|
Harry
H. Choates,
Cajun
musician, was
born in either
Rayne or New
Iberia,
Louisiana, on
December 26,
1922. He moved
with his
mother, Tave
Manard, to
Port Arthur,
Texas, during
the 1930s.
Choates
apparently
received
little formal
education and
spent much of
his childhood
in local bars,
where he
listened to
jukebox music.
By
the time he
reached the
age of twelve
he had learned
to play a
fiddle and
performed for
tips in Port
Arthur
barbershops.
As early as
1940 he was
playing in
Cajun music
bands for such
entertainers
as Leo Soileau
and Leroy
"Happy Fats"
LeBlanc.
Choates, who
also played
accordion,
standard
guitar, and
steel guitar,
preferred to
play on
borrowed
instruments
and may never
have owned a
musical
instrument of
his own.
Around
1946 he
organized a
band that he
called the
Melody Boys.
Perhaps in
honor of his
daughter,
Linda, he
rewrote an old
Cajun waltz,
"Jolie Blone"
(Pretty
Blonde) and
renamed it
"Jole Blon."
He recorded
the song in
1946 for the
Gold Star
label, owned
by Bill Quinn
of Houston.
"Jole Blon"
became a
favorite in
the field of
country musicqv
and a standard
number in
Texas and
Louisiana
clubs and
dance halls. A
year after
Choates's
recording,
Moon Mullican,qv
a Texas-born
singer and
piano player,
made an even
bigger hit
with the song.
"Jole Blon,"
which Choates
performed in
the key of A
instead of the
traditional G,
featured
slurred fiddle
notes and has
been sung with
both Cajun
French and
English
romantic
lyrics as well
as nonsense
lyrics with
references to
the "dirty
rice" and
"filé gumbo"
of Cajun
cuisine.
Choates, who
suffered from
chronic
alcoholism,
sold "Jole
Blon" for $100
and a bottle
of whiskey.
He
and his Melody
Boys recorded
over two dozen
other songs
for Gold Star
in 1946 and
1947,
including
"Baisile
Waltz,"
"Allans a
Lafayette,"
"Lawtell
Waltz," "Bayou
Pon Pon," and
"Poor Hobo,"
but none of
those records
earned Choates
the success he
achieved with
"Jole Blon."
He also
recorded for
the Mary,
DeLuxe, D,
O.T., Allied,
Cajun
Classics, and
Humming Bird
labels during
his brief
career. His
recordings
have been
preserved on
Jole Blon,
an album by D
Records of
Houston that
contains the
Gold Star
issues, and
The
Fiddle King of
Cajun Swing,
a compilation
of Choates's
works released
by Arhoolie
Records of El
Cerrito,
California, in
1982. Rufus
Thibodeaux, a
well-known
Cajun fiddler,
recorded an
album entitled
A Tribute to
Harry Choates
in the
mid-1960s on
the Tribute
label. Choates
remained
popular fare
on Cajun
French radio
stations in
Jennings,
Crowley, and
Ville Platte,
Louisiana.
Choates,
who could sing
in French or
English,
became famous
for his
"Eh...ha, ha!"
and "aaiee"
vocal cries. A
real crowd
pleaser, he
frequently
played his
amplified
fiddle while
dancing on the
floor with his
audience and
stood on
tiptoe while
reaching for
high notes. He
merged
traditional
French Cajun
music with the
western swing
music
pioneered by
such musicians
as Bob Wills.qv
He played jazzqv
and bluesqv
as well as
country music,
including
instrumental
tunes like
"Rubber
Dolly,"
"Louisiana
Boogie,"
"Draggin the
Bow," and
"Harry Choates
Blues." As
songwriter,
instrumentalist,
singer, and
bandleader he
raised Cajun
music to
national
prominence.
One
observer has
characterized
Choates as "a
Cajun Janis
Joplin."qv
Like her, he
achieved a
great deal of
notoriety for
his raucous
lifestyle.
Often
performing
while
intoxicated
and oblivious
of his
personal
appearance, he
wore a
formerly white
hat which,
according to
one of his
band members,
"looked like a
hundred horses
had stomped on
it and then it
had been stuck
in a grease
barrel."
Choates was
virtually
illiterate and
incurred the
ire of
musicians'
union locals
for ignoring
contracts.
Consequently,
after the
union in San
Antonio
blacklisted
him and forced
a cancellation
of his
bookings, his
band broke up.
By
1951 Choates
had moved to
Austin, where
he appeared
with Jessie
James and His
Gang, a band
at radio
station KTBC.
His estranged
wife, Helen
(Daenen), whom
he had married
in 1945, filed
charges
against
Choates for
failing to
make support
payments of
twenty dollars
a week for his
son and
daughter.
Authorities in
Austin jailed
him pursuant
to an order
from a
Jefferson
County judge
who found
Choates in
contempt of
court. After
three days in
jail, Choates,
unable to
obtain liquor
and completely
delirious,
beat his head
against the
cell bars,
fell into a
coma, and
died, on July
17, 1951, at
the age of
twenty-eight.
Although some
of his fans
believe his
jailers may
have killed
him while
attempting to
calm him,
Travis County
health officer
Dr. H. M.
Williams
determined
that liver and
kidney
ailments
caused his
death. The
James band
played a
benefit to
raise money
for Choates's
casket, and
Beaumont disk
jockey Gordon
Baxter secured
funds to bury
him in a
Catholic
cemetery in
Port Arthur.
Baxter and
music
historian Tim
Knight of
Groves raised
money in 1979
and 1980 to
purchase a
granite grave
marker with
the
inscription in
Cajun French
and English:
"Parrain de la
Musique
Cajun"-"The
Godfather of
Cajun Music."
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
John Broven, South
to Louisiana:
The Music of
the Cajun
Bayous
(Gretna,
Louisiana:
Pelican,
1983). Houston
Chronicle,
July 23, 1989.
Bill C. Malone
and Judith
McCulloh,
eds.,
Stars of
Country Music
(Urbana:
University of
Illinois
Press, 1975).
John
Morthland, The
Best of
Country Music
(Garden City,
New York:
Doubleday,
1984). Irwin
Stambler and
Grelun Landon,
Encyclopedia
of Folk,
Country and
Western Music
(New York: St.
Martin's,
1969).
Paul
M. Lucko
-
Handbook of
Texas Online,
s.v. ","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/fch67.html (accessed
March 3,
2008).
(NOTE: "s.v."
stands for sub
verbo, "under
the word.")
-
|
