GENO DELAFOSE & FRENCH ROCKIN’ BOOGIE

zydeco
Eunice, Louisiana

One of the nation's leading performers of zydeco, Geno Delafose heats up clubs and honky-tonks throughout Louisiana every weekend with this irresistible dance music—that is, when “The Creole Cowboy” is not busy operating his Double D Ranch in Eunice. For Geno Delafose, life is divided equally between being a cowboy at home and a world-class zydeco accordionist on stage. Hailing from the small prairie town of Eunice, Delafose grew up on his father’s farm and still makes his home there today, breeding cattle and raising quarter horses. “I’m just a country boy, quiet,” he says, “but my other job takes me in front of a lot of people.” Indeed, with his charismatic Louisiana cowboy spirit and lively presentation, he’s become one of zydeco’s international stars.

A driving, accordion-led music with signature frottoir (rubboard) percussion, zydeco is an energetic, highly danceable music that springs from the rich cultural mix of Southwest Louisiana and East Texas. The style emerged during the musically fertile post-World War II period but has roots in an earlier era: French-speaking African American musicians mixed older Cajun and French Creole dance music, known as “la la,” with blues, R&B, and rock and roll to create a pulsing sound that packed the dance halls. Zydeco, which is said to take its name from the idiomatic title of a popular song, “Les Haricots [zydeco] Sont Pas Salé,” continues to evolve, often incorporating blues, and R&B elements, but musicians like Geno celebrate its roots through traditional instrumentation, two-step and waltz rhythms, and French lyrics highlighting the trials and joys of life in Creole Louisiana.

Geno Delafose’s father John was a leading figure in the popular resurgence of zydeco in the early 1980s, with his stellar band the Eunice Playboys. Geno, who was born in 1971, began sitting in with the Playboys on rubboard at age seven; soon he also took up drums, and then taught himself to play the accordion by age 13. Geno shared vocal and accordion leads with his father, and when the senior Delafose passed away in 1994, Geno led the band into a new incarnation that eventually evolved into French Rockin’ Boogie. His bandmates are family to him, literally and metaphorically. The band today includes his longtime bassist Popp Esprite, his friend Dale Patrick Stelly on guitar, his “baby brother” and fellow rancher Demetric Thomas on rubboard and vocals, and his cousin Germaine Jack on drums.

Geno Delafose mixes the traditional Cajun and Creole repertoires with other genres and his own compositions to create a rich blend of zydeco, R&B, Cajun, country, and blues. He sings in both French and English, playing the single-row and triple-row diatonic button accordions for more traditional “French-style” songs and switching to the piano accordion when pounding out contemporary zydeco tunes. “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.”

Artist website and social media:

facebook.com/geno.delafose