Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws
Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke
20th Century Records T-479
released 1975
01 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - Big Mamou
02 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - Mama's Got The Know How
03 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - Frenchie's Jole Blon
04 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - The Fiddlin' Of Jacques Pierre Bordeaux
05 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - Mama's Picture
06 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - The Poor Hobo
07 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - Frenchie's Orange Blossom Special
08 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - Colinda
09 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - Frenchie's Cotton Eyed Joe
10 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - You Gave Me A Mountain
11 Fiddlin' Frenchie Burke And The Outlaws - Diggy Diggy Lo
Flac files of wavs. Never released on CD.
Hey, look...this is just an obscure C&W record, done in the Cajun style. If that's all you need to know, play it, and move on. Otherwise, you'll have to wade through the tarpit of my reminiscences.
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In 1975 I was rebuilding a 1952 Studebaker 1/2 ton pick-up truck I bought for $75.00 and towed out of a weed-filled walnut orchard where it was left to rust in 1963. I dropped that $75 price into an inflation calculator which tells me it's $489.04 in 2025 dollars, so you Modern Kids know I bought a pile of junk. I worked for minimum wage ($2.10 an hour) as lead cook at a fancy-pants 1890's themed restaurant, the Walnut Creek Railroad Station, Dining Car & Saloon. It was a dead-end nowhere job, but it generated enough money to buy things like a rebuild kit for the carburetor. To this day, I recall the snarky condescension of the counterman at Monument Auto Parts when I plunked the Carter carburetor on the counter and asked for help, and he said, "What's that from, an 1812 Jeep?"
This was a weird time. Before punk and New Wave (1974-1976) we were looking for the Next Big Thing. Fusion-Jazz? Herbie Hancock, Jean-Luc Ponty? Krautrock like Neu! or Tangerine Dream? I bought the records, but they didn't connect with me.
We were Bay Area rock kids in high school (1970-1974). Too young for the Haight Ashbury and Fillmore West scene, for us, it was the backwash of the 1960s. Teenage Wasteland, as Pete Townshend put on "Who's Next."
Bill Graham was still running concerts at Winterland...which had terrible sound and bits of the roof plaster would occasionally drop into your hair as the building slowly shook itself towards inevitable demolition after closing on December 31, 1978.
But I digress. The point is that this time..1975, 1976... we were between eras; the 1960s were over, punk hadn't started; we were trying to figure out what was next.
What WASN'T next was Country & Western. Yes, there were a few crossovers like Johnny Cash that were "okay" (but not "cool")
But it wasn't just crossovers to the Top 40: AM Car radio was important. You would set up your car radio with five or six pre-set push buttons that (sort of) brought you to the station you wanted to hear. You had to wiggle the knob to get it right, but it got you close. But most of us had to choose all five stations, even if there weren't five stations you wanted to hear. Here in the Bay Area there were TWO Top 40 stations...KFRC and KYA. In between the two pop stations was a country station, so you'd pull out the switch and program it as a station on your car radio. I mean, why not? You've got a push-button, you want it to do SOMETHING.
Which is how I heard this record.
"Big Mamou" charted for three weeks on KNEW in Oakland/San Francisco, hitting #11, plus two weeks on KHOS in Tucson (#38, #31), and two weeks on WIRE in Indianapolis (#12, #25). So...for three weeks here in the Bay Area.... as we rock and roll animals clicked from KFRC to KYA...we passed through "Big Mamou."
Jesus, tap-dancin' Christ...almost NO ONE heard this record back in 1975, not even on the country stations.
We heard it after we got off work at work at the Railroad Station restaurant. We'd drive around and get high, go up to the Mausoleum, get drunk on Coors, grab a few carnations off the graves to give to Donna, the waitress at Golden West Pancakes where we'd kill a hour after our shift, drinking coffee, and elaboratin' the aesthetic, as we put it... where was music going, and why did 1975 stink so badly when it came to pop culture?
Jeez... I wonder what happened to Donna?
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Now. Why would YOU want to hear this in 2025?
1) The guitar picking on "Big Mamou" is very good.
2) Track 6 - "Mama's Picture" is one of the most twisted, sickest songs I've ever heard.
In short, INCEST. The protagonist goes to a bar, drinks too much booze, meets a young woman, sleeps with her because she reminds him of his ex-wife, wakes up to find his lover/daughter has discovered the horrible truth that she's HIS DAUGHTER due to the photos in his hallway, and has committed suicide in the hallway outside his bedroom.
Jeez... I mean....that is one BUG NUTS CRAZY song lyric. It beats Sophocles, in my book.
3) Everything else is solid Cajun-rock, well-played, with fast fingered guitar parts. Seriously... if you play guitar, give "Frenchie's Orange Blossom Special" a listen.
4) I did a GREAT transfer from the vinyl.
5) Đ®åⒻṬëŕṽøï hopes you enjoy it.
https://mega.nz/file/LJQiwKKI#A4P5732YvZ9knH9sS5PbWtf9HPIwCuRB5uogmx8OsXk
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