Dedans le Sud de la Louisiane—The Filmmaker’s Commentary
DEDANS LE SUD DE LA LOUISIANE, FILMMAKER’S COMMENTARY
By Jean-Pierre Bruneau, the filmmaker, from an essay that he wrote in French and in English to accompany a DVD of this film, adapted for Folkstreams by Daniel W. Patterson
Bruneau on the Background of the Movie
Shot in 1972, fortunately restored, here are some of the first images to have reached Europe about this mythical land, its people, their ancient French language, and most of all their wonderful and unsophisticated music.
While the American mass culture is fast absorbing the whole planet, it is nothing short of a miracle to discover the spirit of resistance and the growing influence of a French speaking minority culture originating from one of the poorest states in the U.S.
Louisiana, once part of the huge French colonial empire in North America, abandoned and sold by Napoleon in 1803, kept on integrating people of different origins, French, Acadians, Africans, West Indians, Spaniards, Germans, the native Amerindians of the area such as the Houma and Chitimacha tribes, and also protestant Anglos: They went on to form a multifaceted society—one that, unlike other American melting pots rests upon a French cultural foundation wrote the noted professor Carl Brasseaux. A melting pot distinguished by two categories of citizens. For most people of this area, only White people are considered Cajuns, the Black community being called Creole. In the past the music of both groups was undifferentiated under the generic term “French Music.” Not so today where the music reproduces this racial categorization. And the more recent word zydeco also applies solely to the contemporary Black music of the area.
Until the late sixties, the very existence of these French speaking communities were largely unknown outside of Louisiana (the word Cajun—now also written Cadien—only appeared in French dictionaries at the end of the ‘70s). Their music despised by the Louisiana elite as “chanky chank” was “discovered” and recorded long after other ethnic musics. The first Cajun records, solely intended for local consumption, came out in 1928, twenty years after the first Klezmer or Norwegian-American records, eight years after the first blues records. The first ethnographic field recordings were done in 1934 by John & Alan Lomax but their finds were kept unnoticed on the shelves of the Library of Congress during several decades. Only a very small group of Louisiana natives, notably Revon Reed and his friend the lawyer Paul Tate, both from Mamou, as well as less than a dozen foreign aficionados showed interest in this original culture. As I happened to know some of them, here are a few details about this strange and cosmopolitan tribe:
During the 50s, Harry Oster, a young Jewish scholar, son of a Polish “cantor,” chose a position at LSU in Baton Rouge and started collecting blues songs (he “discovered” Snooks Eaglin and Robert Pete Williams). He soon met Revon Reed and Paul Tate, who convinced him to record what became the definitive album Folksongs of the Louisiana Acadians.
Another milestone was the Anthology of American Folk Music published in 1952 and a major influence for the then emergent “folk generation.” A collection of obscure 78s recordings assembled by the eccentric New York beatnik Harry Smith, the anthology included a few Cajun tunes by Joe and Cleoma Falcon, Colombus Frugé, and Delma Lachney. Smith knew absolutely nothing about these musicians that he called “Arcadians.”
Living in Berlin in 1960, Benno Häupl, an Austrian born teenager, was interested by Country music and became fascinated by the few Cajun tunes that he found in Smith’s Anthology. A D.J. for the American Armed Forces Radio RIAS, he remembered airing Cajun songs there as soon as 1961. An avid records collector, he owned the largest known collection of Cajun and Creole music: 400 78s, 1,400 45s, 750 LPs totaling more than 99% of all discs ever published of this genre, including many “only known copies,” since there was often a total of only 100 copies pressed. [DWP note: Häupl’s extraordinary collection of Cajun recordings and of recordings of traditional music from across the entire world was acquired by the library of the University of California at Santa Barbara. See https://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/performing-arts/benno-h%C3%A4upl-collection-pa-mss-122 ]
At about the same time, another German speaker, Chris Strachwitz, a refugee from Silesia, roamed the Southern states in search of blues artists for his small label, Arhoolie Records based near San Francisco. In Houston, he met Clifton Chenier, thanks to the insistence of Lightnin’ Hopkins. Hooked by Chenier’s music, Strachwitz started to produce the richest catalog of Cajun and zydeco there ever was and in the process enlisted the filmmaker Les Blank, who shot documentaries like Spend It All, J’ai été au bal or Yum, Yum.
