Saturday, September 23, 2017

Louisiana: Return to Zydeco Nation


El Sido's hurricane fundraiser, Lafayette, Louisiana. September 2017.

September 2017

The famous (might we even say "historic"?) El Sido's hosted a hurricane fundraiser on the Sunday following my return to South Louisiana.

El Sido's hurricane fundraiser, Lafayette, Louisiana. September 2017. C.J. Chenier and Louisiana Red Hot Band.



By the time I left the event, it was as if a reservoir inside me, almost dry from the long absence of live zydeco, had been refilled to almost-overflowing.

El Sido's hurricane fundraiser, Lafayette, Louisiana. September 2017. Horace Trahan and the Ossun Express.


As is too often the case in South Louisiana, we few in the audience received far more than we deserved from the musicians, who - every one of them - delivered performances as if there had been a crowd.

El Sido's hurricane fundraiser, Lafayette, Louisiana. September 2017. C.J. Chenier and Louisiana Red Hot Band.


Not to take away from the power of the other bands (including Horace Trahan and the Ossun Express, Corey Ledet and his Zydeco Band, Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys), the penultimate act by C.J. Chenier and Red Hot Louisiana Band blew me away.

A taste below:





El Sido's hurricane fundraiser, Lafayette, Louisiana. September 2017. Horace Trahan and the Ossun Express.


El Sido's hurricane fundraiser, Lafayette, Louisiana. September 2017. Horace Trahan and the Ossun Express.

El Sido's hurricane fundraiser, Lafayette, Louisiana. September 2017. Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys.


Makes you glad to be alive.

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