"Crescent City" is the ninth track on the Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...

 album Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams (album)

-Track listing:All songs written by Lucinda Williams except where noted.#"I Just Wanted to See You So Bad" – 2:25#"The Night's Too Long" – 4:15#"Abandoned" – 3:45#"Big Red Sun Blues" – 3:27#"Like a Rose" – 2:37#"Changed the Locks" – 3:39...

. It was written by Lucinda Williams.

The Cajun

Cajun

Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...

-influenced song is a homage to New Orleans, the "Crescent City

Crescent City

Crescent City is the name of the following places in the United States:*Crescent City, California*Crescent City, Florida*Crescent City, Illinois*Crescent Mills, California, formerly named Crescent CityOther uses:...

." It contains numerous regional references including the city Mandeville, Louisiana

Mandeville, Louisiana

Mandeville is a city in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,421 in 2008. Mandeville is located on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, south of Interstate 12. It is across the lake from the city of New Orleans and its southshore suburbs...

, Lake Pontchartrain

Lake Pontchartrain

Lake Pontchartrain is a brackish estuary located in southeastern Louisiana. It is the second-largest inland saltwater body of water in the United States, after the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the largest lake in Louisiana. As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake.It covers an area of with...

, and Zydeco

Zydeco

Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music...

 music. The song also contains two Cajun French

Cajun French

Cajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in Louisiana, specifically in the southern and southwestern parishes....

 phrases. The first "Tu le ton son temps" (perhaps "Tout est en son temps") may be translated loosely as "everything in time."
The second is "Laissez les bons temps rouler" or "let the good times roll." The original recording possesses a pronounced Zydeco flavor with Accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

 and fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

instrumentation.

External links

• Lyrics at Cowboy Lyrics (These lyrics do not correspond exactly with those listed in the CD's liner notes.)
• Discussion page of the song on Lucinda William's Official Fan Forum