1963, England. Blues enthusiast Mike Leadbitter (born in India) started the first magazine devoted to the blues, Blues Unlimited. He contacted small regional labels all over the American South and received Cajun records that tickled his fancy. He and John Broven, future author of South to Louisiana, the Music of the Cajun Bayous, started reviewing that “French music,” and over a full decade, BU has been the only available printed source about Cajun and zydeco music!
Then came the “cousins,” Québécois film maker André Gladu (who did a wonderful series of film documenting the music of various French speaking groups all over North America) and myself, both seduced by the music and the lifestyle of these Cajun bayous and the desire to share with the world the beauties of this vibrant and fragile French speaking community.
The first “foreign” musician to record Cajun songs in French was probably the Breton singer Serge Kerval at the end of the ‘60s. He was followed by the American folksinger Roger Mason, who lived in France in the ‘70s and was sent to Louisiana to do field recordings for the French Museum of Folk Arts. Another important figure of the period was Gérard Dôle, singer, composer, and accordion player, in a way the spiritual father of the contemporary “Francadian” scene. But the true beginning of interest in Cajun culture in France was the very successful first tour there by the Balfa Brothers in 1975, followed by Clifton Chenier’s band a couple years later.
During the ‘80s, thanks to media coverage of personalities like the Balfas, Clifton Chenier, the band Beausoleil, chef Paul Prudhomme, painter George Rodrigue, or the movie The Big Easy, everything Cajun (food, music and dance) became suddenly fashionable all across the U.S. and even further. It gave birth to a tourist rush that Acadiana had never seen before.
Cecil Doyle, music director at Lafayette’s public radio station KRVS and a one-time Mamou resident, wrote that “Dedans le Sud de la Louisiane” “captures Southwest Louisiana at a very special moment in time, a transitional period when we were still a relatively isolated culture on the cusp of a generation that would not only embrace what came before but build upon it.” That was the case with the “baby boomers” (notably Zachary Richard, Michael Doucet with Beausoleil, C.J. Chenier, Buckwheat Zydeco, Wayne Toups, Beau Jocque) who travelled wide and far, followed by a younger generation (Steve Riley, Geno Delafose, the Lost Bayou Ramblers, Marc and Ann Savoy’s offsprings, Bonsoir Catin, Cedric Watson, Feu Follet) who make the cultural scene in and around Lafayette so creative.
Today one finds zydeco and Cajun bands in places like California, Japan, UK, Holland and France. Interestingly these groups often exist because they are followed and supported by a faithful dancing community that went beyond the traditional, waltzes, and two steps and created new steps like the line dancing inspired by “Cajun freeze.” Today, Cajun and zydeco dancing can also be influenced by jitterbug or salsa, even hiphop and free style.
About the crew
The film crew main connection was Revon Reed, a schoolteacher, journalist, and publisher of two bilingual local weeklies (Mamou Acadian Press followed by Mamou Prairie), live radio show host, dean of Cajun letters (he wrote the legendary book Lâche pas la patate), Cajun activist, and keeper of the flame. A marker honours his memory outside Fred’s Lounge in Mamou, where he ran his weekly remote radio broadcast from 1962 to the early ‘80s. In 2016, the radio broadcast was still taking place in the same bar (only open every Saturday morning for the occasion) hosted by Annona Balfa, daughter of ‘tit fer master player Burkeman Balfa of Balfa Brothers fame.
The “off” historie narration was done by Pierre Daigle, also a schoolteacher, songwriter and writer (Tears Love and Laughter), who used to live in Church Point.
The cinematographer was Paul Goldsmith. After shooting DLSDLL he was hired by Bob Dylan (Renaldo & Clara), Neil Young (Rust Never Sleeps), and Leon Gast (When we were Kings). He also co-directed the controversial documentary The Good Times are Killing Me, showing a declining Nathan Abshire. The sound recordist was Petur Hliddal who did sound recording for Renaldo & Clara and later worked as sound mixer (notably for Great Balls of Fire, Edward Scissorhands, Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, Syriana.)
Dedans le Sud de la Louisiane was the first film by the director Jean-Pierre Bruneau, who came back twenty years later in Acadiana to shoot Louisiana Blues. He has made several documentaries dealing with jazz and world music, notably for the European TV channel Arte.
