Wilson Anthony "Boozoo" Chavis (pronounced CHAY-viss)[1] (October 23, 1930 – May 5, 2001)[2][3] was an American accordion player, singer, songwriter and bandleader.

A Living Blues magazine story says that at age 9, he traded a small riding horse for his first accordion, a little single-row model, and taught himself to play.

[9] An article in OffBeat Magazine claims that Chavis bought his first accordion with money earned from riding in a horse race when he was a teenager; similarly, Sing Out!

[10] Chavis credits his mother as being especially enterprising, as she took on cleaning jobs and selling barbeque at informal horse races to raise extra money, with which she bought three acres of land.

[4][11] Chavis made his first recording in 1955, "Paper in My Shoe", based on a song he heard performed by Creole accordionist Ambrose "Potato" Sam.

[12] The song, sung in both French and English,[13] was originally released on the Folk-Star label, a subsidiary of Goldband, before being reissued by Imperial Records.

[11] The song was recorded at the instigation of local entrepreneur Eddie Shuler, who teamed Chavis up with a rhythm and blues band named Classie Ballou's Tempo Kings.

An inebriated Chavis fell off of his chair at the end of the released version of "Paper in My Shoe", so the song fades out, which was one of the first records to use that technique.

"[4] As a result, Chavis lost trust in the music business,[11] and over the next thirty years only released three more singles: "Forty-One Days" (Folk-Star, 1955), "Hamburgers & Popcorn" (Goldband, 1965), and "Mama!

[10] He performed rarely during the 1960s and 1970s, except for friends and family events,[17] devoting most of his time to farming and raising racehorses[4] on his property in Dog Hill, on the outskirts of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Those artists were performing as main attractions at music festivals, were included in magazine stories, and were getting the attention of major record labels.

[9] In the early 1980s, Chavis was making a meager living with his race horses, and earned only a small amount of money performing at occasional house parties or dances.

He and his wife were driving to a horse race and heard an advertisement on the radio for a dance featuring Boozoo Chavis, after which he realized that there was enough name recognition for him to return to performing.

Chavis earned the nickname "The Creole Cowboy" because of his background raising horses, as well as his habit of wearing a white Stetson hat during performances.

[7][12] In addition, the subject matter of some of his songs was explicitly rural, such as "Zydeco Hee Haw", "Johnnie Billy Goat", and "Motor Dude Special" named for his prized thoroughbred horse.

He switched between single-, double-, and triple-row accordions and played in "cross position" and in relative minor keys to make a bluesy sound on the diatonic instruments.

[15] According to The New York Times, "with his rough-hewn voice and hefty accordion riffs, his band's one-chord grooves had a mesmerizing intensity that kept dance floors packed".

[11][12] He was funeralized at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church and interred at Highland Memorial Gardens, both in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

[22] Boozoo and Leona had six children, Wilson Jr. ("Poncho"), Margaret ("Do-Right"), Louann, Charles, Licia, and Rellis Chavis, as well as 21 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren.

[11] Two of his sons (Charles on washboard and Rellis on drums) were full-time band members, and a grandson occasionally performed with the Magic Sounds.

[27] In 2005, five of Boozoo Chavis' grandsons started a band named The Dog Hill Stompers, partly to keep their grandfather's legacy alive.

The event was always a family-friendly affair, with Leona cooking Creole dishes for the crowds, ranging from red beans and rice to crawfish étouffée.