Dennis and Sady. While they played, the
weather became threatening. A storm was approaching and the
crowd was apprehensive; but Eric and Clay never hesitated -
they just kept playing. The crowd never wavered, and the
storm passed. From that time I wanted to hear everything
that Dennis and Sady had recorded. I understood why they
are revered Cajun musicians. At the time, I did not know
about the Morning Star #16001 recording.
By early 2001, I had learned that Morning Star had released
two recordings by Dennis McGee in the early 1970's, but I
had not found either of them. Fortunately, I found one of
them on ebay almost hidden in a bulk offering of albums by
Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Glen Miller, and others. No one
bought the set; so I contacted the seller and offered to
purchase the single album by Dennis McGee. The seller
agreed to sell it to me. When I received the album, I
learned that it was Morning Star #45002, titled "The Early
Recordings of Dennis McGee, Featuring Sady Courville &
Ernest Fruge"(The other Morning Star record). All of the
tunes on the album were also on a CD released in 1994 by
Yazoo Records, Two things, however, made this album
special. First, a marvelous booklet written by Jean
Stewart, Barry Ancelet, and Tracy Schwarz was included .
The authors explained far better than I could why the
fiddle styles of Dennis and Sady were so unique and
intriguing. Jean Stewart also referred to the second
Morning Star album (#16001) when she wrote, "Listen also to
Morning Star's recently recorded album of Dennis McGee and
S.D. Courville…and shake your head in amazement at the
extraordinary vitality in the playing of these two men
(then 80 and 68 respectively)…" Second, several months
later, a friend was examining the record cover when he
said, "Look at this…Dennis and Sady signed this album
cover!" He was correct.
By then, I had learned more about the second Morning Star
recording, and had almost become obsessed with finding it.
My search intensified. After spending untold hours on the
internet searching for possible sources for the album and
talking with many people around the United States who might
help me find it , I began to sense that there might not be
many copies of the album still available. Despite many
references to it, the album seemed to have disappeared. Few
people knew about it. In September 2001, I asked Marc Savoy
if he had any suggestions. He said that I should contact
Dick Spottswood in Washington, D.C.
Marc did not tell me why I should call Dick; but when I
returned to Maryland, I called him. Our first conversation
was rather abrupt. He told me that he had only one copy and
did not know where I might find another one. Another dead
end! Several weeks later, however, I happened to be reading
an old copy of the Times of Acadiana that had a hilarious
interview with D.L. Menard in which he recounted an effort
in the 1970's by Dick Spottswood to get D.L. and his band
to come to Washington. I made a copy and mailed it to Dick.
He thanked me; and this time, told me to contact Richard
Nevins, the President of Shanachie Entertainment and Yazoo
Records. He also told me how to contact him.
Richard Nevins has released many classic recordings of
Old-Time Appalachian music on his Yazoo label. He has also
released superb CD compilations by Dennis McGee and Leo
Soileau. Several months earlier, I had tried unsuccessfully
to contact him, but this time I could tell him that Dick
Spottswood suggested that I contact him. I sent him an
email asking if he had any suggestions for finding the
#16001 album. He answered and said that he had copies
somewhere, but did not know where they were. He told me to
contact him every three months or so to see if he had been
able to find a copy. That was encouraging, but not
encouraging enough. I could not understand why someone who
had released this historic album could not find copies of
it.
About that time, I had also become interested in old-time
Appalachian music and had begun buying Old-Time CDs of
Appalachian music from County Records (countysales.com). I
knew that David Freeman, President of County Records,
periodically offered closed auctions of old LPs and that
some of them were recordings of Cajun music. I decided to
ask him if he had any suggestions for finding the Morning
Star #16001 album. He answered and said that he had
recently obtained a copy of the album from an estate sale
in Alabama and that he would be willing to sell it to me. I
sent him a check the next day - finally - success! I
believed the story was complete, but that turned out not to
be correct.
It was not until I received the album that I realized that
it had been recorded at Joe Bussard's house. Dick
Spottswood had hosted the appearance by Dennis and Sady at
the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C., and had
made arrangements for a recording session the day following
their appearance. I asked Dick how he was able to get
Dennis and Sady to go to Joe's house. He said, "Getting
McGee & Courville to Bussard's house was no particular
achievement. I do remember Bussard going nuts at having
them there, and calling them a pair of "walking Vocalions,"
after the label they first recorded for in 1929."
The album has twelve tunes, most of which had not
previously appeared on record. The only musical instruments
are fiddles - no bass, accordion, or rhythm guitar. The
album is superb. The music is as Roger Weiss described
their playing style - "a "less-beautiful" form of
music…raw…impassioned…"
In January of this year, I was reading an interesting
website on Cajun music (npmusic.org) when I noticed a
section about Dennis McGee and Sady Courville that refers
to the 1972 recording session at Joe Bussard's house. I
contacted Neal Pomea, the owner of the site, and asked if
the sample of songs on his site came from the Morning Star
#16001 album. Much to my surprise, he said that they came
from tapes that Joe had made of the recording session and
that Joe was offering them for sale. How could it be that
these tapes had existed for nearly 31 years and no one had
ever mentioned them? I had the end product and now I could
learn what happened at the recording session from which the
record was produced! I was excited.
I also learned that Neal lives in Colesville, Maryland,
less than 30 minutes from my house. He told me that he was
going to visit Joe the following weekend and offered to buy
me a copy of the tapes. The following week, Neal brought me
three cassette tapes that cover more than four hours of the
recording session. As mentioned earlier, Joe Bussard, Dick
Spottswood, Charles Faurot, Dennis and Sady were present.