Bruneau on the Musicians
NATHAN ABSHIRE (1913-1981)
Accordion player & singer, born in Gueydan, Nathan was one of the most colorful characters among Cajun musicians. He played house dances with the great Black musician, Amédée Ardoin and made his first recordings in 1935 with Happy Fats. Half forgotten during World War II, he made a great comeback in 1949 with his groovy Pine Grove Blues. From the late ‘50s on, he teamed with The Balfa Brothers and in the ‘70s crisscrossed the American folk festival circuit, but always refused to travel to Europe. As one of his songs is titled, he "died in misery" in 1981 in Basile. As the engraved motto which adorned his squeeze box case promised, the “good times” had finally killed him.
ALPHONSE "BOIS SEC" ARDOIN (1915-2007)
Black accordion player & singer born in l'Anse à Prien Noir near Duralde in 1914. A humble sharecropper all his life, he was Amédée Ardoin's cousin. In 1948 he teamed with fiddler Canray Fontenot. They went to Newport Folk Festival in 1966 and cut their first album Les Blues du Bayou the same year. Bois Sec and his wife Marceline raised 14 children and two of them (Morris and Lawrence) still carry on his musical legacy. And two of his grandsons (Chris and Sean) play in zydeco bands.
THE BALFA BROTHERS
They were the most well known ambassadors of Cajun culture around the world. Fiddler and singer Dewey (1927-1992), fiddler Will, guitar player and singer Rodney, and occasional triangle player Burke were all born and raised on the sharecropper’s farm of their father Charles on Bayou Grand Louis near Mamou. Together they recorded more than a dozen albums.
In the late ‘40s, Dewey formed The Musical Brothers and cut his first 78s in 1951. Invited to the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and again in 1967, he came back transformed by the experience. He dedicated the rest of his life with considerable success to the preservation of his culture.
A very energetic man, he was a jack of all trades: from his house in Basile, he ran a small farm, drove a school bus, and sold insurance and furniture to feed his family. With what little time remained in his day, he played dances, recorded music, gave countless interviews, entertained guests from various countries, and appeared in several movies (including Hollywood features The Big Easy and Southern Comfort), hosted a live radio show, taught younger musicians, gave lectures and conferences (from elementary schools to universities), and toured the world with his band!
The deaths of his brothers Will and Rodney in a car crash In ‘79 and then of his wife Hilda were terrible blows, but he carried out his task until the end. The family tradition is carried on by his daughter Christine, who leads the group Balfa Toujours (meaning Balfa Forever).
ALPHEE BERGERON (1912-1980) & SHIRLEY BERGERON (1933-1993)
Accordion player Alphee Bergeron and his son Shirley are from Pointe Noire near Church Point, a community made famous by its wealth of great musicians such as Angelais Lejeune and Iry Lejeune.
Already at the age of 13, Shirley played the guitar in his father's band the Veteran Playboys. Later he wrote remarkable lyrics for some of the songs recorded by the band on two albums for Lee Lavergne’s label Lanor from Church Point. A great singer with an ample voice, Shirley made a living selling insurance. He has also been a radio host for a Cajun show and an organizer for Church Point's famous Mardi Gras celebrations.
BEE & ED DESHOTELS.
Twin brothers Ed (Edward) and Bee (Elby) Deshotels were born in the early ‘20s in the Mamou Prairie region. Their father Marcellus Deshotels (he was a fiddler, accordion player, singer, and storyteller of old French tales) traced his ancestors all the way back to Normandy who immigrated to Louisiana during the French Revolution of the late 18th century. Besides five songs which can be found on the Louisiana Acadians, Bee and Ed made two albums (including new songs they had written) on the Swallow label: La Vie des Cajuns and Cajun Troubadours.
BEE (REBY or RAY BEE) FONTENOT (1907-1973)
"He was the bluesiest accordion player under the sun and his booming baritone voice was rivaled only by Paul Robeson," wrote Michael Doucet in the liner notes of his Beau Solo album. Here are the only recordings Bee ever did, made on the porch of his house, a few months before his death. A sharecropper and a school bus driver (like Dewey Balfa) he had learned accordion playing from Amédée Ardoin and played mostly house dances. “Cornbread” (first track of this album) was considered by Dewey Balfa as Bee's masterpiece.
FREEMAN (FREMONT) FONTENOT (1900 to 1986)
Accordion player, he was Bee's older brother. They were both born and raised (like Dennis McGee) in a small community called l'Anse aux Rougeaux, located between Eunice and Mamou.
