Weird Music Wednesday

Fast forward to 48 seconds to skip the intro.

This song... I cannot listen to this without having tears come to me. It's the story of how the Brits captured my ancestors, and destroyed them. I was at this concert. I trembled under an emotional flash of goose bumps upon goose bumps. I found myself surrounded by an overwhelming crowd of people on the verge of tears.

My American friends just celebrated with pride their Independance Day. Last night, as I was out on a girls' night I was told by a friend that the Queen of England was my ruler. (This topic came about because they noticed my "good table manners" with proper silverware use, and how I could dine with the Queen, ugh I even capitalize that word!) She is not MY ruler, nor will she ever be. Although Canada is a democratic country with it's own elected leaders - constitution - laws, we never had a Tea Party, and never will be a fully 100% Independent Union. We'll always have her face plastered on our money. To this day there is tension between the French and the English speaking people. To this day there are misunderstandings and hatred.

Zachary, by the way, is an American artist from Louisiana. He is famous worldwide and nearly oblivious in his own country. Three days after Independance Day I had to celebrate a true blue American artist.

Réveille (translated lyrics)
NB: the original Acadians referred to the redcoated British soldiers as “Les Goddamns”. The expletive was used so often by the soldiers, that it was one of the few words the French speaking Acadiens could recall. These Acadians have become today's Cajuns of Louisiana.

Wake-up - Wake-up
The Goddams are coming,
To steal the harvest.
Wake-up - Wake-up
Acadians,
To save the village.

My great great great grandfather,
Came from Brittany,
The blood of my family
Has nourished Acadie.
And now the accursed ones come,
Chasing us like cattle,
Destroying the families,
Throwing us to the wind.

I have heard tell
Of going with Beausoleil*
To take up arms
And fight the accursed ones,
I have heard tell
Of going to Louisiane,
To find peace
There in Louisiane.

I saw my father
Made prisoner,
While my dear mother
Could not stop from crying.
I saw our beautiful home
Put to the torch,
And I have become an orphan,
An orphan of l’Acadie.

Wake-up - Wake-up
The Goddams are coming,
To steal the children
Wake-up - Wake-up
Acadians,
To save our heritage.

* Joseph Broussard, dit Beausoleil. Acadian pioneer and resistance fighter Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil was born in Port-Royal, Acadia, in 1702.  In 1740 he with his brother Alexandre established a community at Boundary Creek (above present day Moncton, New-Brunswick).  During the 1755 expulsion, Broussard (a former militia captain), his brother, and a group of Acadians evaded capture, and conducted a guerilla campaign on land and sea against the British military.  In 1759, however, Broussard and his partisans, facing starvation, were forced to surrender. Imprisoned at Halifax until 1764, after the treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian war, Beausoleil led one hundred ninety-three exiles to Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti). Members of the party was Beausoleil’s first cousin, Pierre Richard, direct ancestor of Zachary Richard. In February, 1765, the group arrived at New Orleans and continued onto the Attakapas region of south Louisiana, where Joseph Broussard was named captain of the militia. He died on October 20, 1765 from a tropical disease which decimated the exile Acadian community in its first year in Louisiana. His gravesite remains unknown.

© Zachary Richard, Les Editions du Marais Bouleur