A truck driver for a Jennings beer distributor, Jesse Lloyd "Jay" Stutes first made his name as the lead vocalist and steel guitar player with Cleveland Crochet and the Sugar Bees. Originally billed as "Cleveland Crochet and the Hillbilly Ramblers," the group showed up at Goldband's doorstep in 1960, and asked Eddie Shuler to listen to their sound. As Shuler tells it, "I spent five years trying to find a Cajun band that could play rock and roll. Everyone thought I was nuts, and I tried so many bands that I became really discouraged." But this group fit the bill exactly. They owed much of their distinctive sound to the raucous, raspy vocals and steel-guitar work of Stutes. The group reworked several Cajun songs -- "Sugar Bee" and "Drunkard's Dream" -- for Goldband, by adding steel guitar, a rock and roll backbeat, and English lyrics. In early 1961, "Sugar Bee" became the first Cajun record to break into Billboard's top 100. Stutes later took over as leader of the band from Cleveland Crochet, and the band was renamed the Sugar Bees. They continued to perform until Shorty LeBlanc, the accordion player, died in 1965.

Selected Recordings by Jay Stutes
FC-11971 / Swampland Jewels
	"Kaw-Liga (Boogie)" / streaming mp3 * streaming realaudio
FC-12538 / Swampland Boogie from the Bayous of Louisiana
	"Sugar Bee"