Discovery of Commercial Cajun Music: New Styles
The 1930s marked not just the beginning of the Great Depression but also a time of social and cultural change in the music industry and lifestyles in Louisiana. The emergence of radio, in the following decades television, led to general dislike of the sound of rough or unpolished music, and the Cajun diatonic accordion with its lack of harmonizing scales for notes played was one of the first instruments to go in the wake of the new styles.[i]
Soon the sounds from Texas and Tennessee that made Western swing (also known as Western string) and the blues string bands from New Orleans and elsewhere along the Mississippi River became preferred in South Louisiana dancehalls. These styles brought forth an increase in Americanization in Cajun music. Besides accordions, instruments such as the triangle, spoons, and string guitars in a typical Cajun line up began to change as well to fit with the swing style.
In June 1934, the Library of Congress's Archive of American Folk Song (AAFS) tasked John and Alan Lomax, a father and son team with recording folk music of the Louisiana region. A Depression-era cultural program, the AAFS sought to document the nation's indigenous music to help boost the country’s morale by celebrating its folk songs.[ii] When traveling around Louisiana looking to record "pure" folk music, the Lomaxes found out that Cajuns were mixing and mashing with other styles.
They captured a music style that mixed French, Afro-Creole, and English words and tunes from Afro-Creole, African, Caribbean, French, Jewish, and American cultures. Not to mention a combination of instruments from all around the world.[iii] Which you can check out here at the John and Alan Lomax in Louisiana 1934 website: https://www.lomax1934.com/song-index.html
Alan Lomax remarked that “[Cajuns’] interpretations of all music they give it something of their own personality and characteristics that make it unmistakably theirs.”[iv]
By the mid-1930s a new style appeared known as "Corinna," a type of blues, hillbilly, jazz mixed together that gave off "sad" vibes and incorporated la musique française.[v] It is thought that the song"Blues Nège" (1934) by Cleoma B. Falcon was an influence on this emerging style.
Two well-known practitioners of this style were Lawrence Walker and Nathan Abshire.
One such song Walker wrote, "Alberta," featured English lyrics and the theme of lamenting about a lover reflected the process of Americanization.
LISTEN:
Alberta sings of a man lamenting the distance between him and his love. It still features the traditional Cajun music lineup: an accordion as the lead instrument and backed with guitars and violins. But this string backing can also be interpreted as part of the hillbilly swing lineups. Yet because of the theme of lamentation, it follows closely to the blues or jazz themes often found in the Corinna style.
"Alberta"
Alberta, Alberta, where have you been so long,
Alberta, Alberta, where have you been so long,
I ain't had no lovin', since you've been gone.
I met Alberta, way across the pond,
I met Alberta, way across the pond,
Didn't write me no letters, you didn't care for me.
Alberta, Alberta, tell the world "Adieu,"
Alberta, Alberta, tell the world "Adieu,"
Just a little bit of lovin', let your heart be true.
Alberta, Alberta, where have you been so long,
Alberta, Alberta, where have you been so long,
I ain't had no lovin', since you've been gone.
Did you know? The tune also became widely famous outside Louisiana and was adopted by several Western swing bands, like Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys in their song "Corrine, Corrina" (1940). This version of the song eventually became a Cajun favorite too, either titled "Alberta," Roberta" or "Corrine, Corrina." Take the time to listen to the Cajun rendition of "Corrine, Corrina."
