Interpret1 :JAY CHEVALIER
Art : CD
Label : HYDRA
Artikel Nr. : #BCK 27123
1 Castro Rock
2 Mona
3 Rock & Roll Angel
4 Ballad Of Earl K Long
5 Ballad Of Marc Elishe
6 Billy Cannon
7 Highschool Hop
8 Big Cloud (Instr.)
9 Big Cloud
10 It Doesn´t Matter
11 Khrushchev And The Devil
12 Too Many Bubbles
13 Come Back To Louisiana
14 Satans Ground
15 Bill Baily Ain´t Go Home
16 Check Out Time
17 Louisiana Living
18 Big Wheels
19 I´m Leaving It All Up To You
20 South To Louisiana
21 Keeping Late Hours
22 Cuttin´ Cane
23 Mr. Football (Billy Cannon)
24 Jolie Blonde
25 American History
26 Johnny´s Holding The Reason I Cry
27 Bayou Baby
28 John T John
29 Blaze
30 Jambalaya
Jay Chevalier (* 4. März 1936 in Forest Hill, Louisiana; † 30. März 2019 in Kenner) war ein US-amerikanischer Rockabilly- und Country-Musiker und einer der letzten aktiven original Rockabilly-Musiker aus Louisiana.
Jay Chevalier wuchs in einer abgelegenen Gemeinde in Louisiana auf. Seine erste Gitarre bekam er zu seinem zehnten Geburtstag von seinem Vater geschenkt. Mit 17 Jahren bekamen Chevalier und sein Bruder auf der neu gegründeten Radiostation KREG in Oakdale, Louisiana, eine eigene Radioshow. Zu dieser Zeit spielten sie traditionellen Country. 1954 ging Chevalier zur US Marine.
Während seines Militärdienstes gründete Chevalier seine erste Band, die Louisiana Long Shots, und hatte 1957 in Jimmy Deans Fernsehshow seinen ersten großen Auftritt. Zu dieser Zeit machte er auch seine ersten Aufnahmen für Cajun Records aus Norfolk, Virginia. Gene Vincent hatte kurz zuvor dort seinen Hit Be-Bop-A-Lula aufgenommen und freundete sich mit Chevalier an. Chevaliers erste Single Rockin‘ Roll Angel erinnert stark an Vincents Echoeffekt und dem „blubbernden Groove“. Es war ebenfalls in Norfolk, als Chevalier Elvis Presley zum ersten Mal sah: “He sang for about an hour but you couldn’t hear a word he said because of all the screaming”.
1959 hatte Chevalier seinen größten Hit. Bei Recco Records hatte er die Platte The Ballad of Marc Elishe / The Ballad of Earl K. Long aufgenommen, doch zuerst wollte niemand die Platte spielen, da die B-Seite ein Song über Louisianas Gouverneur Earl Long war und man dachte, Chevalier wollte ihn damit in irgendeiner Weise unterstützten. Tatsächlich kannte Chevalier Long noch gar nicht und schließlich verkaufte sich die Single alleine in Louisiana über 100.000 Mal. Anfang der 1960er-Jahre nahm er für Goldband Records und Pel Records weitere Platten auf, bevor er 1962 nach Las Vegas ging.
Kurz danach holte Chevalier auch seine Louisiana Long Shots nach Las Vegas und zusammen traten sie abends im „Gold Nugget“ auf. Für Crest Records wurde eine Single eingespielt und das Cotton-Town-Label veröffentlichte ein Album. In Las Vegas bekam Chevalier auch die Gelegenheit mit Stars wie Merle Haggard und Carl Perkins zu arbeiten. 1968 verließ Chevalier Las Vegas für ein paar Jahre, kehrte 1972 wieder zurück um schließlich Mitte der 1970er-Jahre wieder zurück nach Louisiana zu ziehen.
1982 startete Chevalier ausgedehnte Tourneen und übernahm 1989 in dem Film Blaze die Rolle des Senators Paul Braden und steuerte die Titelmusik Come Back to Louisiana bei. Später bekam er auch die Chance, in Cobb an der Seite von Tommy Lee Jones zu spielen.
1997 heiratete Chevalier seine Frau Gisela und nahm ein Album auf. Sein bekanntester Song aus dieser Zeit ist The Ballad of Harry Lee. 2004 wurde ein Album mit Chevaliers 1950er- und 1960er-Aufnahmen von Hydra Records veröffentlicht. Chevalier trat immer noch regelmäßig mit den Louisiana Long Shorts auf.
