Louisiana zydeco
Hailing from the small town of Eunice, deep in Southwest Louisiana's bayou country, Geno Delafose represents the newest generation of great zydeco bands. He cut his musical teeth early, playing rubboard at the age of seven in his father's famous zydeco group John Delafose & the Eunice Playboys. Geno first learned to play the drums, and then he taught himself to play the accordion at age 13. Sometimes called the "Creole Cowboy," he grew up on his father's Louisiana farm and still lives there today, breeding cattle and raising quarter horses. For Geno, life is divided equally between being a cowboy at home and a world-class zydeco accordionist on stage. Now fronting his own group, French Rockin' Boogie, Geno taps the wealth of inspiration found in the traditional Cajun and Creole repertoires and creates a rich blend of zydeco, R&B, Cajun, country and blues. Yet the group retains a reputation for being one of Louisiana's best traditionally-minded zydeco performers, and Geno characterizes himself as "pretty traditional, but I can step it up when I want to." He sings in both French and English. Playing the single-row and triple-row diatonic button accordions for more traditional "French style" tunes, he switches to the piano accordion for pounding out contemporary zydeco. Geno cites Canray Fontenot, Clifton Chenier, Beausoleil, and Boozoo Chavis as major influences on his music where they get ". . . all rolled together. We have that old country feel, that soft swing, and then we have that loud bluesy get-down thing going on, too. We try to mix it up, give everybody something they can dance to." Continuing his family legacy, Geno Delafose keeps the zydeco tradition alive and well.
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Music Sampler: "Bayou Pon Pon"