Jimmy C Newman

Although he's proficient with virtually any type of country material, it was with the formation of the band Cajun Country and a return to his Cajun roots that Jimmy C Newman made his biggest impact. With a musical style that mixed traditional Cajun with contemporary country, he built up a huge European following and recorded a handful of excellent modern Cajun albums. The 'C' stands for Cajun, and though much of Newman's early country material has little in the way of swamp stylings, he developed a fusion on several 1960s albums that established him as a forerunner in Cajun-country music.

Jimmy Ives Newman was born on 27 August 1927 in High Point, Louisiana. As a child, he listened more to Gene Autry than to the Cajun music of the area; even so, he included several Cajun songs in his repertoire with Chuck Guillory's Rhythm Boys, which he joined while still a teenager. He recorded several unsuccessful sides in the late 1940s for JD Miller's Feature label. Miller convinced Nashville legend Fred Rose to give the budding singer a shot. After recording four songs in 1953, released on the local Khoury label in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Jimmy was signed to Dot Records and scored a hit the following year, when Cry, Cry, Darling reached number four in the Country charts. He became a regular on the Louisiana Hayride and on the Country charts with Daydreamin', Blue Darlin', Seasons Of My Heart and God Was So Good all making the Top Ten. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1956, and the next year he scored his biggest hit, the pop-country ballad A Fallen Star. The record made number two on the country charts and crossed over to the pop listings. Unhappy with his Dot contract, Newman moved to MGM and scored another top ten hit in 1958 with You're Makin' A Fool Out of Me.

Three years later he signed with Decca Records, the beginning of a long relationship which enabled the singer to integrate Cajun influences into his repertoire. The hit singles Alligator Man and Bayou Talk, together with the 1963 album Folk Songs Of The Bayou Country, proved to be milestones in the popularisation of Cajun music. His band featured accordionist Shorty LeBlanc alongside Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle. He continued to hit the country charts with DJ For A Day, Back In Circulation and Artificial Rose, though now his recordings were closer to the mainstream 'Nashville sound', as designed by the likes of Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins, with occasional Cajun influences.

By the beginning of the 1970s his run of country hits had dried up. Though Jimmy remained a member of the Grand Ole Opry, he moved back to Cajun music, recording Cajun albums for the La Louisianne, Swallow and Rounder labels. He kept Louisiana musicians in his band, and songs like Lach Pas La Patate found favour with French Canadians, while a revival of Hadacol Boogie became popular in Louisiana. However, it was as a live performer that Jimmy C. Newman made the biggest impact. With his acclaimed Cajun Country band he specialised in infectious and spirited renditions of Louisiana Man, Diggy Liggy Lo, Thibodeaux and His Cajun Band, Louisiana Saturday Night, and Big Mamou and the Happy Cajun.

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s he toured incessantly, undertaking a great many trips to Europe and the UK, where he had built a sizeable following. In recognition of his many contributions to the preservation of the Acadian culture, Jimmy was inducted into the order of living legends by the Louisiana Acadian Museum in 2001.