JimmyCNewmaninterview

American Music's

Jimmy C. Newman interview

I don't remember how the weather was in 1985, but the sun seemed to shine all the time for Jimmy C. Newman,

a very humble and gentle Louisiana citizen, born near Big Mamou.

This interview was done in Frankfurt, Germany.

Before we start talking about you, please explain the difference between cajun and zydeco music, and what you're doing now: cajun country.

"I've been in Nashville a lot of years and I've put up a band together seven years ago and called it Cajun Country. We combined the Nashville sound with my heritage in cajun music.

Now the zydeco on the cajun scene; zydeco comes from the expression "Green been haricots". This came about when Clifton Chenier recorded a song called: Les haricots sans pas sallees, which means the beans aren't salted, and I think for lack of a better name, at least that's my theory, they came up with the name zydeco. So the word zydeco comes from the beans. That' s the best explanation I can give you."

Although you're now in Cajun Country, you went through a lot of different styles in your musical career. You started in the mid-forties, so what did you do until you got your first hit and is Tom T. Hall still grateful to you for being the first one to record a song of his?

"Oh yes, Tom is still grateful for me being the first one to record his song, in this case: DJ for a day.

But let's go back to 1946, when I started with a band that needed a singer, and I got the job as a country, western swing and cajun singer, and I recorded a song: Backside of Grand Texas in 1947.

But later, in the early 50's, the bandleader quit the band. We had some records out by that time, cajun songs, and somebody had to run the band. My theory was that running a band and being in the business, we had to have a few records and we got a few on a popular cajun label.

Then I wrote "Cry cry Darling" and "You didn't have to go" for the Cooder label from Lake Charles and those were my national successes and the songs were later leased to Dot Records and they gave me my first national hit. It brought me to the Louisiana Hayride in 1954 and I left in 1956.

I was still living in south Louisiana, cl;ose to Big Mamou, which is my home town, when I got an offer to come to Nashville, to the Opry in 1956; I became a member at the same time and I'm still one. But seven years ago after recording country and cajun, you see I did Diggy Liggy Lo in 1955, I did Big Mamou in 1960, and in between I did an album for MGM, with a.o. Jole Blon, so I was doing cajun al along, but then I came to the point that I was thinking of either going out or try something else, and I had a way out, so I formed the band Cajun Country. The main cajun instruments are the cajun accordeon and the fiddle. With this combination we brought in myself and the rest of the band playing country music with a cajun sound, and it did real well.

That's the history of Cajun Country and we're here in Germany talking about it.

Compared to what you' re doing now,you have recorded albums that sound very dull.

Well,originally I,m a ballad singer and I like sad songs; that' s how my first succes came about.But now we don' t do any ballads. A waltz like Jole Blon but cajun isn' music to sleep by.

Jimmy,you also recorded songs in French without the typical accrdeon and a western album. Is there any explanation for all those different styles?

Good you bring that up. I did Folksongs Of The Bayou. It was a kind of experiment back in the sixties. It was an acoustic album with songs like Lache Pas La Patate. Out of this I got a tremendous succes with that song, not only in Louisiana, I even got a gold record in Canada but my idol through all these years and still now,believe it or not,was Gene Autry ever since I saw him the first time. Because I' a cowboy at heart> I have a ranch with Appaloosa horses and all that> And I got the chance with Plantation records to do this cowboy album with western songs and I felt I really had accomplishes something. It's only a part of whaqt I'e been doing and it' proof of the versatility that I like.I still like the album and I think it' s still good for eqsy listening pruposes if you wanna get out of cajun for a while.

You are playing cajun country for seven years and built up quite a name with your music. Do you need chart records or can you make a living without?

In the States a number one record would definately mean a whole lot. That's what it's all about, but our sound has caught on with the people. In Nashville we have TNNN which is a cable TV network and that's given us a lot of exposure. Everybody wants it in the US and Canada. I think it goes into twenty-five million homes but the main thing will always be a number one song. However, we have accomplished a good reputation in Europe, especially in England, and it's becoming known all over Europe, so you can make a living. But in the States you need that number one song to do well.

