Still A Lot To Do

 Winning A Grammy Was Great, But Jo-El Sonnier Still Feels There’s Much To Accomplish 

By Lisa Addison 

Local legend and Grammy Award winner Jo-El Sonnier has played the accordion and performed in every state and 32 countries, but he still has dreams and goals he wants to accomplish. 

Sonnier won the Grammy for Best Regional Roots Album in 2015. The 76-year-old is as busy as ever and said he is always aware that “life is short, and the clock never stops ticking away.” 

“Winning a Grammy was a great honor but I’m not ready to quit yet,” he said. “I still have a lot of music left in me.” 

When I interviewed Sonnier, he was about to tour in Switzerland, opening shows for Miranda Lambert at the 32nd Country Night Gstaad. Sonnier hasn’t performed at that event since 1994. “I’m blessed to be taking my band, a wonderful acoustic guitar player/harmony singer and a talented female backup vocalist that will add so much to our group and we are blessed to have them join us on this trip,” he said. 

In a case of life coming full circle, Lambert was once the opening act for Sonnier at a show in Lafayette when she was first starting out in her career. Now he’s an opening act for her. 

The sounds of Sonnier’s accordion can be heard on the albums of such musical greats as Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams Jr., Neil Diamond, Merle Haggard and Sammy Kershaw. In addition to being a singer and accordion player, he also plays bass guitar, acoustic guitar, drums and harmonica. 

Sonnier has had Top 10 country hits, performed at the Grand Ole Opry, and there are countless celebrities that he considers personal friends. 

Spend any time at all around Sonnier and one quickly realizes he’s also a great storyteller, drawing people in with his humble ways and his entertaining anecdotes of folks he’s been fortunate enough to meet along the way. He gives credit to Johnny Cash and June Carter for giving 

Still A Lot To Do 

JOE-EL PLAYING WITH Wayne Toups and his band ZydeCajun TO close out the 15th annual KBON Music Festival IN 2022. 

Photo by David Simpson. 

JO-EL celebrated 60 years in the music profession at Festivals Acadiens et Créoles IN 2019. Photo by David Simpson.www.BestOfSWLA.com October 26, 2023 LAGNIAPPE 53 

him his first chance to play on a major album and to Cash for recording one of the songs Sonnier wrote.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, sitting on a couch in his inviting home, with his Grammy displayed in a nearby cabinet and photos and mementos of his life all around, Sonnier reminisced about his career. He fills up notebooks daily with thoughts, song lyrics, ideas, and bits and pieces of history that he remembers of life growing up in a small town. 

One of the notebooks was filled top to bottom and even in the margins with his writing. “Can you read it?” he asked. It was easily decipherable. There were stacks and stacks of already-filled notebooks. He picked them up often, referring back to things he had written. 

He grew emotional talking about his childhood and how he yearns for his culture to be known, celebrated and remembered. He said it worried him because he knew that when it was gone it would be gone forever. 

All of his songs hold special meaning for this talented and sensitive musician for different reasons, but he said if he leaves this world tomorrow, he wants a song he recorded in 2021, “Survivors,” to be considered his song. Some of the lyrics include: “We are the children of the Gulf; and the bad weather ain’t nothing new to us. And our people, they all work like horses in the fields. And they taught us to never give up. And we’re still here, God bless us all, and we’re born survivors.”

Not giving up could be his motto. He has overcome multiple obstacles. His life today is a far cry from his early days when, as a child, he went to school barefoot because he had no shoes. A belt made from rope held up his pants. Born in Rayne to French-speaking sharecropper parents, Sonnier grew up in extreme poverty, often helping his family pick cotton in the fields from a young age. 

He recalled that when he was a toddler, his mother would have him sit under a wagon at the edge of the field while his parents picked cotton. They handed him an old accordion with buttons that didn’t even work. He was fascinated with the squeezebox and began playing around with it while he sat under the wagon. There were holes in it — the handiwork of a mouse — but the ingenious child patched the holes with bubblegum. 

By the time he was 4 or 5, he would gravitate to anyone who had an accordion and ask if he could play. He was considered a child prodigy and began playing on the radio at the age of 6. At some point, and he doesn’t recall exactly how it came about, he was given his own accordion — and all of the buttons worked. Accordions typically have right-hand buttons, or keys that play single notes (melody) and left-hand buttons that play chords and bass notes. 

At 11, Sonnier had his first recording and the rest, as they say, is history. He began writing songs in earnest, every chance he got. And he began performing more and more, eventually going to Nashville. 

“Merle Haggard was one of my heroes that I got to record and play with over the years,” Sonnier said. “Now throw in a few more legends like the great George Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Toby Keith and Neil Diamond, and you can see how truly blessed I have been.” 

The actor Judge Reinhold (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Beverly Hills Cop) was in Sonnier’s music video for his lively song, “Tear Stained Letter,” and the two had an instant connection. “He’s my best friend,” he said, adding that they talk on the phone often and text each other nearly every day. 

He’s close friends with Tanya Tucker, who always makes sure that he and his wife will be coming to her shows, even if they are a few hours’ drive away. 

Actor/singer John Schneider (of Dukes of Hazzard fame) and his late wife 

Jo-El Sonnier: STILL A LOT TO DO

JO-EL PLAYING WITH Wayne Toups and his band ZydeCajun TO close out the 15th annual KBON Music Festival IN 2022. Photo by David Simpson.

Alicia became two of Sonnier’s good friends. They brought supplies for those in need after Hurricane Laura and even brought their personal travel trailer for Sonnier and his wife to stay in after their home was messed up in the hurricane. Three years later, there are still things to be done to get their home back to what it was, and the living room and other areas of the house had to be completely redone. 

