Harry Choates ~ Fiddle King of Cajun Swing [Arhoolie]

Harry Choates - fiddle & vocals
Johnnie Mae Smirle [Manuel] - piano
Joe Manuel - banjo
B.D. Williams - bass
Eddie Pursley - guitar
Ron Ray 'Pee Wee' Lyons or Julius “Papa Cairo” Lamperez - steel guitar



'Harry Choates was an American Cajun music fiddler. Choates's place of birth is disputed. He moved to Port Arthur, Texas in the 1930s, and received little schooling, instead spending time in local bars listening to music on the jukebox. By age 12 he started playing fiddle for spare change in barbershops. He gained early professional experience playing in the bands of Leo Soileau and Leroy LeBlanc, then split off to form his own group called the Melody Boys in 1946. His 1946 song 'Jole Blond', a top 10 hit for Choates, was recorded by country singer Moon Mullican and became a major hit.

Harry Choates was not only one of the most influential musicians in the history of Cajun music, but one of its most tragic figures. A wild and imaginative fiddler, Choates wrote such classic tunes as the Cajun national anthem 'Jole Blon,' & popularized such songs as 'Allons à Lafayette.' Recording for Gold Star, DeLuxe, D.O.T., Allied, Cajun Classics, Macy's, and Humming Bird, Choates introduced Western swing, blues, jazz & country music to the two-steps and waltzes of southwest Louisiana's bayous, influencing nearly every Cajun musician who followed in his footsteps.

Like Hank Williams, Choates balanced his musical talents with painful struggle in his real life. An acute alcoholic, he sold the rights to 'Jole Blon' for $100 and a bottle of whiskey. His habit of missing concerts led him to be blacklisted by the musicians union in San Antonio and resulted in his band breaking up. His death was equally tragic. Failing to make support payments of $20 a week for his son and daughter following his divorce, he was jailed by a judge who found him in contempt of court. After three days of forced withdrawal, he began beating his head against the cell bars and fell into a coma. He died a few days later on July 17, 1951, 6 months before his 30th birthday :(

a tragically short life of trouble for a boy with a broken heart. here go Harry's finest shellac sides for the Gold Star label, recorded betwixt 1946 - 49. included as a bonus is the aforementioned 'Jole Blond'. 320 tanx to brother Ambrose Bierce of We Love Music fame for the blistering bits & booklet. r.i.p. Harry Choates

VA - God Less America: Country & Western Fer All Ye Sinners 'n' Sufferers 1955-66 LP [Crypt, 1995]

A1. Ramblin' Ed Bailey - 8 Weeks In A Barroom
A2. Arkey Blue & The Blue Cowboys - Too Many Pills
A3. Billy Ray - The Story Of Susie
A4. Chuck Wells - Down And Out
A5. Harry Johnson - It's Nothing To Me
A6. Horace Heller - Ed's Place
A7. Pierce Brothers - Death Row
A8. Country Johnny Mathis - Caryl Chessman

B1. Troy Hess - Please Don't Go Topless Mother
B2. Hi Fi Guys - Rock&Roll Killed My Mother
B3. Mohawk & The Rednecks - Enchanted Forest
B4. Cal Veale - Paralyzed
B5. Paul Barton - My Neighbor The Firefighter
B6. Granpa Joe - The Drunken Driver
B7. Eddie Noack - Dolores
B8. Lum Hatcher - Behind The Fear



'Hats off to the bent folks at Crypt for unearthing some of the most primal and hilariously horrifying country & western songs recorded between 1955 and 1966. God Less America is not for the faint of heart and can only be compared to the weirder tunes from Porter Wagoner. Listening to these 16 tracks, you have to ask yourself why Horace Heller went to the trouble of releasing a song like "Ed's Place," which opens with the sound of a gun blast, revealing a jealous man who has just shot his wife at the local waterin' hole. What follows is a monologue taking the listener through his ensuing confusion and realization of the murder he has just committed. Or, in the case of "Please Don't Go Topless Mother" by youngster Troy Hess, a boy despairs over his single mother's topless go-go dancing occupation in order to support her son. It's hard to suppress a guilty laugh when he whines the lines, "Please don't go topless mother/My friends won't come to see me anymore/But their daddies do." This earnestly warbled plea by the young'un features the kind of syrupy country & western instrumental sludge one might expect to hear played between just those types of shows where mom bares it all. Did these would-be country crooners really think these tales of American debauchery could have made it into the jukeboxes of honky-tonks throughout this great land? The probable answer is yes, and that's what makes God Less America so fascinating and somewhat scary.' - Al Campbell

several supearlative slices of amerikana that reflect the alienation & growing pains small townies must have felt as the conservative 1950's transmogrified into the beatnik age & 'revolutionary' ideas started to infiltrate the backwoods. the still relevant themes tackle tragic everyday issues like addiction, capitol punishment, moral corruption, drinkin n' drivin, peer pressure, drug experimentation & fear of the unknown, just to name a few. this is what the best country songs have owlwaze been about, the common thread of human experience & now fuggin sad it all is. the tunes are totally psychedelique in their own rite, just listen to the lap steel & echo drenched vocals. even some primitive electronics poppin off. 320 shots of methadrine in yer ovaltine