Annotation:Mama Where You At?
X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x
MAMA, WHERE YOU AT? AKA and see "Hey Mom." First Cajun fiddle recording. The song was written by Amidie Breaux. It was recorded by the duo of fiddler Leo Soileau and accordion player Mayeuse Lafleur. Lafleur (-1928) was a gifted accordion player who had been taught to play by his uncle, who had taken him in when Mayeuse's father was not able to work and raise his child at the same time (his mother had departed when he was an infant). Soileau and Lefleur were among the first Cajun musicians to record in 1928.
Mayeuse declared, the story goes, that he was going to take his arnings from his record to find his mother. On his way home from a gig, however, he stopped at a friend's house, a local bootlegger, for a drink. While he was there a man entered and started an argument with the bootlegger, which escalated until finally the man pulled a pistol and started shooting. Meyeuse's friend was hit, and the accordion player rushed to his side to pull him to safety, when he, too, received a bullet. He was killed instantly.
For more, see Nelson, Donald Lee. "Mama, Where You At?" The Chronicle of Maius Lafleur, John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly 19 (Summer 1983): 76-79.
