Biography
Harry Choates ranks among the pivotal architects of Cajun music while also embodying one of its most sorrowful narratives. Celebrated as a daring and inventive fiddler, he composed landmark pieces such as the unofficial Cajun anthem “Jole Blon” and helped popularize numbers like “Allons à Lafayette.” Through recordings issued on Gold Star, DeLuxe, D.O.T., Allied, Cajun Classics, Macy’s, and Humming Bird, he fused Western swing, blues, jazz, and country into the two-steps and waltzes of southwest Louisiana’s bayous, leaving a lasting imprint on virtually every Cajun musician who came after him.
Much like Hank Williams, Choates paired remarkable artistic gifts with devastating personal hardship. A severe alcoholic, he relinquished ownership of “Jole Blon” for $100 and a bottle of whiskey. Chronic failure to appear at booked engagements prompted the musicians union in San Antonio to blacklist him and triggered the breakup of his band. His end proved equally grim: after a judge jailed him for contempt over unpaid $20 weekly support obligations to his son and daughter following divorce, three days without alcohol drove him to slam his head against the cell bars, sending him into a coma from which he never recovered; he died on July 17, 1951.
Choates entered the world in either Rayne or New Iberia, Louisiana, before relocating with his mother to Port Arthur, Texas, in the 1930s. Eschewing school, he passed countless childhood hours in bars and taverns, absorbing honky tonk and blues discs from jukeboxes. By age twelve he was already performing fiddle for tips inside barbershops.
He began his professional career playing in Cajun groups fronted by Leo Soileau and Leroy “Happy Fats” LeBlanc, then assembled his own unit, the Melody Boys, in 1946. That same year he reworked the classic Cajun song “Jolie Blonde” for his daughter Linda and cut it for Gold Star. Although Aubrey “Moon” Mullican’s version became a country hit, Choates had surrendered all rights and received no further payment. He and the Melody Boys maintained a brisk output, releasing more than two dozen sides for Gold Star across 1946 and 1947. By transplanting the Western swing of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys into Cajun repertoire, he earned the title “the fiddle king of Cajun swing.”
After the Melody Boys disbanded in 1951, Choates appeared with Jesse James & His Gang on radio station KTBC, yet his decline concluded only months later. His grave remained unmarked until 1980, when supporters funded a headstone inscribed with the bilingual epitaph “Purrain de la Musique Cajun -- The Godfather of Cajun Music.” In the mid-’60s, Cajun musician Rufus Thibodeaux became one of the first to salute Choates’ influence by recording the album A Tribute to Harry Choates.
Much like Hank Williams, Choates paired remarkable artistic gifts with devastating personal hardship. A severe alcoholic, he relinquished ownership of “Jole Blon” for $100 and a bottle of whiskey. Chronic failure to appear at booked engagements prompted the musicians union in San Antonio to blacklist him and triggered the breakup of his band. His end proved equally grim: after a judge jailed him for contempt over unpaid $20 weekly support obligations to his son and daughter following divorce, three days without alcohol drove him to slam his head against the cell bars, sending him into a coma from which he never recovered; he died on July 17, 1951.
Choates entered the world in either Rayne or New Iberia, Louisiana, before relocating with his mother to Port Arthur, Texas, in the 1930s. Eschewing school, he passed countless childhood hours in bars and taverns, absorbing honky tonk and blues discs from jukeboxes. By age twelve he was already performing fiddle for tips inside barbershops.
He began his professional career playing in Cajun groups fronted by Leo Soileau and Leroy “Happy Fats” LeBlanc, then assembled his own unit, the Melody Boys, in 1946. That same year he reworked the classic Cajun song “Jolie Blonde” for his daughter Linda and cut it for Gold Star. Although Aubrey “Moon” Mullican’s version became a country hit, Choates had surrendered all rights and received no further payment. He and the Melody Boys maintained a brisk output, releasing more than two dozen sides for Gold Star across 1946 and 1947. By transplanting the Western swing of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys into Cajun repertoire, he earned the title “the fiddle king of Cajun swing.”
After the Melody Boys disbanded in 1951, Choates appeared with Jesse James & His Gang on radio station KTBC, yet his decline concluded only months later. His grave remained unmarked until 1980, when supporters funded a headstone inscribed with the bilingual epitaph “Purrain de la Musique Cajun -- The Godfather of Cajun Music.” In the mid-’60s, Cajun musician Rufus Thibodeaux became one of the first to salute Choates’ influence by recording the album A Tribute to Harry Choates.
Albums