But life goes on, and in 2024, Sonnier will mark the 65th anniversary of recording his first French record, T.J. Blue. That same year will be the 50th anniversary of his first record in Nashville. 

Sonnier has been married for 31 years to Bobbye, who is also his manager, and the two have an easy rapport, often finishing each other’s sentences or laughing at a shared memory. They enjoy traveling, but they also really love soaking up life at home together and just relishing simple pleasures. 

They have shared so many milestones and met many friends while out on the road. Among them is singer/songwriter T. Graham Brown, who lives in Nashville and has played with Sonnier on stage multiple times over the years. Brown has had tremendous success of his own, with plenty of hits including “Darlene” and “I Tell It Like It Used to Be.” He had more than 20 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Three of those singles reached Number One and eight more made the Top 10. 

“Jo-El and I have known each other for at least 30 years, and maybe even longer than that,” Brown said in a telephone interview from his home. “I’ve always been a fan of Jo-El, but the first time I can remember us really hanging out was (when) he came over to eat supper. We’ve done a bunch of shows together and we even went to the Grammy’s together the year that he won a Grammy. It was a fun night and we went over to the show in a limousine.” 

Brown, who said he has performed in Louisiana more than any other state, said he considers Sonnier a really great friend and that their wives are friends, as well. “You know, when I think of Jo-El, one of the first words that come to mind is that he’s a true trailblazer. Plus, he knows how to grab a crowd and is a great live performer. He’s my buddy. We love each other.” 

JO-EL AND BOBBYE

Sonnier, looking back over his long career and life as he thinks of good friends and great times, said, “It has been a beautiful journey and I’m so blessed that Bobbye has been there for me through the highs and the lows. People think that having a successful music career is what makes you happy when music is your life, but I don’t measure success in dollars; it’s the memories that I’ve created along the way that make me happy. Everything else is temporary, and it won’t hold your hand as you are about to take your last breath in this life. But, with God’s blessing, my Bobbye will.” 

Like everyone else in life, the couple has also known sadness along with joy. “We’ve held on to each other for strength as we buried our parents, our brothers and our son, Larry, who passed away at 21, and too many friends to count,” he said. They have another son, Clayton, who is married to Stormi. 

“I may have failed at a few things in my life that I dreamed of doing, but it doesn’t even matter to me at this stage of life,” he said. “As long as my wife looks at me with the same love that I’ve felt all these years, as long as I’m the one she calls out to each night when she’s ready to fall asleep so I can give her the foot massage she deserves at the end of her long day, and as long as she still believes in me then I’m a successful man.” 

Sonnier said he hasn’t talked much about the fact that he has Asperger syndrome, a form of autism that can manifest itself in repetitive behavior, impaired verbal and nonverbal skills, social struggles and other challenges. But he is doing so now because he wants others who may have the same issues to know they can also lead happy, successful lives and accomplish great things. 

He was an adult before he was diagnosed, and he said that the diagnosis brought a certain peace to his life, adding that it was a relief to finally know why he was so different from others and why his music was his entire world. 

He never forgot how painful it was to go to school and be told by teachers he wasn’t allowed to speak French when it was all he knew and being surrounded by teachers and students speaking English. 

“I felt lost,” he said. “So, I went more But as an adult, once I had the answers, I decided it wasn’t a disability. It gave me the ability to focus on my music when I didn’t fit into the rest of the world.”

His sister-in-law, Shirley Strange-Allen, wrote a children’s book a few years ago about Sonnier and those challenges he faced with Asperger’s. The book, “The Little Boy Under the Wagon,” is filled with his recollections as well as photographs and illustrations that paint a picture of all he endured as a child and how he rose above it to great success. 

Sonnier has a couple of things still remaining on his bucket list. One is his desire to play on a stage with George Strait. Another is to perform with Willie Nelson. Both he and his wife say that those aspirations are very doable, and that it isn’t a matter of whether or not they will happen, but when they will happen. 

Sonnier also seeks to inspire others and even mentors others if he has the chance. He did just that with a Louisiana singer named Hunter Hayes. Sonnier met Hayes when he was a small child. Sonnier said Hayes carried around a toy accordion at that time, was trying to sing in French, and he eventually became a successful singer. Born in Breaux Bridge, Hayes, 31, is proficient at more than 30 instruments and is a singer, songwriter and record producer. He has been nominated for five Grammys. In another full-circle moment, Hayes was the one to present Sonnier his Grammy when he won. 

Making a difference in the lives of others is something that gives Sonnier a great feeling. For instance, he said the song “Come On Joe” has touched many people. 

JO-EL WITH HIS GRAMMY

“I carried that song around on a cassette tape for so many years just hoping that one day I’d get to record it,” he said. “It was finally on my first RCA album. The song is about never giving up on life. I can’t tell you how many people over the years have told me that my song saved their life. I always knew the power of a song, but I’d never had one of my songs become so powerful. George Strait has sung this song on stage, and he has said that it’s his wife’s favorite song.” 

Sonnier said nobody knows how much time they have left, so he enjoys every day to the fullest. “I perform every show as if it was my last,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to me if there are 25 people or 25,000 people in the audience, I still perform the same way.” 

Reflecting back on the years, experiences and memories that have made him who he is today, Sonnier said that sometimes he just marvels at it all. “Oh, it’s been a great life; it sure has been,” he said. “A very, very good life. I’m incredibly blessed, and I thank God every day.” 

(Lisa Addison is a freelance writer who has written for local, regional and national publications. She was a newspaper reporter for 40 years. Email her at: itsnews2me@aol.com.) 

JO-EL