Mary Jane Broussard is believed to be the only female Creole-style accordionist of professional status. She hails from a musical family hotbed that includes the Ardoins on one side and the Franks on the other. Despite such a pedigree, it wasn’t until she became a young mother that she taught herself to play accordion, modeling [...]
Tag Archives: Creole music
Cedric Watson’s Creole Kora
September 1, 2011 – 12:09 am
Cedric Watson is quickly becoming a sponge of world music. “I like any kind of music that’s related to Louisiana music and Creole,” says Watson, who was nominated for a Grammy last year. “Brazilian music called forró is triangle and fiddle and it has accordion in it. It’s the same thing [as Creole], but it’s [...]
Geno Delafose: King Creole
July 1, 2011 – 12:08 am
Geno Delafose is nothing if not hard working. Last Mardi Gras season, Delafose spent 10 days playing 11 gigs that stretched from Cowboys Night Club in Scott, Louisiana to the St. Petersburg, Florida Cajun/Zydeco Crawfish Festival. Each weekend, Delafose averages three to four gigs within an hour’s drive of his 140-acre, Double D Ranch near [...]
Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys, Return of the Creole (Maison de Soul Records)
May 1, 2011 – 12:49 am
Jeffery Broussard may have once spearheaded the most influential band of modern zydeco with Zydeco Force, but these days he’s on a different mission: to present the Creole cultural music prior to its adulteration of floor-rattling, urbanized sounds. His second album makes that point well, showcasing selections (“Allons a Lafayette,” “Prier pour moi,” “Madeleine”) that [...]
Jazz Fest Focus: Joe Hall
May 1, 2011 – 12:22 am
“We’re gonna tear it up,” Joe Hall says. It’s not a Charlie Sheen rant, but it’s obvious that the burly Creole accordionist is pumped up about this year’s Jazz Fest. Hall and his Louisiana Cane Cutters are releasing their fifth CD, The $30 Dobb, which should further establish them as worthy practitioners of Creole music. [...]
Horace Trahan, Keep Walking (Independent)
April 1, 2011 – 12:57 am
If everyone were like Horace Trahan, there would be no mold to break. As a teenager, he was heralded as the Second Coming of Iry LeJeune, the accordionist responsible for reviving post-World War II Cajun music. A few years later Trahan crossed over into zydeco, scoring hits with “The Butt Thing” and “High School Breakdown” [...]
Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole, L’Ésprit Créole (Valcour)
February 1, 2010 – 12:10 am
When Cedric Watson’s eponymous debut dropped in 2008, only the astute realized that this was not just a solo record by a talented Pine Leaf Boys member but a premonition of greater things to come. His amicable departure from the band made sense; Watson had too much to say about his Creole culture not to [...]
T-Broussard and the Zydeco Steppers, Super T (Independent)
February 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
In the competitive world of zydeco, you always have to work an angle. Starting with the cover shot of T-Broussard emerging from a black, stretch limo onto a red carpet while being blinded by the photographing paparazzi, he may have his best gimmick yet. “Super T” is his best song yet, sending himself up as [...]
Earl “Washboard” Sally, Home Grown (Catfish Zydeco)
December 1, 2008 – 12:01 am
Zydeco is an accordion-dominated genre, so it’s rare when a non-accordionist releases an album. Earl Sally is a 30-year veteran who’s scraped his syncopated, metallic rhythms with Clifton Chenier, Terrance Simien, Jude Taylor, Geno Delafose and Chubby Carrier. He’s shared the staged with Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys, Dr. John, Taj Mahal and Paul Simon, [...]
Dennis Stroughmatt, Cadet Rouselle: French Creole Fiddle Tunes & Ballads from Old Upper Louisiana, Volume II (Swallow)
December 1, 2008 – 12:01 am
Though he’s widely known for his Creole Stomp dance band, there’s another intriguing angle to Dennis Stroughmatt as revealed by this collection of French Creole fiddle tunes and ballads from Old Upper Louisiana. Unlike many of his zydeco contemporaries, Stroughmatt didn’t pop out of the womb and into the family band. He was weaned on [...]
