So I was on youtube and happened upon this clip of a fellow named Tommy Jarrell. He is playing a tune called "Sail Away Ladies".

Is this where Michael Doucet and Cedric Watson got the melody for "Cochon de lait"?? They sound exactly the same.

I looked up other versions of "sail away ladies" but they don't sound the same.

Well apparently so!

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-191099429.html

Every time I'm at a old time jam,there are Cajun players around,and every time I'm at a Cajun jam there are old time players around.There bound to mix.I think that's been going on for a hundred years

There are quite a few old time country tunes, or even Celtic, that work well too on f.i. a Cajun accordion. Flopeared Mule, Arkinsaw Traveller, Whiskey Before Breakfast, Liza Jane, and tons more.
PS J'Ete au Bal "looks" quite a bit like Cindy, also called Tell her to Come Back Home by J.E. Mainer, and Jay Ungar's Low Down Dirty Dog is nothing but Lacassine Special. One i play occasionally i gave a "new" name, as it seems common & legal practice since us humans started copyrighting traditional art:
http://www.cajuncraze.com/Mp3/Jimmy_Cricket_Polka.mp3 Quizz: what's it's original name (if there's such a thing in traditional & ages old music).

- Nout

Brode,

You are correct! Couchon de Lait appeared on the Beausoleil CD "Bayou Cadillac,_ which was released in 1986. In the accompanying booklet written by Joe Wilson,
he described the song as follows: "Couchon De Lait (Pig Roast) is Tommy Jarrell's "Sail Away Ladies" given a Louisiana turn and a new title by Dennis McGee (Pigged out" Dennis yelled when he heard the tune, but not in English)."

Speaking of Dennis McGee, there is a great picture of Dennis McGee and Tommy Jarrell together on Evo Bluestein's website. Several years ago, when I saw the picture, I contacted Evo to ask about the picture. He said the he had taken it in 1975 when Dennis and Sady were playing on a tour set up by Mike Seeger. When I contacted Mike Seeger to ask about that tour, he told me to talk with Marc Savoy, who had arranged to heve Dennis on the tour.

I was kind of excited about that picture; so I made a couple of copies of it to give to Bill McGee and Florence Fontenot the next time I went to Louisiana. Well, it turned out that the next time I saw Bill and Florence was at Marc's Saturday jam session. When I gave them copies of the picture, Florence started crying - she had no idea what all her father had done or where he had been. Then she started passing the picture around. Whwn Marc saw the picture, he said, "Yes, I know about that tour."

Later, I happened to be talking with someone who knew Tommy Jarrell well about the picture. She told me that Tommy really liked Dennis and talked about him a lot.

I don't think many people know about that connection, but I think you may have discovered one of the results of their friendship. That's just amazing! Thanks for posting that.

Jack Bond