Jambalaya (on the bayou) | Live by the beach

Hi dear! 🤗

I’m back! Yay!
God I can’t tell how happy I am to start checking out your beautiful posts and life events again! I felt like it was a decade haha

Last night I snuck out to Hoi An – another city and decided to treat myself to a night of music jamming.
My little town is still banning music events but it’s not difficult to go to another town though it won’t be as cool as it here.

***- We were facing the beach - you can hear the sound of the waves!

• No drummer there but with headphones you'll hear the bass better!
• I love how we were shaking our butts haha ***

Anyway, let me introduce you to a very cool and old song:
Jambalaya (on the bayo) – Originally by Hank Williams (1952) – Yes haha! 1952! You never have to worry of me running out of old stuff lol

The most popular version is actually by The Carpenters in 1970’s
But still, different vibes, and you can choose which one is your favorite :D

• ME AND THIS SONG

Started to play this song as one of the very first songs I played at Open Mic in Da Nang, and as you know - I’m always the first person to play a song that nobody plays live here haha. Later on I kinda made it popular and it became one of the songs people always ask me to play when I pick up the guitar.
Look how chill I was, but hold on, it is not that easy to sing this song >o<
I use only 2 chords G and D, capo 2nd fret
But let’s break down the history and the language/lyrics in this song and why it is special!

• ABOUT THE SONG

"Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Hank Williams that was first released in July 1952. It is Williams' most covered song. Named for a Creole and Cajun dish, jambalaya, it spawned numerous cover versions and has since achieved popularity in several different music genres.

Williams began writing the song while listening to the Cajuns talk about food on the Hadacol Caravan bus. With a melody based on the Cajun song "Grand Texas", some sources, including AllMusic, claim that the song was co-written by Williams and Moon Mullican, with Williams credited as sole author and Mullican receiving ongoing royalties. Williams' biographer Colin Escott speculates that it is likely Mullican wrote at least some of the song and Hank's music publisher Fred Rose paid him surreptitiously so that he wouldn't have to split the publishing with Moon's label King Records.

Williams' song resembles "Grand Texas" in melody only. "Grand Texas" is a song about a lost love, a woman who left the singer to go with another man to "Big Texas"; "Jambalaya", while maintaining a Cajun theme, is about life, parties and stereotypical food of Cajun cuisine. The narrator leaves to pole a pirogue down the shallow water of the bayou, to attend a party with his girlfriend Yvonne and her family. At the feast they have Cajun cuisine, notably Jambalaya, crawfish pie and filé gumbo, and drink liquor from fruit jars. Yvonne is his [ma] "chère amie", which is Cajun French for "my dear (female) friend" or more likely to mean "my girlfriend."

Here are the lyrics:

Verse 1:
Goodbye, Joe, he gotta go, me oh my oh
He gotta go, pole the pirogue down the Bayou
His Yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the Bayou

Verse 2:
Thibodaux, Fontaineaux, the place is buzzin'
Kinfolk come to see Yvonne by the dozen
Dressed in style they go hog wild, me oh my oh
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the Bayou

Chorus:
Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo
For tonight I'm a gonna see my ma cher ami-o
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the Bayou

Verse 3:
Settle down far from town, get him a pirogue
And he'll catch all the fish in the Bayou
Swap his mon to buy Yvonne what she need-o
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the Bayou

Chorus repeat

The lyrics are just SO SPECIFIC! Haha
This is a rare song that I had to break down word by word to learn to sing.

**- Pole the pirogue down the Bayou

• Yvonne
• Thibodaux, Fontaineaux
• Kinfolk
• Hog wild, me oh my oh
• Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo
• My ma cher ami-o
• Be gay-o (gay-o is an old term to say “happy”)
• Swap his mon to buy Yvonne what she need-o**

Haha it was so difficult and so much much to learn and sing these!
Later on it became a part of me, and each time I play the song everyone is like “do you always sing such accident words which I don’t even know them all though I’m a native speaker?”

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this vibe!
I enjoyed playing with those guys so much
And once again, this is jamming and we did not practice before. My favorite is the violin guy coming from Saigon to travel. He just jumped right in and rocked with us like a real star!
My friend Luke on the bass is an incredible talent. He has a band, he got great voice, great originals, he plays acoustic guitar, a master of electric guitar, he plays bass, he plays piano too hahaha
And the guy on backing micro is Casey, he is a cool friend, he plays bunch of Irish music!

Enjoy your day there and hope you find this post interesting!
I really appreciate you guys remembering me while I was gone for a bit, and now you’re here with me again!
LUV!

Little Beatle ♫