Here's one of the finds I brought back home when I visited Louisiana in 2023. I think I found this disc in a record shop on Magazine Street in New Orleans. L. J. Foret was a cajun musician from Houma, Louisiana, area, where the Ciro label was also located. Houma is located southwest of New Orleans, about an hour away.
Lawrence Joseph "L. J." Foret was born on June 30, 1930, in Houma, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Foret was born in a time when it was common to speak French instead of English and many of his songs later reflected that. He started his career in music at the age of 14 years in 1944, when he joined his father's band, the Town Serenaders, a group that played the dance halls of the region. Foret learned to play guitar, fiddle, drums, and sang. By 1949, he had his own radio show on KCIL but had to interrupt his career when Uncle Sam came calling in 1952 and Foret had to serve in the Korean War. That same year, he had married Beverly Babin, with whom he had two sons. During his military service, he hosted a radio show for fellow soldiers and entertained the troops with personal appearances as well.
Upon his discharge, he formed his own band, "L. J. Foret and the Country Boys", and returned to hosting his Sunday morning show on KCIL. He didn't record commercially until the 1960s. His debut single appeared in 1965 on the Arelro label, comprising "Someone Who Didn't Care" b/w "Don't Scatter the Pieces of My Heart" (#450). The same year, he started recording for the local Ciro label and we feature his label debut on Ciro #1005, "Fille de Houma (Girl from Houma)" b/w "Pas Christmas Poor les Pauvre (No Christmas for the Poor)" (note that it is correctly spelled "Pas Christmas Pour les Pauvre"). Although both songs were sung in French by Foret, the musical arrangement is rather country than cajun. The songwriter on both sides was probably Donald Babin, Foret's wife's brother.
Foret releases a few more singles on Ciro during 1965 and switched to other local labels throughout the years, including Houma, Ajae's, Starbarn, and La Louisianne. He recorded his only full-fledged album on La Louisianne in the 1970s. In 1972, he started his own local TV show on KHMA, which lasted for two years. In 1970, his son Ronnie joined his band, followed in 1975 by Foret's younger son Bobby. During his career, Foret opened for such country stars as Loretta Lynn, Mel Tillis, Minnie Pearl, Jack Greene, Jimmy C. Newman, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ernest Tubb, Stonewall Jackson, and Conway Twitty.
A stroke in 1983 limited his possibilities to perform but Foret didn't give up music, playing occasionally with family and friends around Houma. He was inducted into the Cajun Hall of Fame in 2000 and passed away on September 12, 2002, due to cancer. He was posthumously inducted into the Westbank Musicians Hall of Fame in 203.
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