Cayouche

The Acadian French country singer Cayouche was born as "Réginald Charles Gagnon" on January 7, 1949, in Moncton, New Brunswick. Gagnon relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, while still a teenager, and later served in the Vietnam War as a US Marine. While living in America, he acquired the nickname "Cayouche," which he would soon adopt as his stage name, and began playing original songs on the acoustic guitar. He returned to Canada in 1979 and began playing a mixture of Canadian roots music that touched upon country, folk, and bluegrass. Initially, Cayouche's popularity was confined to local circles, although the release of his 1994 debut album, Un Vieux Hippy, helped spread Cayouche's music to larger audiences. Un Vieux Hippy was inspired by the lives of everyday Acadian citizens, with Cayouche singing his lyrics in Acadian French. Over the years that followed, he continued to write songs about distinctly Canadian topics, including the country's Lotto game ("La 6 49") and a Canadian brand of rolling tobacco ("Export A"). Albums like 1996's Moitié-moitié, 1999's Roule, roule, 2003's Last Call, and 2011's Le rappel helped maintain his popularity, as did the 2009 documentary film Cayouche, le Temps d'une Bière. By the time Cayouche released Les Meilleures Tounes in 2019, he'd become one of the most popular artists in Acadian history, with the debut album Un Vieux Hippy reached gold status three years later.