Mixerr Album Reviews #1,588

Johnny Rebel is the pseudonym of none other than former Cajun country musician Clifford Joseph Trahan who also known as Pee Wee Trahan. He used the Johnny Rebel pseudonym mostly on racist recordings issued in the 1960s on J. D. "Jay" Miller 's Reb Rebel label from Crowley, Louisiana. However the two songs on Johnny Rebel - (Federal Aid Hell!) The Money Belongs to Us / Keep a-Workin' Big Jim were not racist recordings about race, but about political issues. These songs do represent an attitude which was still abundant in parts of the South during the 1960s decade.

Johnny Rebel - (Federal Aid Hell!) The Money Belongs to Us / Keep a-Workin' Big Jim was a 7” vinyl single set at 45 RPM and was released in 1967 on Reb Rebel. Two of these songs were eventually issued in album format on CD under the title "For Segregationists Only" in 2002 by Reb Rebel Records. Despite the attitudes expressed in the songs we can still learn something from them.


(Federal Aid Hell!) The Money Belongs to Us is a song that is critical of US federal aid programs. Johnny Rebel is very critical of the government’s federal aid programs. The song also criticizes foreign aid.

Johnny Rebel thinks the president will win our trust regarding federal aid by making a sugarcoated speech.With federal aid he thinks he'll win our trust. But federal aid money belongs to us. The money is yours and mine. It’s not the government that's hurting. It's us that's going broke. It’s hurting us. That means you! Johnny Rebel does believe in helping the poor.

This verse is where Johnny Rebel criticized the US Government’s federal aid programs.

Now why should the president take all the credit
When the money we donate is what makes up his debit
Each time a disaster strikes our great land
Federal aid takes the credit for lending a hand


Keep a-Workin' Big Jim explains and describes efforts of Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison solving the Kennedy assassination after John F. Kennedy was murdered. The song Keep a-Workin' Big Jim is a tribute to Jim Garrison where Johnny Rebel praises his efforts.

While Johnny Rebel would often voice sympathy for Jim Crow-era segregation and the Ku Klux Klan, this was one of the rare times where that was not the case. Specifically this song and the other one mentioned above.


I rate this single, (Federal Aid Hell!) The Money Belongs to Us / Keep a-Workin' Big Jim, 4/5****.