Old Music for New Ears

Margaret Girouard was visiting her sister in Los Angeles when she and her family got stuck on freeway traffic and her baby began to bawl from the backseat. The Lafayette native pulled out a CD called Je M’Endors, a gift for her sister’s newborn, and stuck it in the player. Within minutes, the baby fell asleep.

The CD is one of two artistic compilations conceived—both independently—to welcome newborns to Lafayette and Baton Rouge: one a CD of Cajun and Creole lullabies, the other a time capsule of artistic expression.

Louisiana Folk Roots recently released Je M’Endors: Cajun and Creole Lullabies, an album that will be given to one thousand babies born at Lafayette General Medical Center and will also be sold to the general public. Across the river, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge is currently compiling music, photos, and spoken word for the newborns of the Baton Rouge area as part of a project for its Opening Notes project.

Through these compilations, both organizations hope to reinforce to families the importance of music in transmitting culture and sense of place while also introducing infants to the unique culture of South Louisiana.

JE M'ENDORS

For most people waiting to be served at Lafayette General Medical Center (LGMC), their time at the hospital is not a happy one. But when “Brahms’ Lullaby” is played over the intercom, the atmosphere lightens: a baby has been born. While the airing of Johannes Brahms’ signature lullaby may be charming, for uniquely cultural Lafayette the song lacked a local connection, which is why LGMC CEO/President David Callecod and the Lafayette General Foundation contacted Todd Mouton, executive director of Louisiana Folk Roots, to suggest that Cajun and Creole music be the first music the newborns would hear.

“Lickety-split we came up with a notion that there are a lot of possibilities for this project,” said Mouton. “I reached out to artists … was almost overwhelmed by the response. Obviously the idea that [Cajun and Creole music would be] the first thing a baby would hear was super appealing.”

The resulting album, Je M’Endors: Cajun and Creole Lullabies, was produced in Lafayette and includes the talents of twenty-four artists with nine Grammy Awards among them. The CD also contains the first official release of new songs by David Greely, Marce Lacouture, Yvette Landry (from the band Bonsoir, Catin, recently nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award), and members of the Magnolia Sisters Ann Savoy and Jane Vidrine (also nominated for a 2015 Grammy), plus a new solo piano and vocal performance by Zachary Richard, who revisited his trilingual, late-1970s composition “La Berceuse Créole” (Creole Lullaby) for the project.

The idea for the CD was discussed in June, received the green light in July, and “by September it was being pressed,” Mouton said. “It was pretty crazy.” The recording sessions co-produced by Mouton and Tony Daigle were equally efficient. “Artists came in, we figured out a play, we tried stuff, and by the end of the night we were falling asleep,” he said with a smile. “It all happened pretty fast.”

For singer-songwriter Yvette Landry, the project offered a chance to write a new song, one developed from a tune she sang while she rocked her son, Trevor, to sleep. “When I thought about it, that little melody came into my head and it came back to me,” Landry explained. “It wasn’t just a song. It brought me back to when my son was little.”

Landry’s “Fais Do Do” was recorded with Richard Comeaux, a dreamy lullaby accompanied only by guitars. Originally, Cajun musician Steve Riley was going to add his trademark accordion to the song, but in the end the song was performed with only two guitars.

Meanwhile, Comeaux played steel guitar on Riley’s South Louisiana-style version of “Brahms’ Lullaby.”

“That was so organic, the way that came to be,” Landry said of the recording session. “The studio session was special. It was magic.”

“It was perfect that they were all there,” Mouton said. “As a producer you try to combine and produce the most cohesive thing.” In many cases the songs were their ideal selves the first time performed. “There were several first takes on the CD,” Mouton explained.

In addition to original songs, many of the tracks are old Acadian and Creole songs recorded by folklorist and field collector Alan Lomax in the 1930s, tapes now preserved at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. On “Dors, Dors,” for instance, Megan Brown sings an old Acadian lullaby. Zydeco artist Curley Taylor found a rare Haitian tune recorded by Lomax, a song that was also recorded in New Orleans. He performs a more soulful version of “Crabe Dans Callaloo,” a song that describes how daddy’s fishing and mom’s cooking, so sleep, baby, while the crab’s in the stew.

The CD’s title track, “Je M’Endors,” is another song from Lomax’s archives, later recorded by BeauSoleil in the 1970s. The original song “is a kind of mysterious old song about a guy lost in the woods,” Mouton explained. “A spooky, fable kind of song.” Singer-songwriter Kristi Guillory wrote a new third verse that ends the tale with the boy safe in his mother’s arms. The current version of “Je M’Endors” features the combined talents of Guillory, David Doucet, Jimmy Brown, Mitch Reed, Terrance Simien, and Megan Brown recorded in separate takes.

“Needless to say, none of the artists did it together,” Mouton said. “We did a ‘We Are the World’ thing and put it together.”

OPENING NOTES

Over in Baton Rouge, the Opening Notes project seeks to offer newborns of the Baton Rouge area a “time capsule,” explained Eric Holowacz, president and CEO of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. The planned compilation entails the production of a music CD with a twenty-something page, full-color booklet filled with poetry and photographs. “While we love lullabies, the Opening Notes project is more about projecting the scope and diversity of the culture—presented through music, images, and poems—as our gesture of welcome to the new baby,” Holowacz explained. “It is [meant] as a kind of inheritance, a legacy of cultural goodness, and an immediate immersion (for baby and family) into the creative ethos of the capital region. Rather than just lullabies for the baby’s early years, we see our compilation as intended for the entire life of the person, a reference to their place of origin, and a creative time capsule to return to ever after.”

Holowacz conceived this idea while managing a rock band in Atlanta in his younger days. At the time, the governor of Georgia wanted Mozart played in neonatal wings of hospitals, but Holowacz disagreed with his choice of music. “It didn’t have any connection to the culture of Georgia,” Holowacz said.

While working in Wellington, New Zealand, Holowacz created his first Opening Notes package, followed by a similar one in Australia. “But this is probably the most relevant musical terrain I have lived in,” he said of South Louisiana. Music to be included in the Baton Rouge version of Opening Notes will feature local talent, music indigenous to the area, and place-relevant literature and photography. At press time, the group of advisors connected with the project had yet to make the musical selections, which will be narrowed to twenty songs and debuted on Mardi Gras day. The compilation will be given to fifteen thousand newborns each year in the capital region, Holowacz said, funded by philanthropy and charitable contributions.

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New aunt Margaret Girouard did pass on Je M’Endors to her sister after the incident on the Los Angeles freeway, but it was her three-year-old nephew who’s enjoying it most, she said. His favorite is Landry’s “Fais Do Do,” which he attempts to sing in French. “It’s always been my biggest mission to bring them [her California family] as much Cajun culture as possible, to remember their roots,” Girouard said. “It’s sad when family moves so far away, so it’s nice to somehow convey that culture to them.”

Even though Je M’Endors is a compilation of Cajun and Creole songs, most of which are sung in French, the CD is more about sharing culture and a sense of place, Mouton said. “We have this great folk music here—it’s part of our lives,” he said. “This is one more vehicle to carry this forward. It’s just universally good folk music, and you don’t have to be Cajun to enjoy it.”

Holowacz agrees. “It’s very gratifying that you’re adding a cultural element to something as special as a birth,” he said. “Genes and family and culture are all something that you have when you’re born.” l

Details. Details. Details.

Louisiana Folk Roots

lafolkroots.org

Je M’Endors can be purchased on the website above for $15 (or $20 internationally), which includes shipping & handling. You may also download digital copies from iTunes and CD Baby.