from Gayla's "Joie de Vivre" CD. Buy the CD here!
Gayla wrote this song about legendary Cajun musician Amedee Ardoin.
Amedee, the Cajun
They say you could see him, walking through the fields, looking for a place, to play his song.
They say you could hear it - the cry of an angel, playing a Sterling all night long.
While some of the Cajuns listened and some played violin.
Some danced and some said he was a friend...
while the blind only saw black skin.
Never too long in one place, he followed the music, carrying a squeezebox in an old flour sack.
He once took to farming but never got too far cause all that he wanted, he had on his back.
They last saw him walking south on the highway, said he'd got beaten out of his mind.
So they'd sent him far away to North Louisiana
But Amedee, the Cajun left a legend behind.
from Gayla's "Joie de Vivre" CD. Buy the CD here!
Gayla wrote this song as a tribute to the new "Acadie" - Louisiana - and the Cajun people who came to make a fine place of it after being exiled from Nova Scotia in 1755.
Acadie
A long time ago came a people to you
and settled along your tranquil bayous.
In faith did they come looking for what they'd lost,
following freedom and the sign of their cross.
And they never gave up on this vision they'd seen
and never gave in to their troubles between.
With eyes on your beauty did they vow to stay,
then named their new home after heaven, they say.
Oh, Acadie, sure feels like heaven to me
Hey, Acadien, toujours, dans mon coeur, je me souviens
So many years later and this blessed place
still breathes of its life onto every face.
A strength runs beneath your rivers' repose...
like blood through the veins of your people she flows.
Your skies are so blue and so often they cry,
their tears fall in rhythm to a sweet lullaby.
The moss on your trees sway like heavenly ghosts
as the winds whisper homage to their holy host.