Just listening to this by Steve Riley's group. Its really beautiful.

Who else does that?

funny how songs travel......steve and the boys learned that song back when they were instructors at jay ungar and molly mason's fiddle and dance camp at ashokan, ny back in the early 90's......it was written by jay ungar. those guys brought it back to louisiana and it became fairly widespread in popularity. it is quite geared towards the fiddle, a beautiful and sad song......and became incorporated into the Cajun vernacular with accordion.
beautiful song. check out jay ungar's version.
roger

Lover's Waltz is on 2 other Cajun Cd's that I know of.

Jonno
Jay Cormier & Cajun Country

It this the beautiful "Lover's waltz" that was originally written for the PBS Civil War series?

DP

well, it's written by jay ungar who wrote ashokan farewell for the civil war series, don't know whether lover's waltz was written specifically for the series, don't think they played it in the series, but i could be wrong.
roger

It was definitely in the series, but you are right, I don't know if it was written for it.

One could say it was popularized by it. :)

DP

I think you mean the tune Ashokan Farewell. They're both by the same two people but I'm pretty sure Ashokan was played alot in the mini series.
John

Yeah, it doesn't quite sound cajun, but its so great.

Some other recordings I know of are:

- Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys on "Au Coup d'Eclair (At the Strike of Lightning)"

- Cajun de la Ruston (a North Louisiana band) on "Some of Ours ... Some of Yours"

- Matthew Courville (a young Cajun accordion player) on "Avec Un Couer Pour Mon Papa"

- Amanda Shaw (a young LA fiddle player) on "I'm Not a Bubble Gum Princess"

If you love this song, you might want to hear the Jay Ungar/Molly Mason album "Lover's Waltz" which opens and closes with two different versions of it. That album also includes "Louisiana Wedding Bells" -- a song written for the wedding of Christine Balfa and Dirk Powell.

Another wonderful version of the song was performed by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason at the tribute for Dewey Balfa in 1992 at the Liberty Theater. I taped that concert when it was broadcast on a local (Washington DC) public television station at least 10 years ago and don't know that it's available for purchase these days.

Lee Benoit also recorded it. Mike Hebert played fiddle. I think that it has become his "title" song. His version is quite good.

Jack Bond

Actually, the song is on Lee benoit's CD titled "Live at Vermilionville." According to the liner notes, his name is Mark, not Mike; and all of this time I thought it was Mike.

yes, i agree lee benoit;s version is good.
that 'live at vermilionville' is a great record.
i am constantly surprised no one raves about it
on this group.
lee also plays 'ashokan farewell' at least live.
that is the song that was all over the 'civil war'
series, which is also being rerun on pbs now.
steve riley changed one of the chords
from the original version, probably the
original one [played on piano and fiddle] is
too chromatic or something. the original has
a spot where you really can;t tell what
chord should go there, it;s suspended or something.

wle.