Harry Choates

Harry Choates (b. December 26, 1922 in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, USA - d. July 17, 1951 in Austin, Texas, USA) was a Cajun multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. Primarily known as a fiddler, vocalist and bandleader, Choates was natural musician, reportedly at his most proficient as an electric guitarist but also a capable mandolin and piano player as well. He was playing professionally in his early teens and first recorded at 17 (in early 1940) with Happy Fats And His Rayne-Bo Ramblers. He next recorded for Gold Star in Houston starting in early 1946. Choates' recording of one of the Cajun classics, "Jolie Blon", the first release from his Gold Star sessions, was a runaway independent success that introduced Cajun music to a wider American audience (becoming a national top five Billboard folk song and spawning so many copy versions that in late April 1947 three of the top five songs on that chart were other people's covers of it). From his initial Gulf Coast base along the Texas/Louisiana border, growing recognition allowed him to cultivate a regional performance circuit between central Texas and central Louisiana, including club dates and radio programs, but never staying in one place for long while living a very turbulent lifestyle, including severe alcoholism. He primarily played popular country-western dance music in performances but developed, adapted and recorded many French songs and folk/Cajun instrumentals in addition to country, blues and popular staples. His contemporaries report that as good a fiddler as he was he was an even better electric jazz guitarist, though that was unrecorded (he does play guitar on a track or two of his contemporary recorded output). Ironically Choates did not actually speak French and probably learned the French songs he recorded from his time in others' bands, particularly Leo Soileau's. In possibly his last session he and Link Davis also recorded a burning proto-rock & roll version of Good Rockin' Tonight (six years before Elvis). His range covered the entirety of popular music, but no apparent desire for a national profile, a lack of personal promotion, and even less discipline led to a confined and untimely end. His last recordings were late 1949/possibly early 1950 and his health was already in decline by 1950 as he became a featured guest with other leaders' bands. In 1951, a judge in Austin, Texas found him in contempt of court for failing to pay support to his wife and daughter after a divorce and jailed him. After three days of forced alcohol withdrawal and severe delirium tremens in a cell with no medical care, he injured himself, fell into a coma, and was found dead when paramedics arrived.