Isaac Leger and the Country Cajuns- "Cajun Club Special"

                                         

The 1960's saw a boom in new labels devoted to releasing Cajun music. While many of these labels were smaller than their contemporaries such as Swallow and Goldband, they still released some great recordings.

As electronic recording equipment became more available, some artists began recording themselves and releasing the recordings on their own label.

One of those smaller labels was the Marie label which was run by a musician named Ed Credeur. 

The Jennings native had played with many groups such as Joe Bonsall and Jesse Lege in the late seventies and eighties. By 1975, Ed was playing in a group led by Isaac Leger called the Country Cajuns.

Born in 1936 in Church Point, Isaac Leger became inspired to play the accordion by his cousin's husband; Iry Lejeune. During the late forties, Iry and his wife would visit Isaac, travelling by buggy on Sunday afternoons.

By 1965, Isaac formed The Country Cajuns, with Ray Thibodeaux on drums, Junoir McClelland on steel guitar, Tony Leger on bass, and T-Boy Esthay on fiddle. Ed Credeur was known to play with the groups as well. They would play in Basile at the Bearkat and Main Street Lounge as well as T-George's in Lake Arthur.

The group also played the Club 90 in Iowa, playing every Friday and Saturday night for seven years. But it was 1970's that they played at The Cajun Club in the LeBleu settlement. The club was owned by Phil Menard and the Country Cajuns alternated weekends with Phil's band, The Louisiana travelers.

Around 1975, Ed gathered the Country Cajuns into his home in Jennings. Ed had acquired a reel to reel recorder recently and wanted to record the group and release a 45 rpm record of them on a label of his named Marie, named after his wife.

With the rise of dancehalls in the late 40's, many artists would record songs with the clubs name in the title to act as a promotion for the club. Nathan had the "Avalon Waltz", Austin Pitre had "Manual Bar Waltz" and "Chinaball Blues" and Aldus had "Hix Wagon Wheel Special". The Country Cajuns recorded a ode to Phil's club, aptly named "Cajun Club Special"

Isaac Leger and the Country Cajuns released "Cajun Club Special" backed with "Country Cajun Waltz" on the Marie label in 1975. The recording features Isaac on accordion, Ed Credure on fiddle, Jesse McClelland on steel guitar, Tony Leger on bass and Morris Newman on drums. The group's lone release seems to be Marie's only output.

"Cajun Club Special" bears resemblance to Iry LeJeune's "Donnez-Moi Mon Chapeu" which Isaac would have learned from his time with Iry. Iry had borrowed the tune from his relative, Angelas Lejeune, who had recorded it in 1929 as "Petite Te Canaigh".

                                     

AND THE COUNTRY CAJUNS

Acdn, Ed Credeur (fdl), Jesse McClelland (st-g), Isaac ‘Tony’ Leger (b-g), Morris 

Newman (d)

Ed Credeur’s house, Jennings LA 1975

Country Cajun waltz (inst) Marie 001

Cajun Club special (inst) Marie 001

Resouces

Crystal Leger

Jesse Lege

Ron Yule- Cajun Dancehall Heyday

with thanks to Wade Falcon