Leroy "Happy Fats" Leblanc (January 30, 1915 – February 23, 1988) was a Cajun swing musician that recorded with

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

in the 1930s and 1940s. He is known for his recordings with

Harry Choates Harry Henry Choates (December 26, 1922 – July 17, 1951) was an American Cajun music fiddler known as the "Fiddle King of Cajun Swing" and the "Godfather of Cajun music." The scholar Barry Jean Ancelet called Choates "undoubtedly the most popul ...

and his broadcasts on

KVOL KVOL (1330 AM) is a radio station licensed to Lafayette, Louisiana, United States. It serves the Acadiana area. KVOL was the first radio station in Lafayette when they signed on-air on May 18, 1935. It is owned and operated by Delta Media Corpor ...

. Next to the

Hackberry Ramblers The Hackberry Ramblers (also known as the Riverside Ramblers), a Grammy Award-nominated Cajun music band based in Hackberry, Louisiana, formed in 1933. Since its heyday in the late 1930s it has become one of the most recognized names and influenti ...

, the Rayne-Bo Ramblers were the most popular and innovative of the Cajun string bands.

Family

Leroy was born on January 30, 1915

Rayne, Louisiana Rayne is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, in Acadia Parish. With a population of 7,326 at the 2020 United States census, it is nicknamed the "Frog Capital of the World", as well as the "Louisiana City of Murals". Rayne is part of the Crowley ...

to Gilbert Leblanc and Carrie Bird Hoffpauir. He married Della Meche. He traded rice in order to purchase his first guitar.

Music and career

In 1932, his career started when he played guitar with

Joe Falcon Joseph Falcón (September 28, 1900 – November 19, 1965) was an accordion player from southwest Louisiana, best known for producing the first recording of a Cajun song, " Allons à Lafayette," in 1928. He and his wife Cléoma Breaux left f ...

and Amedee Breaux. Later, in 1935, he would create the band known as the "Rayne-Bo Ramblers" which started as the backup band for

Nathan Abshire Nathan Abshire (June 27, 1913 – May 13, 1981) was an American Cajun accordion player. His time in the U.S. Army inspired Abshire to write the crooner song "Service Blues", which the newspaper Daily World reported as "one of his most memorable ...

and played regularly at the OST Club in Rayne. The band featured people such as "Rang Tang Bully" Joe Werner,

, Oran "Doc" Guidry,

and many more. By 1940, he and Harry recorded their first hit, "La Veuve de la Coulee". In 1941, the band split up and Happy joined

Leo Soileau Leo Soileau (January 19, 1904 – August 2, 1980) was one of the most prolific Cajun recording artists of the 1930s and 1940s, recording over 100 songs, which was a substantial amount considering the reluctance to record the music during its earl ...

's "Rhythm Boys". Later, he would tour with

Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason and ...

and appear on the world-famous

Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of th ...

. By 1953, every morning on KVOL, Happy would play popular Cajun bands on his radio talk show. That same year, he would meet with John Pusateri, form the "Bayou Buckaroos", and record with Bella Records of San Jose. In his later years, Happy Fats signed up with J. D. "Jay" Miller's "Reb Rebel Records". In 1966, he recorded popular segregationist tunes, including one entitled "Dear Mr. President". *''Valse de Hadacol'' *''Crowley Two Step'' *''Dear Mr. President''

Legacy

On November 9, 1980, Governor Edwin Edwards declared the day "Happy Fats" Leblanc Day. He suffered from diabetes and died in 1988.

Discography

Compilations * "Cajun Country French Classics" (LL-130 La Louisianne, 1961) * "Fais Do Do Breakdown - Volume One - The Late 1940s" (FLY 609 Flyright Records, 1986) * "Cajun Hot Stuff" (Exceed, 1999) * "Cajun Capers: Cajun Music 1928-1954" (PROPERBOX91 Proper, 2005) * "Best of Cajun & Zydeco" (NOT2CD358 Not Now Music, 2010) * "Leroy "Happy Fats" LeBlanc: His Rayne-Bo Ramblers 1938-1949" (Master Classics Records, 2011) * "Leroy "Happy Fats" LeBlanc & His Rayne-Bo Ramblers" (BACM - British Archive Of Country Music) * "Beasts Of The Southern Wild (Music From The Motion Picture)" (Thirty3 And A 3rd Records, 2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leblanc, Leroy 1915 births 1988 deaths People from Rayne, Louisiana American folk musicians Musicians from Louisiana Cajun accordionists 20th-century American musicians 20th-century accordionists

Family

Music and career

Legacy

Discography

See also

References