- Inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
- Inducted into the Cajun Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
- He was an American singer-songwriter and accordionist who performed country music and Cajun music.
- Originally signed to Mercury Nashville Records, Sonnier charted several minor singles on the Billboard country charts in the late 1970s.
- Although his chart success waned at the beginning of the 1990s, he continued recording music, releasing more than thirty albums primarily on independent labels.
- By the late 1980s, he had signed to RCA Records, breaking through with the Top Ten hits "No More One More Time" and a cover of Richard Thompson's "Tear-Stained Letter".
- He continued to find success as a session musician in the 90's, and briefly took up acting as well.
- On December 10, 2013, The Legacy was released on Takau Records, and was the first traditional Cajun French album of his in over 13 years. Ten years of songwriting in the making, the 13-track album drew Sonnier his fifth Grammy nomination and won him his first, as the 2015 Regional Roots Music Album of the Year.
- At age three, he began to play his brother's accordion.
- After being signed as Merle Haggard's opening act, Sonnier later decided to return to country music; he was signed to RCA Records in the 1980s, where his biggest successes came in the singles "No More One More Time" and a cover of British singer Richard Thompson's "Tear-Stained Letter", songs which landed in the Top 10 on the country charts.
- In 2009, Sonnier was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
- By age six, Sonnier had performed on the radio; at age 11, he made his first recordings.
- By the 1970s, he was signed to Mercury Nashville Records, but without much success in the country music field.
- He released several independent singles and four albums as a teenager.
- On February 8, 2015, Sonnier won a Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album.
- In the late 1990s, he returned to Rounder Records to record Cajun music once more, occasionally collaborating with Michael Doucet of BeauSoleil. Sonnier also saw his second Grammy nomination, for the 1997 album Cajun Pride; a third soon followed with 2001's Cajun Blood being nominated for Best Traditional Folk Album.
- Sonnier made a brief cameo appearance as a member of a dance band in the third episode of the first season of the HBO crime series True Detective, which is set in southern Louisiana.
- Sonnier temporarily abandoned his pursuit of a country music career in favor of recording Cajun music on the independent Rounder Records label. Although his independent album did not produce much commercial success, it was nominated for a Grammy Award.
- In the 1990s, Sonnier moved to Capitol Records, but his solo career faltered soon afterwards.
- Merle Haggard tapped Sonnier as an opening act in the early '80s, and renewed contacts with California musicians such as Albert Lee, who was then helping to spearhead Nashville's traditional-country revival as part of Emmylou Harris' Hot Band, led Sonnier to take another shot at recording in Nashville.
- By the early 2000s, Sonnier seemed to have found his niche: He was a true ambassador of French-descended Louisiana.
- He was raised in extreme poverty, often working in the cotton fields with his parents.
- Sonnier's Mercury releases attempted to make him into a Lousiana version of the wildly successful Freddy Fender, mixing his accordion with Nashville electric bass guitars and including French-language passages in some songs.
- There have been better-known figures than Jo-El Sonnier within the Cajun music tradition of Louisiana. And there have been Louisiana musicians, such as Doug Kershaw, who have taken simplified versions of Cajun music to Nashville and experienced greater success in the world of country music. But no one has moved as easily between Cajun and country music as Sonnier, and no one is as well respected as a bridge between musical traditions.
- As a teenager Sonnier became a well-established Cajun musician, recording four albums and at least a dozen singles on regional Louisiana labels. (Some were reissued in 2000 on the Cajun Valentino album, whose title referred to Sonnier's billing at the time.).
- Jo-El Sonnier was a French-speaking Louisiana native who mixed styles (country, Cajun, zydeco, R&B) and accompanied himself on the accordion.
- Although his country career never really recovered, Sonnier remained in heavy demand as a Nashville session player. Sonnier appeared on recordings by Alan Jackson and Harris and went far beyond country music with guest slots on releases by Elvis Costello and Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. He also had success as a songwriter; both Patty Loveless and George Strait recorded Sonnier's "Blue Is Not a Word," and he consistently placed songs on albums by other artists in the late '80s and early '90s.
- Signed to RCA, he released the album Come On Joe in 1987. The album coincided with the crest of the late-'80s neo-traditionalist wave, and Sonnier soon was sharing country airwaves with the likes of Randy Travis as the album spawned two Top Ten singles, the ballad "No More One More Time" and a ferocious cover of British folkster Richard Thompson's Cajun-inspired "Tear-Stained Letter.".
- A fixture of the traditional Cajun scene, Sonnier has also reached the top levels of the country charts and brought his energetic accordion sounds to recordings by artists ranging from Bob Dylan to Steven Curtis Chapman.
- Sonnier was born the son of French-speaking sharecroppers near Rayne, LA.
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