Cleveland Crochet & The Sugar Bees - Hillbilly Ramblers And Sugar Bees (CD)

Release Date: 06/18/21

2-CD (Digisleeve) with 36-page booklet, 38 tracks. Total playing time approx. 90 min.

-Long overdue: the complete recordings of Cajun fiddler Cleveland Crochet on Bear Family, including all surviving alternate versions and the originally unreleased masters.
-In 1961, a Cajun song made it onto the Billboard pop charts for the first time: Sugar Bee climbed to #80.
-These recordings were made between 1954 and 1963 for Folk-Star, Khoury's, Goldband, Lyric and Swallow in Louisiana.
-As a bonus, we provide all solo recordings by band members Shorty 'Vorris' LeBlanc (accordion) and Jay Stutes (steel guitar), accompanied almost without exception by Cleveland Crochet's Sugar Bees.
-Cajun expert Michael Hurtt wrote the liner notes.
-Background information by Chris Strachwitz (Arhoolie Records) and others.
-Many previously unpublished photos.
-A must for all fans of country music, Cajun, blues and original rock 'n' roll.
In the history of U.S. popular music the name Cleveland Crochet will forever be associated with the recording of Sugar Bee, the first single of the Cajun genre from Louisiana to enter the Billboard pop charts in 1961, making it to position No. 80.
Cleveland Crochet's father was a Cajun musician himself. Born in 1911 in Hathaway, Louisiana, Junior built his first fiddle out of a cigar box when he was twelve. He was already almost forty years old when he formed his band, the Hillbilly Ramblers, in 1950, initially performing regularly every Saturday night at Cajun dances at the Shamrock or Moulin Rouge in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and later playing throughout eastern Texas and southwest Louisiana. However, music long remained a minor part of Cleveland's life. He earned his living as a steelworker until his retirement in 1970.
This overdue tribute to Cleveland Crochet's complete musical legacy includes all of the recordings he made for Folk-Star, Khoury's, Goldband, Lyric and Swallow between 1954 and 1963 - including all alternate versions and originally unreleased recordings that have survived.