He is generally considered one of the foremost musicians of this south Louisiana-east Texas idiom, along with such notables as Bobby Charles, Johnnie Allan, Tommy McLain, and Warren Storm.

[4][5] Around age eight, Bernard obtained his first guitar (an acoustic Gene Autry model) and, around 1950, he began to perform with the Blue Room Gang, a Cajun-country (or "Cajun swing" in the vein of western-swing music) troupe, sponsored by local Red Bird brand sweet potatoes.

A stint in the U.S. Marine Corps boot camp interrupted Bernard's musical career but, after several months, he returned to south Louisiana to form The Shondells (not to be confused with Tommy James' group) with fellow swamp pop musicians Warren Storm and Skip Stewart.

During the mid-1960s, the group recorded several singles for the La Louisianne label of Lafayette, Louisiana, and they hosted a live dance program on KLFY-TV called "Saturday Hop".

These sessions included notable releases such as the Chuck Berry-type rocker "Recorded in England", the Cajun two-step inspired "Papa Thibodeaux", and the doleful ballad "Congratulations To You Darling".

One music writer, John Broven, described it as "a wild and woolly rock 'n' roll set with spontaneity one normally only dreams about," while another, Larry Benicewicz, claimed that "such a masterpiece, no doubt, spawned other 'experiments' like Wayne Toups' 'ZydeCajun' style or, perhaps, a Zachary Richard 'Zach Attack,' a similar fusion of Cajun, zydeco, and R&B.

In June 2006, Bernard re-recorded his spoken-word single "A Tear In The Lady's Eye", which he had originally written and recorded in 1968 as a pro-military response to anti-Vietnam War protestors.

Significantly, younger generations of south Louisiana musicians, including C. C. Adcock, Marc Broussard, and Zachary Richard, have acknowledged him as a strong musical influence.