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A lot of the references are easily understood if you’re from Monte-gut, Houma or Kraemer.
And even if you’re not, the songs of a Houma couple making its mark through a local radio station, iTunes and other outlets are downright funny, and deal with topics folks from lots of places can identify with.
“Pair O De” – the musical team of Korey and Amanda Songe – performs songs about boiling crawfish and crabs, hunting deer and other activities near to the heart of Bayou Country folks, to the tunes of well-known country and pop songs, and so far the reception has been more than they ever expected.
The project is the second they have taken on together. The first was their family business, Songe Motors, a used car dealership where Korey does the buying and selling while Amanda handles the credit details for customers.
Pair O De is a play on the word “parody.”
On the Pair O De recordings, Korey does the writing and plays guitar; Amanda does the singing on their CDs and music downloads.
“It’s things people relate to because the songs he writes are based on our lives, things that have actually happened to us,” Amanda said. “People here identify with what our songs say, the places people know. They’re funny and people get a good laugh out of it.”
“This Is How We Trawl” is sung to the tune of the Florida Georgia Line’s bouncy “This is How We Roll,” “All Our Deer Have Big Horns” meshes perfectly with “Every Rose Has Its Thorns.” And the list goes on.
Those songs are on the duo’s premier album, “Decoys In The Bathtub.”
But the tracks are only a sampling of what Korey has written.
“I Hunt Deer In All Places,” echoing the Garth Brooks tune “Friends In Low Places,” is among the as-yet unreleased offerings. A new CD is expected soon.
For Korey, it all started with the comedy of the late TK Browning and Mike Vic, a duo with a cult following on YouTube.
“I came up with the idea we wanted to do our own,” Korey said. “Me and my dad would perform skits and record them.”
Thus the parodies began, including a song called “Montegut By Morning” to the tune of “Armadillo By Morning.”
“I had started writing original songs and then I started writing parodies,” Korey said. “I was recording them on my cell phone and send them to friends and family and someone said, ‘You ought to make a CD.'”
Houma producer Pershing Wells’ Digital Sac-a-Lait studio was chosen.
Wells sent the CD to Gumbo 94.9 FM radio personality Bobby Richard, who played ‘This Is How We Trawl’ even though it didn’t fit the genre.
“That’s the one that took off,” Richard said. “I had them as my guests and now we get a tremendous amount of requests from listeners for it on the swamp pop show. It’s hot and they love it.”
The local culture novelty store La Cajun Stuff started carrying the CD and it sold quickly, requiring an almost immediate re-stock. The original printing of 1,000 CDs is just about done. “This Is How We Trawl” has been downloaded about 200 times so far digitally.
Nobody is getting rich from the effort, but both Korey and Amanda say that was never the point anyhow.
For Amanda the signing was just a natural extension of self.
“Ever since I was a little girl I liked to sing,” she said. “When my friends and I would get together, I would sing karaoke.”
She was a regular karaoke performer at Bayou Delight, the Cajun restaurant on the Southdown-Mandalay Road.
“I was usually one of the first singing and one of the last to finish,” she said.
Performing together is one of the joint activities that have brought the couple ever closer.
“That’s one of the main reasons we enjoy doing it as much as we do,” Amanda said. “It is something we get to do together and we have a lot of fun with it.”
The Songes have four children, Brody, 15; Kolby, 12; Keira, 10 and Kylie, who is 8.
The children generally approve of their parents’ new celebrity status, although Keira is not so happy with it all.
“Keira says I make all her favorite songs into parodies,” Korey said. “So she doesn’t tell me what her favorite songs are anymore.”
The children, Korey said, enjoy singing as well.
Asked if there might be a Songe family sing-along he paused.
“Maybe on the next CD,” he said.
