Harry Henry Choates

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Now, Port Arthur, Texas has seen some remarkable souls pass through, and the marker for Harry Henry Choates lays out one of the most bittersweet stories this stretch of the Gulf Coast ever produced. Choates was born in Louisiana in 1922, and sometime during the 1930s he moved with his mother to Port Arthur.

That's where it started — a child, finding his way into music, shapeing something that would carry far beyond Jefferson County. The man could play the fiddle. He could sing in French and in English.

He played accordion, acoustic guitar, steel guitar. You get the picture: music wasn't just a hobby for Harry Henry Choates. It was the whole thing.

What he did with all that talent was something genuinely new. While other musicians were staking out jazz, blues, or country — and Choates played all of those too, mind you — he became best known for merging traditional Cajun music with Western swing. In the 1940s, that combination helped raise Cajun music to national prominence.

Not regional notice. National prominence. Then came 1946, and the moment that would define him.

He organized a band called the Melody Boys and recorded a song called "Jole Blon." Now, he didn't pull that out of thin air — he rewrote a traditional Cajun waltz, "Jolie Blone," and made it his own. "Jole Blon" became a regional favorite, received extensive airplay nationwide, and is still considered his enduring classic. Still. Right now, today.

The Melody Boys kept at it. They recorded dozens of other songs over the next several years, and partly due to Choates' famed, high-energy performances, they became widely known. That phrase — high-energy performances — feels like an understatement when you read what comes next.

Because here's where the story turns, and you feel it coming like a weather change on a flat highway. Difficulties in Choates' personal life began to overshadow the music. He often ignored musician contracts, which led to cancellations, and ultimately to the disbanding of the Melody Boys.

He battled alcoholism. He was estranged from his wife, Helen, with whom he had two children. By the early 1950s, he had moved to Austin.

A Jefferson County judge found him in contempt of court, Austin police detained him, and in 1951, Harry Henry Choates died in the Travis County Jail — under uncertain circumstances — at the age of 28. The marker calls his life brief and sometimes tragic, and it doesn't flinch from that. But it also says this: he left a legacy of talent still celebrated today, influencing a new generation of musicians.

A child in Port Arthur, pickin' up a fiddle. A waltz rewritten into something that echoed across the whole country. And a song — "Jole Blon" — that outlasted everything, including the man who made it.

That's Harry Henry Choates.

What the marker says

Noted musician Harry Henry Choates, whose career was shortened by an early death, was born in Louisiana in 1922. During the 1930s, he moved with his mother to Port Arthur, where as a child he began to develop and shape his gift of music. Known for playing the fiddle and singing in French and English, Choates also played the accordion, acoustic guitar and steel guitar. Choates helped raise Cajun music to national prominence during the 1940s. While also performing jazz, blues and country, he was best known for merging traditional Cajun music with Western swing. In 1946, He organized a band named the Melody Boys and recorded "Jole Blon," rewriting a traditional Cajun waltz, "Jolie Blone." "Jole Blon" became a regional favorite and received extensive airplay nationwide. It is still considered his enduring classic. Choates and the Melody Boys recorded dozens of other songs in the next several years and, partly due to Choates' famed, high-energy performances, became widely known. Unfortunately, difficulties in Choates' personal life sometimes overshadowed his musical talent. He often ignored musician contracts, which led to cancellation of bookings and ultimately the disbanding of the Melody Boys. He also battled alcoholism and was estranged from his wife, Helen, with whom he had two children. Choates moved to Austin by the early 1950s, and police there detained him after a Jefferson County judge found him in contempt of court. In 1951, he died in the Travis County Jail, under uncertain circumstances at the age of 28. Though his life was brief and sometimes tragic, he left a legacy of talent still celebrated today, influencing a new generation of musicians. (2007)