Jo-El Sonnier, Grammy-winning Cajun and country singer-songwriter, dies at age 77

Jo-El Sonnier, the Grammy-winning Louisiana artist who performed Cajun and country music, has died at age 77.

Sonnier died while on tour, Texas country music promoter Tracy Pitcox said. in a post on his Facebook account on Sunday (January 14).

He died of cardiac arrest following a performance at the Llano Country Opry in Llano, Texas, where he played for over an hour and received a standing ovation as he ended his set with his signature “Tear Stained Letter” and an encore of “Jabalaya.” ” Pitcox says the singer-songwriter was “airlifted to Austin where he was pronounced dead.”

“It's never easy to lose a legend,” said Pitcox, “but he truly spent his last day doing what he loved – entertaining his fans with his beloved wife, Bobbi, by his side.”

Sonnier was born in 1946 to a French-speaking family in Rayne, Louisiana, where he showed an early interest in music. At the age of three he started playing the accordion and at the age of 11 he made his first music recordings. He recorded several songs and albums independently as a teenager.

In the 1970s, he signed as a country artist with Mercury Nashville, but made the switch to independent label Rounder Records when he began recording Cajun music.

Sonnier returned to the country in the 1980s, signing with RCA. She charted with singles including 1988's “No More One More Time” and “Tear Stained Letter,” a track originally recorded by Richard Thompson. Actor Judge Reinhold (Beverly Hills Cop, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Santa Claus films) starred in the music video for “Tear Stained Letter”.

Sonnier moved to Capitol Records in the 1990s before returning to Cajun music at Rounder Records.

Sonnier won a Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots album, for The inheritancein 2015. It was his first Grammy win, but the fifth time he was nominated.

In 2017, Sonnier and his sister-in-law Shirley Strange-Allen released a children's book titled The little boy under the wagon, based on the struggles Sonnier faced growing up with autism in 1950s South Louisiana. According to an interview with The Associated Presshe hoped that sharing his story would send an important message: “They need to know that it's okay to be different.”

“Once he figured it out and diagnosed it, he saw, 'This is why I thought the way I did. That's why I didn't fit in. That's why I focused on music 100 percent. That's why I don't like crowds outside of music,” said Sonnier's wife, Bobbye.

“You want to leave something good behind and let somebody embrace that,” Sonnier told the publication. “When you're gone, that's it. One day, we won't be here. While we're here, let's try to do good.”