Jo-El Sonnier and the Duson Playboys- Tee Yeaux Bleu

In the summer of 1957, Floyd Soileau left radio broadcasting to focus on his record business. He was selling alot of Cajun music, mostly from George Khoury. He would get a order list from Khoury of what was available and every time the list kept getting shorter and shorter. Floyd knew someone had to start making Cajun records or there wouldn't be any. Floyd started his own label with the first two artists he put out were Milton Molitor and Lawrence Walker on his label out of Ville Platte.

Jo-El was born in Rayne on October 2, 1946. As a baby he was put under the wagon while the rest of the family picked in the cotton fields. His mother surprised him with a makeshift accordion to keep him occupied. He became obsessed with the instrument learning to play from hearing others. He recalls hearing music off the AM radio, listening and learning from the music of Iry, Nathan and Lawrence. By age 8 he was playing radio shows and meeting those he heard on the radio such as Nathan Abshire.

Jo-El and a group of friends who lived around Duson, starting a band playing together. Nelson "Shorty" Sonnier and his brother Henry were in the band with Jo-El and Gerald Forestier, calling themselves the Duson Playboys. They played and practiced working on their sound and eventually made their way to Swallow Records in Ville Platte. By the time Jo-El and the band made it to Floyd's, Soileau had put out eleven records on Swallow. The band had one song which Jo-El had wrote for his mother.

While Lawrence Walker had a song called "Tit Yeux Noirs" out around this time, Jo-El's song for his mother was "Tee Yeaux Bleu". They arrived at the studio not knowing anything about how records were made; they just knew what they heard on the radio. At this time, Floyd's studio was just a small room at the back of his record store in Ville Platte. They recorded the song and were breaking down their equipment and Floyd told the group they had to have another song for the flipside of the record. The group followed Jo-El's lead  and made up a instrumental on the spot and called it "Duson Playboys Special." 

"Heh, mes tits yeux bleu, tu m'as quitte
pour un autre.
Regarder donc, comment j'va faire?



J'su moi tout seul a la maison dans les
miseres.

Heh, mes tits yeua bleu tu va brailler,
brailler pour moi.
Regarder donc, comment j'va faire?
J'su moi tout seul a la maison dans les miseres."

The reaction to the record was good and the band began receiving request to play shows. The first club they played was the Triangle Club and they played the Jolly Rogers afterwards. But the group went their separate ways due to day jobs. Jo-El continued recording on a independent label then moved on to record with Robert Bertrand on Goldband.

Resources
John Broven-South To Louisiana
Conversations with Jo-El Sonnier
Wade Falcon
lyrics by Jules Guidry