The humble shack where Freeman (name sometimes spelled Frémont) finished his life had been in the past Basile's first Black school. It became later a small club where accordion player Clifton Chenier and his brother Cleveland on scrubboard started their career during the ‘40s.
CANRAY FONTENOT (1922-1993).
When Canray Fontenot died, the consequences were, as Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ wrote, "like a library burning." Coming from a family of musicians—his father Adam who never recorded but was considered as important as Amédée Ardoin—Canray knew all the sources, connections, and influences in Creole and Cajun music.
With his death, it is also the rich Creole fiddling tradition that seems to disappear, simply because there is apparently nobody to take over. What is left, fortunately, are Canray's three albums on Arhoolie, and besides these few tracks, a number of titles on Rounder and Sonet.
DENNIS McGEE (1893-1989).
“In his Cowboy's Waltz a Cajun fiddler named Dennis McGee lamented the loneliness of a cowboy's life in French and to the tune of an Old World mazurka clearly influenced by the blues and Native American style” wrote Barry Ancelet in Cajun music and Zydeco. This is a good definition of the complexities behind Cajun music in general and the rich personality of Dennis McGee, dean of Cajun musicians when he died, age 96.
Dennis was born on the Bayou Marron, near Anse des Rougeaux and never stopped playing for 85 years. The records he made in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s in New Orleans with Black accordionist Amédée Ardoin had a tremendous influence that helped shape the Cajun sound. The second fiddle backing him has long been his brother-in-law Sady Courville, who comes from Pointe Saquette.
Bruneau on the Songs in the Film, with the Song Texts
1. Le Sud De La Louisiane.
This delicious swinging tune appropriately gives its title to the film and was composed at the end of the ‘50s by Alex Broussard, a rice farmer from Judice (La.), once a member of the Bayou Buckaroos with Happy Fats and a TV host for the popular Mariné Show every Sunday morning on KLFY. The song was recorded by Alex (with the help of Happy Fats and fiddler Doc Guidry) in Carol Rachou's Studio and inspired the name of Carol's new label La Louisianne (with two “n”). Cover versions of the song popped up many years later, notably by the Québécois chansonnier Robert Charlebois, the French Cajun band, Vermenton Plage and the all-women group The Magnolia Sisters, whose founder Ann Savoy once said that this song should be Louisiana's national anthem.
On a flotté sur la grande mer
On a marché dedans le sable
On a passé dans les montagnes
Dans les cailloux de la Virginie,
On a trouvé les cocodris
Les cocodris de la Louisiane
On ne donnerait pas nos cocodris
Pour tout le rest du pays.
Ici dans le sud de la Louisiane
Les poissons flottent dans le bayou Tèche
Les canards volent dedans les mèches
Les ouaouarons dans les platains,
Les écrevisses dans les clos de riz
Les écureuils dan les grands bois
On a trouvé notre paradis
Dedans le sud de la Louisiane.
Les petites Cadjines de la Louisiane
Les meilleuers culseuses du pays,
Les sauces piquantes, les écrevisses,
Les patates douces dans la cheminée,
Ça chante les chansons de la Louisiane
Ça bat le linge dans le bayou Tèche,
On a trouvé les petites Cadjines
Dedans le sud de la Louisiane.
Les vieux Cadjins de la Louisiane
Les meilleurs citoyens du monde,
Ça brûle le bois pour la cheminée
Ça boit du moonshine tout l’hiver,
Ça danse les polkas du vieux temps,
Les mazurkas, les valses aussi,
On a trouvé le paradis
Dedans le sud de la Louisiane.
2. Pine Grove Blues (Ma Négresse).
Backed by the full Balfa Brothers Band in top form, Nathan Abshire sings, dances, and plays his most popular song first recorded in 1949 for the OT label. Primitive, raw, exuberant, soaked in the blues, this tune contributed to the renaissance of the Cajun accordion after World War II. Among the many cover versions of the song, the best were by Queen Ida, Rockin Dopsie, Clifton Chenier, as well as the Hackberry Ramblers and Jo-El Sonier. The lyrics have a certain similarity with the old folk lament In the Pines made famous by Leadbelly. According to Canray Fontenot, the tune appeared between WW I and WW II and came from the Black musician Sidney Babineaux from Rayne. Interestingly, Québécois filmmaker André Gladu wrote that “the word négresse in the Cajun language is an affectionate word, but translated in English, it becomes an insult.”