The fidelity of the music and the spoken words by Sady and
Dennis are terrific. The microphones were placed in front
of Dennis and Sady. Words from the others who were further
from the microphones are more difficult to understand. I
found that I could hear all of the conversation better with
headphones. That was important because Dick, Charles, and
Joe prompted much of the conversation by asking questions
and making the musicians comfortable. And comfortable they
were! Dennis and Sady loved to talk. They talked about
growing up in Louisiana; about musicians with whom they
played; about the songs that they were playing; about their
first recordings. Sady wanted to answer every question.
Dennis was more impatient. Often in the middle of the
conversation, Dennis would say, "Let's play!" and then you
would hear his "bow biting into the strings." On the tapes,
there are also approximately fifteen additional tunes that
are not on the record.
Coupled with the completed album, the additional tunes and
the conversation, the tapes are the Dead Sea Scrolls of
Cajun music! When listening to the tapes, I stepped back in
time to hear "live" conversation between two Cajun legends
and three icons of old-time music. Thirty-one years later,
I was in the room with them participating in a historic
recording session!
Surely, these "musical pictographs" should be preserved.
Just as the pictographs and petroglyphs on canyon walls in
southern Utah are treasured, all of the recorded works of
Dennis McGee and Sady Courville should be preserved and
made available to the public. People like Edward Abbey have
contributed to an understanding that the canyon country of
southern Utah is precious and should be preserved. People
like Dick Spottswood, Richard Nevins, David Freeman, Ken
Irwin, Joe Bussard, and Charles Faurot have made major
contributions to the preservation of old-time music by
finding and releasing numerous recordings of old-time music
on CDs. Who is interested in doing the same thing for Cajun
music?
Alas, I have had no luck in getting anyone interested in
remastering the album and adding the unreleased songs for a
new CD. True, for the tapes of the recording session to
have the most entertainment and historical value, someone
would have to apply some technology to make the
conversation more audible; but that could be done. Richard
Nevins said, "When I say we cannot issue it, I mean because
of costs and inability to market such specialized items
effectively." Chris Strachwitz said, "…but this music is
really pretty awful - they were not at their best…"
I was angry at the comments by Chris Strachwitz. Here was
someone who has probably released more terrific recordings
of older Cajun music than anyone, and he is unable to
recognize the beauty of these musical pictographs!
Unforgivable! I agree with comments made by Dick Spottswood
during the recording session: "You are playing the best I
have heard you…I didn't know that two fiddles could make
that much music!"
After reflection, I remembered something that Richard
Nevins told me. Last year, in relation to my interest in
Dennis McGee, I tried to interest Richard Nevins in
recording Eric and Clay Chapman on his label. Because he
had released several recordings of Dennis and Sady, I
suggested that he should record two terrific contemporary
fiddlers who play in their style. With the help of a number
of people, I was able to send him a sample of their music.
His response was:
"Thanks very much for the CD of Eric and Clay - I enjoyed
it and it is certainly nice to see young folks keeping
alive old traditions!! I hate to convey bad news to you,
but it will be very hard to get a record company to issue a
CD of these young folks, as it would be near impossible to
get record stores to carry it…The criteria for record
companies to record an artist have very little to do with
how good (or bad) the musician's playing is, but a great
deal to do with what demand there is by the public for the
artist's music. Yes, this is even true of smaller
independent labels now, as they too wish to survive. 20
years ago it was a lot easier to just put out something
because you liked it - costs were next to nothing back
then!!…'
In a related exchange, Richard further said: " They (music
stores) don't want traditional Cajun records because their
customers don't want them …" Maybe Chris is just tired of
fighting the battle.
What to do? I have not succeeded in my pet endeavors. I
have not found anyone interested in working with the Dennis
McGee/Sady Courville album and recording session to release
one or more CDs of their work. I was not able to help or
even convince Eric and Clay Chapman to make a recording.
After humbling reflection, I understand that I cannot do
those things alone. There are, however, some little things
that each of us can do. The musicians and the music that
they have preserved on recordings can use our help:
1. Do everything that we can to learn about recorded Cajun
music, both new and old. A terrific place to begin is Neal
Pomea's website at npmusic.org. Listen to Pete Bergeron's
radio program on KRVS from 6:00 to 8:00 Eastern Time am
every weekday. Read the inserts and booklets on recordings
that you already own. If you can find it, read the
entertaining book titled "Let the Good Times Roll - A Guide
to Cajun & Zydeco music by Pat Nyhan, Brian Rollins,
and David Babb.
2. Purchase Cajun recordings wherever you can find them. I
have long thought that there is a pressing need for a
single place to purchase Cajun music like countysales.com.
Buying recordings from countysales.com is a pleasure. They
have the most comprehensive catalogue anywhere for
Old-Time, Bluegrass, and old Country music. They even have
several terrific Cajun recordings. Some company should
establish a comparable site for Cajun recordings. True,
Cajun music is best when played "live," but the recordings
are a nice complement to "live" appearances. And they
portray a colorful and entertaining culture (Besides, have
you ever watched older Cajun musicians light up and get
twenty years younger when they play before people who
respond to their music? - a powerful youth potion possible
for all of us.)
3. Whenever you have an opportunity to see "live" Cajun
music in person, attend. Dance! Let the musicians know that
you love their music.
4. Encourage your friends and acquaintances to experience
first-hand your own Cajun experiences.
5. Have a good "plate lunch" whenever you have the
opportunity.
Those are just a few modest suggestions. We can help to
preserve the music and support those who need our help to
be able to continue to playing it - a truly worthy cause!
Jack Bond
rjbond@aol.com