Zydeco country

American Visions, Feb-March, 1995 by Dari Giles

Down in Southwest Louisiana, dance halls swing with the infectious rhythms of zydeco, a black Creole country music bred in these parts. The fast tracks bounce; the slow jams sway. Both take an old-fashioned two-step.

Zydeco music is characterized by the melodious frottoir--a metal washboard played with thimbles, spoons or bottle openers--and the hearty notes of the accordion. A hint of the blues and a side of soul sung in Creole make it distinct and--with the region's patois and food--offer the surest path into a unique culture that blends Africa, France and America.

Formally, this part of the state is known as Acadiana and is named after the French immigrants who were exiled here after being driven from their colony in Nova Scotia when Britain seized Canada from France in the mid-18th century. The descendants of the Acadians are called Cajuns. The term "Creole" is applied to the people of mixed blood, primarily African and French, whose attributes can be seen in the faces of residents, heard in the harmony of their music and in the accents of their speech, and tasted in their cuisine.

Cajuns and Creoles share a French heritage, but it's important to know the difference between the two. "As an African American, I would never promote this area as Acadiana," says blue-eyed, fair-skinned Wilbert Guillory, director of the Annual Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Musk Festival. "I promote this area as Southwest Louisiana because I'm not a Cajun. I'm an African-American Creole."

The mesh of Cajun and Creole defines Louisiana's rich and complex culture; in zydeco, the Creole component comes to the fore. "Zydeco been there before I was born," says Guillory, whose speech is slow and spoken with a tongue that testifies to his joint Southern and French heritages. "Sometime during the fall, we had what you call the `la la zydeco dance,' where you take out all the furniture in the larger room of the house and on Saturday night have a dance. You charge 25 cents for the dance and 15 cents for the plate of gumbo," he explains.

The music, which traces its roots back to the small towns and cities of Lafayette and St. Landry parishes (as the state's counties are known), took off in the 1980s. Then, the late Clifton Chenier, "the King of Zydeco," as well as artists such as John Delafose, Queen Ida and the Zydeco Band, and Rockin' Sidney ("Don't Mess With My Toot Toot" , marched the music from the weekend house-party circuit of its birth to a much broader commercial audience. Today, Wilfred "Boozoo" Chavis, Beau Jacque and the Zydeco High Rollers, and Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band perform across the country.

For Guillory, preserving zydeco music and other aspects of Creole culture is a passion. He founded the Southern Development Foundation and organized the Annual Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival 13 years ago with the help of another community organizer and the late John Delafose. What started as a big "la la house party" with 600 attendees has blossomed into an internationally acclaimed music feast that drew 20,000 fans last year. Held each Labor Day weekend in the town of Plaisance, which lies between Opelousas and Ville Platte, the festival features headliners such as Beau Jacque, Hiram Sampy and the Bad Habits, Zydeco Joe and the Laisse Le Bon Temps Rouler Band, and Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha-Chas.

Although the rest of America--and now the wider world--may have been turned on to this Creole confection from a rural corner of a small Southern state, zydeco is still firmly rooted in its native soil. Two Creole radio shows--one hosted by "the Godfather of Zydeco," Luke Collins, on KNEK-AM, and the other hosted by Melvin Caesar and Herbert Waltz on National Public Radio station KRVS-FM--testify to its continuing popularity with locals.

Another measure of zydeco's deep-rootedness can be found in local clubs. The best dance halls are in Lafayette (the city advertises itself as "the Capital of French Louisiana" and is about a two-hour drive--and a world--away from New Orleans), but for authenticity, head for country clubs in the surrounding communities of Opelousas, Eunice and Plaisance. Slim's Y-Ki-Ki on Highway 182 north of Opelousas is a favorite of locals and tourists alike. El Sido's and Richard's are two other popular zydeco spots.

Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band, who recently released an album, were the house band on a recent Saturday night at Hamilton's, where they played for two hours without a break. For $5, folks of all ages, dressed up and dressed down, crowded the club's wooden floors. The older men are decked out in jeans with big leather belts and hats; the baby boomers are in traditional "club" attire; the hip-hop generation dresses down in baggy jeans and the like. Whatever the age or background, everybody is friendly and informal (you can even bring your own bottle and buy setups). The traditional zydeco dance is a light and lively two-step, although the hip-hop generation modernizes the basic moves. Call it a sign of the times, but zydeco even has its own line dance similar to the electric slide or the Harlem shuffle,