Hey négresse !
Quoi q'tu veux Nathan ?
Où toi t’as passé hier au soir, ma négresse ?
Passé la barrière, nèg !
Hey, Hey négresse !
Quoi q'tu veux, mon nèg ?
Où toi t’as passé hier au soir, ma négresse ?
Sur la barrière, nèg !
Et arrive dimanche matin
Ta robe était toute déchirée
J'vais pas t'en racheter une autre
3. Ma Chèrie Bébé Créole (My Creole Sweet Mama)
Duetting fiddlers Dennis McGee and his brother-in-law and favorite partner Sady Courville play here with great energy and preciseness this archaic Acadian tune that they had recorded together during their first session in 1928 in New Orleans for the Vocalion label. Dennis passed away in 1989 at the “tender” age of 96!
4. Pain De Maïs.
When the accordion was introduced in the U.S. around 1860, it was first popular among Blacks, but became replaced by the guitar considered more suited to play the Blues. But not so in Louisiana where the accordion kept being associated with the Blues as proved by this heart-gripping song. Bee Fontenot was Canray Fontenot's cousin and the brother of Freeman Fontenot a little known but excellent musician. In his album Beau Solo, the fiddler Michael Doucet paid tribute to this song and to Bee's remarkable baritone voice.
Hum, hum, hum !
Ma chère ‘tite fille
Mets la farine de maïs au feu
Guette bien la chaudière
A cause c’est la dernière farine de maïs
On a déjà dans la maison.
Elle a été levée j'sais bien
Elle dit Mom’, mon pain est tout brûlé
Elle a dit : Comme ça comment j’vais faire ?
On a plus d'farine dans la maison
Pauv' malheureuse.
Elle a dit : Mom prends courage
On va aller voir chez le voisin
Voir s'ils en ont pas à vendre
Elle a été, elle est revenue
La vieille femme de plantée sur sa galerie
Elle a dit : Momie non I'voisin n'avait pas
Elle a croisé ses deux mains sur sa tête
Elle a fait hum ; hum, hum, hum....
5. Bogalusa Boogie (instrumental)
A superb accordion/frottoir duet (the basis of today's zydeco) by the two brothers, Clifton and Cleveland Chenier. During the late ‘40s, the Cheniers had the idea to redesign the antiquated washboard and transform it into a much more practical aluminium vest without which no zydeco band dares to play today. This tune was recorded and renamed the Bogalusa Boogie by Clif's Red Hot Louisiana Band three years after the shooting of the film and it gave its title to the album considered as Clifton's best (on Arhoolie Records).
6. Bon Ton Roulet.
In French or in English, “Let the good times roll” is a sort of Louisiana motto. Transcribed from the French it has various known spellings: “bons temps roulez,” “bon ton roula,” “bon ton rouley” or “bon ta ru la.” Many different songs bear that name: Clarence “Mr. Bon Ton” Garlow had a famous one way back in 1949, the New Orleans duettists Shirley and Lee did one in English in 1956, and Clifton uses another one created by Louis Jordan the same year. The “King of Zydeco” loved to adapt Creole versions of popular songs like Hey ‘tite fille (Hey little girl by Professor Longhair) or Renald Richard and Ray Charles, I Got a Woman: Moi j’ai une ‘tite femme).
7. La danse de la Limonade.
An adaptation of the famous New Orleans Creole song Hé, là bas that has known many versions by Kid Ory, Danny Barker, Fats Domino, or Dr. John. Only a few lines of the original Creole lyrics remain, and the Cajuns turned the song into a sort of hangover's lament.
8. Les Barres de la prison
The sad confession of a convict who got a life sentence is another fine example of Creole blues. It was written, said Canray Fontenot, by the late Douglas Bellard who recorded it during the ‘30s in a “shaky” style that Canray didn't like. He reworked the tune in order to make it more suitable for dancing. The Carrière Brothers did it in the Bellard fashion in Musique Créole (Arhoolie) while the versions by Chris Ardoin, Beausoleil, Horace Trahan, Bruce Daigrepont, Terrance Simien, or Courtney Granger are closer to Canray's style.
