Hadley J. Castille

200 Lines: I Must Not Speak French.

CASSETTE TAPE Like New with lyrics 200

Lines: I Must Not Speak French

Label:Swallow Records CAS 6088

Format: Cassette,Album Country:US

Released:1991

Genre:Folk, World, & Country

Style:Cajun

A1 200 Lines: I Must Not Speak French5:09

A2 Lake Arthur Stomp3:05

A3 Let The Good Times Stay In The Past2:55

A4Blue Heaven Blues4:20

A5 Ponique And Lodie4:29

B1 Who Cut The Vine3:30

B2 Blue Acadian Sky5:11

B3 St. Laurent Special3:12

B4Sylvia4:19

B5 Fi Fi Poncheaux3:46

Barcode and Other Identifiers Barcode:0 46346-6088-4 Other Versions (1) View All 200 Lines: I Must Not Speak French(LP)Swallow RecordsLP-6088US1991 Reviews byRose of Sharon Witmer Louisiana Music Hall of Fame honoree and Cajun fiddler Hadley Castille made a monumental recording in 1991 entitled 200 Lines: I Must Not Speak French. The title cut tells the story of Castille's own punishment for speaking his native Cajun French in high school in Leonville, LA, as he was doomed to stay after school and write "I Shall Not Speak French" 200 times. Such was the legacy of shame that the Cajun people of Southwest Louisiana endured from the dominant culture of the region, who demanded the Acadian people speak only English. This had happened to them before. The Acadians had fled both France and Canada rather than give up their traditional ways and language. So it must have brought Castille and other members of his culture a great deal of satisfaction to see the folkways of his people at last admired all over the world. For his part in that process, Castille has received many awards, but none was more heartfelt than the "Le Cajun" award in 1992 from the Cajun French Music Association for this song that every person of Cajun birth must feel to the core. The CD also contains many other great songs performed by this master of the fiddle, but for cultural significance, they are overshadowed by this one protest song that says it all about the humiliation that Cajuns suffered as they struggled to make the new land in Louisiana their own. It shows the power of the pen and the song in expressing that sentiment.