Church Point • Basile • Soileau • Tee Mamou

During the first few years that I photographed rural Mardi Gras courirs, I also tried a few times to record the songs that the Mardi Gras sang or that a band in a wagon played on some of the courirs. I used a cheap small handheld tape recorder, so the sound quality is not good. A YouTube search will turn up Mardi Gras videos that have better sound and, of course, you get to see what is going on. But I decided to upload the files anyway for anyone who might be interested in them.

With help from several sources, I have included French and English transcriptions of the words to the songs from  Church Point and Basile. However, for definitive transcripts of these Mardi Gras songs, the Tee Mamou song, the Creole Mardi Gras Chant, and songs from other courirs, see Barry Jean Ancelet’s From Behind the Mask: Essays on South Louisiana Mardi Gras Runs, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2023.

See also the article by Rocky L. Sexton and Harry Oster, "Une 'Tite Poule Grasse ou la Fille Aînée: A Comparative Analysis of Cajun and Creole Mardi Gras Songs," Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 114, No. 452 (Spring 2001), pp. 204-224. It includes transcripts of two versions of the song recorded in Church Point and transcripts of the Creole chant and the Tee-Mamou song, as well as other songs. 

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