Dewey Balfa and His Musical Brothers- "Drunkard's Sorrow Waltz"

 Dewey Balfa was born March 20th 1927 near Mamou. At a young age, he learned most of his songs from his father and grandfather. In 1948, along with his brothers Harry, Will and Rodney; formed the Musical Brothers. By then Dewey was well known for his style on the fiddle and was often requested to play with other musicians.

He made his recording debut in 1951, with Elise Deshotel on Khoury's. One of those early sides was "La Valse de Bon Baurche". The song tells the tale of a sorrowful drunkard. The song warns of the evils of drink and high living. It was an old melody, first recorded by Dennis McGee as "La Valse Du La Penitentiaire" and again Leo Soileau in the 1930s known as "Quand Je Suis Bleu". Around this time Dewey began his association with Nathan Abshire. This musical friendship lasted until Nathan's death.

Floyd Soileau opened Floyd's Record Shop after high school. He released his first records
with the help of Ed Manual, who was a local juke box operator. That first label was Big Mamou. He went with the name Vee Pee before he finally settled on the name Swallow.

After he started the label, local artists came to him to release their work. Dewey was one of those artist. He approached Soileau about recording traditional Cajun music. But in the early 60's traditional Cajun wasn't too popular thanks to rock and roll and R&B. George Khoury released some of his last Cajun records a couple years earlier. Soileau recalled:

              In the early 60's, Cajun music wasn't cool. You had those who liked it and thought it was ok and you had those who thought it stunk.

But Soileau had alot of people requesting the song "La Valse De Bon Baurche". When Dewey mentioned this song, Soileau agreed to record him and his brothers. Released in 1965,  this recording marks the first release of The Balfa Brothers. Floyd gave it the English title "Drunkard's Sorrow Waltz". 
It was a good seller for Swallow Records and marked the return of traditional sounding music back into the scene. 

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