After Austin Pitre passed away in 1981, a box was found in his house of well used 78 rpm records by artists such as Amede Ardoin and Douglas Bellard. His love of the older music was evident from his music he chose to record through the years.
Austin was born in Ville Platte, surrounded by house parties. All of the area's musicians had a great effect on Austin growing up. His family were hard working sharecroppers making little money. His father was a fiddle player and his mother played the accordion. Soon Austin's father gave him a accordion in hopes that he would learn to play and join him at the local house parties.
Austin soon married and balanced the responsibility of working in the fields or as a mechanic all day then playing at dances at night. World War II came and Austin stayed home as he was the only son left to support his family. During this time the accordion popularity went down, Austin formed a string band to play for out of state soldiers.
He first recorded for J.D. Miller with his group, The Evangeline Playboys. In the following years, Austin and the Playboys played many of the large dancehalls of the time. In 1957 he was recorded by Ed Manuel and the release was released on Big Mamou Records, which would be one of Floyd Soileau's first labels.
Harry LaFleur recalls working with Austin in the early 1950's. He would go watch Austin at the Dixie Club in Eunice and like his playing. At the time both Harry and Austin were working at Bordelon's Ford Garage. Austin asked Harry if he and his band would back him on a record.
Austin's first release in 1959 was on Floyd's Swallow Records. It was a double sided affair, paying tribute to two artists Austin listened to on those 78 rpm records. The A side was a cover of a Amede Ardoin song, but the B side became a hit.
The B side is a cover of a pre war Cajun song recorded by Douglas Bellard. Douglas was a black fiddler from Bellaire Cove, not far from Ville Platte. In 1929, he recorded "Mon Camon La Case Que Je Suis Cordane"; which was also known as "The Flames of Hell". The song is derived from another classic Creole song called "Adieu Rosa".
Austin and his new band recorded their version of the Bellard classic but used the title it was known for; "Flum De Faire" or Flames of Hell. The song is a Cajun classic that Austin made his own with the desperate plea plea to a loved one to "pray for me, save my soul, I am condemned to the flames of hell.."
Hey, maman
T'as tout l'temps dit
J'aurais pleurer
J'vas regret j'sus gone
C'est une belle tite fille
Elle etait si fine
J'sus parti la avec
Pour un bon temp
Quand moi, j'ai vu
J'sus condamné
J'sus condamné
Les flammes d'Enfer
Priez pour moi
Sauvez mon âme
Sauvez mon âme
Les flammes d'Enfer
Hey, maman
Priez pour moi
J'sus condamné
Les flammes d'Enfer
J'ai ité a la porte
Disait 'Tite Tante
Qui c'est qu'est la?
---C'est ton neveu
---Qui c'est tu veux??
Priez pour moi
J'sus condamné
Austin's session was recorded in Floyd's first studio next to the Platte Theatre. Floyd recalls the session:
"I used a delayed echo system that I devised from using a voice of music recorder and that little space between the recorder head and playback head gave a reverb sound where you could split the mic and feed it back in to get as much echo as you wanted from it. I didn't like the sound at first and held back on releasing it. I finally released it and it sold well on the jukeboxes and became a hit. My first million seller."
This first record was a hit for Austin and the Evangeline Playboys. Austin recorded extensively for Swallow Records between 1959 and 1971 recording many classic songs. He is largely responsible for keeping some of the old classics alive, many of which he had on the old 78 rpm records. His music is a prime example of the powerful dancehall sound of the time.
Session info
AND EVANGELINE PLAYBOYS
V-2/acdn, Harry LaFleur (fdl), J Audrey ‘Cabrie’ Menier (v-1/st-g), Dickey Gill (g),
Eston Bellow (d)
Swallow Studio, Ville Platte LA: October 1959
S-6312 Flum de faire (Flumes dans faires)
(Flames of hell)-2 Sw 106
Resources
Conversations with Floyd Soileau
Wade Falcon- Early Cajun Music Blog
Broven- South to Louisiana
Ann Savoy- Liner notes to Arhoolie CD 452
lyrics- cajunlyrics.com
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