683 Harry Choates (1922-1951) “Jole Blon” 1946

“Born in Rayne, Louisiana (‘the frog capital of the world’), on December 26, 1922, Harry Choates was raised in Port Arthur, Texas, grew up in the east Texas oilfields area, learned to play fiddle, guitar, and steel guitar, and first performed Jolie Blonde during an early stint with [Leo] Soileau’s band. He made his recording debut in February 1940 as fiddler with Happy Fats & the Rayne-Bo Ramblers. By 1946 Choates—known for punctuating songs with exuberant cries of ‘Eh…ha, ha!’—was looking for an opportunity to make records on his own, and got it with Bill Qunn’s fledgling Gold Star label in Houston, which at the time was the only independent label recording Cajun music” (Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, 2013). 

Harry Choates “Jole Blon”