By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

By a 31-0 vote in the Louisiana State Senate, Jay Chevalier's song "Come Back to Louisiana," that he wrote several years ago and re-recorded recently was officially named as the post-Katrina state song.

The Journal reported the proposal in its March issue. House bill 796 which proposed the selection of the song, also received overwhelming support in the Louisiana House of Representatives. The bill was sponsored by state Representative Danny Martingy of Kenner.

Chevalier, a native of Forest Hill in south Rapides Parish told the Journal, "It's a real honor to have my song selected. Now as I travel around the U.S. and Europe doing shows, I can truthfully say that the Louisiana Legislature and the Governor wanted me to sing this song to you."

"What the song is really saying is two things," Chevalier pointed out. "First, if you've lived in Louisiana and left because of the Katrina and Rita, its time to `Come Back to Louisiana'. Secondly, the song is saying that if you've ever visited our great state, then its time to `Come Back To Louisiana' for a visit."

Jay Chevalier's first big hit record was "The Ballad of Earl K. Long" in 1959 followed by "Billy Cannon." Last year, Hydra Records in Germany released a collectors item CD of twenty of his most popular rock-a-Billy hit songs.

In March, Chevalier was featured on the front cover of "Americana Music" magazine published in Sweden in a fourteen page layout. It is the largest English language music publication in Europe.

Chevalier is also a member of the International Rock-a-Billy Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame in Winnfield. At the January 2006 Hall of Fame induction banquet, Chevalier sang "Come Back to Louisiana" a capella style with no musical accompaniment to the 500 attendees.

House bill 796 also named Jay Chevalier as the official "Louisiana Troubadour."

He wrote and recorded "Come Back to Louisiana" many years ago. Chevalier said recently, "I had no idea that the song might one day help give a little spark to the people of Louisiana after a disaster."

The first verse of the song reads:
"I ain't lying, I ain't faking
It's my heart you're breaking.
Come Back, Come Back to Louisiana."

"We definitely need to get away from looking at what has happened to us as so much doom and gloom," Chevalier stated. "Sure, Katrina and Rita slammed us hard, especially St. Bernard, Plaquemine, and Cameron parishes but it is now time to pick up the pieces and move forward."

"I've been singing and playing at several special events in Jefferson parish and New Orleans such as at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the Ponderosa Stomp, just to try and bolster people's spirits," Chevalier explained. "Some of the Legislators heard the song and said, maybe we need to give it some recognition." Representative Danny Martingy of Kenner sponsored the bill recognizing Chevalier and the song, which he said seems to fit today's situation:
"Nothing seems right, no days, just nights.
Don't you know I'm lonely and I want you only.
My Pirogue don't pole the same,
Sometime I don't know my name.
Come back, Come back to Louisiana."

"As you travel around the New Orleans area, you see people who have picked up the pieces and moved forward, others who are beginning to try and put the pieces back together and others who are stuck in the doom and gloom quagmire," said Chevalier. "What people tend to forget rapidly is the history of an area. A lot more people over a wider area were dramatically impacted by the great flood of 1927."

"I tell people that all the interstate highways that cross Louisiana still have a traffic volume equal to pre-Katrina days," said Chevalier, who ran for Lt. Governor in 1995 in the race won by Kathleen B. Blanco, who took charge of tourist development in the state. "We could rapidly make up tax revenue losses by getting an appreciable number of people off the interstates highways and get them spending money in the Louisiana towns along the interstates."

Chevalier wrote a book two years ago titled, "When The Music Stopped - Earl K. Long and Jay Chevalier" about his time with Earl Long and campaign tactics used in the days before the advent of television. Now Chevalier is negotiating a movie deal with a West Coast producer to base a movie, "The Earl and I" on his book.

"I'm writing a rough draft of a screen play in which I'm trying to portray Earl more in the manner that he really was as a person," Chevalier pointed out. "First and foremost, Earl was a funny guy. A standup comedian who could draw hundreds of people to any 'speaking' just to hear him say wild funny crazy things about his opponents."

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