"King of Zydeco" Boozoo Chavis died on Saturday in Austin, Texas after a heart attack and stroke.

The accordionist and bandleader, born Wilson Anthony Chavis in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Oct. 23, 1930, scored one of the first zydeco hits in 1955 with "Paper in My Shoe."

Along with Clifton Chenier, Chavis was one of the leading lights of the Louisiana-bred zydeco sound, which mixes Cajun music, blues and R&B.

Chavis played a more rural, Celtic-flavored blend of zydeco, performing his signature songs on a diatonic button accordion, which features buttons instead of a piano-like keyboard.

His bare-bones, propulsive style merged the Creole music of a previous generation with today's more funk-oriented zydeco sound, often using quirky time signatures and hypnotic, repetitive accordion riffs.

Chavis' first hit was a story-song about being too poor to afford socks, and in the years since "Paper in My Shoe" was released the song has become a zydeco classic.

In the late 1950s, just a few years after breaking onto the scene, the accordionist dropped out of sight, feeling he had been cheated out of royalties and expressing distaste with music industry practices. Chavis kept a low profile for nearly 25 years, retreating to his Dog Hill horse ranch in Lake Charles and building a successful second career as a horse trainer.

He re-emerged in 1984 and jump-started his career with four studio albums on the Maison De Soul label, Louisiana Zydeco Music, Boozoo Zydeco!, Zydeco Homebrew and Zydeco Trail Ride.

Chavis was inducted into the Zydeco Hall of Fame in 1998. A compilation of some of his best-loved songs, Johnnie Billy Goat, was released in October. His still-untitled final studio album was finished less than a month ago, according to Scott Billington, vice president of A&R at Rounder Records.

"He was full of vitality, ideas and energy. It's hard to believe that three weeks later he's gone," Billington said, crediting Chavis with completely re-inventing and reviving the modern zydeco scene.

The album is slated for release this year.