Joe J. Chevalier, known as Jay Chevalier (March 4, 1936 – March 30, 2019), was a singer and songwriter from the U.S. state of Louisiana who achieved success in several musical genres since the late 1950s. A pioneer of rockabilly music, he is best known within Louisiana for his songs based on politics, sports, and his love for his home state. The first "Official State Troubadour," he is an inductee to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
Chevalier was born in Forest Hill near Lecompte and reared in the community of Midway in Rapides Parish just south of Alexandria, Louisiana. He claims to have grown up "poor and naked in the piney wood hills along the banks of Bayou Boeuf." In 1954, Chevalier enlisted in the United States Marine Corps where he formed his first band, which appeared in 1957 on Jimmy Dean's national day-time television program on CBS. Upon his discharge from the military, Chevalier recorded his first record, "Rockin [!!] Roll Angel". Gene Vincent had just recorded "Be-Bop-A-Lula", and the two became good friends and worked together in Norfolk, Virginia. Vincent died in 1971 at the age of thirty-six.
In 1959, three-time Louisiana Governor Earl Kemp Long, who was barred by the state constitution from succeeding himself, ran for lieutenant governor on an intra-party ticket headed by another former governor, James A. Noe of Monroe, the owner of KNOE-TV. Intrigued by the flamboyant character, Chevalier composed and recorded The Ballad of Earl K. Long which was initially banned from radio play because it was suspected to be a political ploy though Chevalier had not personally met Long. Within a short time the song found its way onto the airways and was enthusiastically received. It sold more than 100,000 copies in the state. Long lost his bid for lieutenant governor in December 1959 to Taddy Aycock, but he rebounded the next summer with a victory over Harold B. McSween for Louisiana's 8th congressional district seat. Long died before he could be seated, and McSween, the choice of the Democratic State Central Committee, took the seat after all.
That same year, Chevalier released Billy Cannon, a rollicking tribute to LSU's only Heisman Trophy winner, Billy Cannon, who led the LSU Tigers to win the 1958 national championship. On Halloween Night, 1959, Cannon electrified a partisan LSU crowd and stunned the Ole Miss Rebels with a fourth-quarter, 89-yard punt return to give the Tigers a 7-3 victory.
Chevalier attended the game with Governor Long and while he was not really a football fan, he witnessed the pandemonium of the Tiger Stadium crowd after the touchdown and wrote the song that night. A record was released within days, adding to Cannon's already mythical reputation. Chevalier himself became a household word from Shreveport to New Orleans.
By 1962, he began performing an extended engagement at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, Nevada. The next year he added a 19-year-old from Baton Rouge, Grace Broussard, to his show that already included Dale Houston. Dale & Grace had just recorded an old Don and Dewey Squires song, "I'm Leaving It Up to You". While Dale, Grace, and Chevalier were on tour, the song reached No. 1 nationally and sold two million copies.
In 1963, a homesick Chevalier recorded another regional hit, "Come Back to Louisiana". The song was revived when it was featured in the 1996 movie Blaze, in which Paul Newman played Earl Long. Chevalier was a consultant for the movie and played the role of Senator Paul Braden. "Come Back to Louisiana" was re-recorded in 2006 to encourage victims of Hurricane Katrina to return home to rebuild. The Louisiana State Legislature adopted "Come Back to Louisiana" as the third state song. The two others are "You Are My Sunshine" by former Governor Jimmie Davis and "Give Me Louisiana". Chevalier's office was flooded, and his home suffered tree damage during Hurricane Katrina. He re-introduced "Come Back to Louisiana" and sang it A cappella to the legislature.
In the 1970s, Chevalier returned to Louisiana from appearances in Las Vegas, to manage a number of political campaigns.
Chevalier is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in January 2003, and on December 7, 2008, he was named to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He was also designated ""Official State Troubadour" by an act of the Louisiana Legislature in 2006.
Chevalier Spanish-speaking wife Gisela Marina "Giselle" Chevalier (born September 1954) continued to reside in Kenner in Jefferson Parish in suburban New Orleans, Louisiana, where she teached driver's education and operate the J and G International Driving School.
Chevalier performed several times a year until he passed away in 2019.