Good bye cher vieux pop
Good bye à mes frères et mes chères ‘tites soeurs
A c't'heure j'suis condamné
pour la balance de ma vie
dans les barres de la prison
Moi j’ai roulé, je m'ai mis mal faire
J'avais la tête dure, j'ai rentré dans le l'tracas
A c't'heure j'suis condamné
pour la balance de ma vie
Dans les barres de la prison
Ma pauv' vieille moman
Elle s'a mis sur ses genoux
Les deux mains sur la tête
En pleurant pour moi
Elle a fait hum, hum, hum, hum
Cher 'tit garçon
Moi j'vas jamais te revoir
Toi t'as été condamné pour la balance de ta vie
Dans les barres de la prison
Je dis : chère vieille mamam
Pleures pas pour moi
Il faut que tu pries pour ton enfant
Pour essayer de sauver son âme
Des flammes de l'enfer
9. and 10. Mes souliers rouges, La Veuve du lac bleu
Two traditional tunes, typical of the ones being sung during the “veillées” of the past. The troubador twins, Bee and Ed Deshotels, were among the last depositories of such a repertory, transmitted generation after generation. Mes souliers rouges is still known in France and in Quebec and was also recorded by Zachary Richard. It's “a rough song to sing,” says Bee Deshotels, because this cumulative song (known in France as “randonnée”) requires an excellent memory.
Il y a z'une veuve
Elle est plus belle que toutes les autres veuves
Ses yeux sont bleus comme le bleu du ciel
Et son bec il est doux comme le doux dans le miel
La veuve du lac bleu elle a ses conditions
Allez (dire) au rnonde dans sa petite chanson
Elle veut se marier mais il faut l’homme veut
Bâtir et rester sur l'écore du lac bleu
Dessus le lac bleu y'a plus de chanson
Il n'y a plus de veuves, y'a plus de conditions
Il y a une maison, elle est plaine d'enfants
Desus l'écore du lac bleu.
Dessus le lac bleu il y a z’une veuve
Elle est plus belle que toutes les autres veuves
Ses yeux sont bleus comme le bleu du ciel
Et son bec est pour moi, il est doux comme le miel
11. La danse des Mardi Gras
An old begging song for the day before Lent associated with a medieval tradition still alive in Louisiana. Mardi Gras is a day off all over Louisiana and is being run in Mamou as well as in twenty other rural communities. The Mardi Gras runners are always masked and costumed, and may walk, ride horses, carts or bogeys. They follow a codified ritual that may change from one community to another but where one can find remnants of "saturnalian" and “lupercalian” roles straight out of medieval Europe, as described by the historian Leroy Ladurie. The lancinating song bears similarities with the old French “Guignolée” but also shows a strong Celtic influence.
12. Mama Rosen.
A Caribbean and Antillean outpost, New Orleans has always been impregnated by the “latin tinge” (as exemplified by Professor Longhair’s rumba piano style). Here's a Cajun version of Mama Inez, a Cuban “tango congo” classic written by Eliseo Grenet that was covered by Charlie Parker as well as Maurice Chevalier! The latter obviously influenced the amazing singer Little Yvonne Leblanc then aged 14, who recorded it in 1956 for the Syro-Lebanese producer George Khoury.
13. Canny Creek. (La Robe à Rosalie)
Adam and Cyprien Landreneau were the first Cajun musicians to visit Europe (Germany and Switzerland) in 1966 as part of a Country music tour.
"Rosalie a perdu sa rosette
Pas loin du Canny creek et rick et rick tick
Et puis 'garde ici et ‘garde là-bas
Elle a perdu sa rosette
L'aut' bord du Canny creek
Demain c'est pas dimanche”.
14. ‘Tit Galop au Mamou.
The gallop was a dance step that came to the area during the 19th Century. A song in the vein of “‘Tit Galop à la Pointe aux Pins” that Revon Reed loved so much, the charming Balfa Brothers’ fetish song has also been covered by Steve Riley's Mamou Playboys. Riding horses has long been a part of the daily life on the prairie Mamou, and this equestrian culture is still carried on, most notably on Mardi Gras Day and during the trail rides popular among Black Creoles: “Tit galop, ‘tit galop” sings Zydeco Joe Mouton on his 2006 album Black Cat. Today riders are still galloping on the prairie Mamou.
'Tit galop, ‘tit galop au Mamou
J'ai vendu mon ‘tit mulet pour 15 sous
J'ai acheté des ‘tits souliers pour les p'tits
et une yard de ruban pour la vieille