You are also a songwriter, and for instance, even Bill Monroe recorded your Cry cry darling, who else did?

You are familiar with things I hardly remember, but you're right, Bill Monroe did record Cry cry darling and a lot of other people did too. I was also a publisher and had a song called Six days on the road. I tried to pitch it to Johnny Cash, who lived on the west coast and we were friends since the Louisiana Hayride, I got it to Stonewall Jackson when we were on a tour. They liked the song but thought it wasn't fit for them. I worked with Dave Dudley in Minneapolis, where he was a DJ, and also a host in a place called The Flame, where you could sit, drink and eat and he entertained the people there. He once called me and I got there thinking he had a fine voice and a little later he came to Nashville looking for songs. We were good friends by then, and my partner and me decided to offer him the song, because the others turned it down and it looked like the song was written for him. The song was so good that I probably passed up a hit for myself because it's still one of the greatest truck driver songs there are. So faith played a part where I let him have the song and made him have a career with that song only. But he's a great guy.

On your new Wild and Cajun album, there's a song called Scattin' cajun, but I remember you called it Jean Lafitte a couple of years ago, so what happened?

"Here's the story. I recorded Floksongs of the Bayou Country and the now diseased accordeon player Shotry LeBlond brought some instrumentals, and that was one of them. And we had no title for it, so we called it Jean Lafitte. This is some 20 years ago. We were doing this on our shows, Bassyl Duhon playing accordeon and one night our fiddle player, Abe Manuel jr., started calling it Scattin' cajun. And it's one of the most poppular songs on our shows, very entertaining but it's also a visual song, you should see him doing it on our show. That's why we recorded it for Wild and cajun, and that's the story".

Two more questions about Wild and cajun. It's on a major label (RCA) and you left out the steelguitar.

"I always liked the steelguitar for cajun music because of the chimes, but in this particular case I had to hire Joe Manuel, that's Abe's brother, to play lead guitar. And because of the budget we had to work with wat we had and had to leave the steelguitar out. Also because we wanted to sound as we are playing now. It's too bad because a steelguitar really fits into cajun music because of the chimes. Bob Wills did that on western swing in the forties and fifties where the steelguitar didn't play, it only chimed and it sounded well and that goes for cajun too.

The people of Acuff-Rose Publishing Cy. talked to the people of RCA in England where we were four years in a row at Wembley and very succesful. They told us that we have RCA's best selling album in England with our cajun music. But I wish they'd release it in other countries too; they tried but some of them wouldn't take it.

You could probably answer this next question better than anybody. People say that country can only be done in English, because that's the original language, but seem to forget that cajun is French, and tex-mex is Spanish, but also accept you as you sing cajun songs in English and Freddy fender and Johnny Rodriguez too. I think it's more like the way it's done and not only the language.

"I don't know if I can. I don't think that I'm succesful in doing an ordinary country song in French. But the bi-lingual trend is something that's going on. No one qualifies better than Freddy Fender to do what he does, or Johnny Rodriguez. In cajun music there are people you may know, like Frenchie Burke and Doug Kershaw showed that too. Before Freddy came with Before the next teardrop falls, I never heard of someone who did succesfully, and of course Lucille Starr. I think it depends on the song if it will work in an other language because it always comes to the song. No matter how great the singer is, it always comes to the song. It's the combination.

It's a really diffcult question to answer.

What are your recording plans for the future?

I'm not sure what the follw-up for Wild and cajun is gonna be, and I don't know when. But I've got two record deals, and I have to decide what to do when I go back to the States. One of them is MCA and they want me to do some old stuff which I can understand because it's also for TV purposes.

It should be a half and half album; old and new. You caught me at a bad time, I haven't made up my mind yet, but something will be out before the end of the year.

Jimmy, you are wearing a nice jacket, it reads "Cajuns only".

The Gatlins had these jackets with "members only". My sonb in Louisiana gave it to me. It's only for sale in one store in Lafayette, Loiuisiana. And I' m proud having one.

Thanks for this interview, Jimmy.

It was a great pleasure to discuss my kind of music and the fact that you are interested in what I'm doing; thank you very much.