Zydeco music returns to Tucson concert series after 30 years

Back in the early days of KXCI 91.3, the community radio station’s monthly House Rockin’ fundraising concert series regularly brought in the biggest names of zydeco, from Queen Ida and the Bon Temps, who opened the series in 1986, to Terrance Simien & the Mallet Playboys, Zachary Richard and Beausoleil.

“Those shows were so legendary back in the early days,” said Marty Kool, the longtime host of KXCI’s Blues Review show who attended most of those events. “I think zydeco was hot at the time and a lot of the real great figures of zydeco were still alive. So we had Queen Ida and we had Rockin’ Dopsie and Beausoleil.”

Queen Ida was a repeat headliner of the House Rockin’ series, which was held at El Casino Ballroom until 1991, when a powerful wind storm tore off a large section of the venue’s roof. After a two-decade absence, the series returned in 2013 when local Americana and country promoter Jeb Schoonover resurrected it as the House Rockin’ Blues Review in conjunction with the release of former Tucson music reporter and filmmaker Daniel Buckley’s documentary on El Casino.

For its 10th anniversary show this weekend, Schoonover and Kool, who coordinate the annual fundraising concerts for KXCI, are bringing zydeco back to the series for the first time in more than 30 years. Veteran Louisiana accordion player Dwight Carrier and his BlackCat Zydeco band will headline the show on Friday, Aug. 4, at El Casino Ballroom, 437 E. 26th St.

“Zydeco was probably our most popular shows with Queen Ida, C.J. Chenier and Beausoleil, so Marty and I have been scheming to get a zydeco band this year,” Schoonover said.

Kool said Carrier, who’s known as “The Black Cat,” is a perfect fit for the series and its history of hosting events that make good use of El Casino’s historic wooden dance floor.

“El Casino has one of the largest wooden dance floors in Arizona. It’s made for dancing,” Kool said, adding that House Rockin’ shows are big dance parties more than anything. “No matter how many people we get in or what kind of band it is, it’s all about getting people out there on that dance floor.”

Friday’s event is the first time Carrier, the third generation to carry on the family’s legacy in zydeco music, has performed in Tucson since he was here last in 1989 or 1990 with JoJo Reed and the Happy Hill Zydeco Band, he said. Carrier, whose family’s zydeco history goes back to the 1920s and includes his legendary cousins BeyBey and Calvin Carrier, has a style that borrows from Caribbean, Creole and blues.

“It’s almost an African-Caribbean blues style mixed together. That’s how I would define it,” said the 48-year-old, who, as a kid, was oblivious to any music that wasn’t tied to zydeco.

“I didn’t know anything about R&B back then. When I was young, nobody was listening to it,” he said. “We would barbecue and cook and all that stuff and old men would play and I was the one, with my brother, who would watch them play.”

His dad played accordion, and Dwight started playing drums and rubboard, the percussion washboard instrument played with spoons. By 12, he added accordion to his arsenal and singing, and by 13 was playing professional gigs in clubs, for trail rides and at parties and receptions.

Carrier recalled going to New York in 1989 to represent Louisiana at the Benson & Hedges Blues Festival. He was 14, and his parents sent him and his brother alone.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“We were literally kids. I remember my mother crying when we got on the plane,” he said during a phone call last month from home in Louisiana. “I tell you we were literally some kids with Etta James, Johnnie Taylor, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, people I didn’t know until I got older that, oh my God, I played with all these people.”

Buckwheat Zydeco Sr., who was one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success, was an early mentor. Carrier also took cues from his famous family, including his cousins Chubby Carrier and Dale Carrier, and his uncle Andrew Carrier, who is still performing into his late 70s.

Before the pandemic, Carrier and his five-piece band were doing as many as 150-200 shows a year, from club and theater gigs to festivals and fairs. He said he is trying to get back to that number now as zydeco is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, largely because more white artists are getting involved.

“It’s huge. Zydeco is going to be in the mainstream soon,” he predicted. “It’s really big and it’s spreading. Back in the day, white people wouldn’t play it; they would play Cajun music. But now the white people are playing it. They have white zydeco bands now. Zydeco has grown tremendously.”

Carrier said audiences also seem to have rediscovered the genre.

“When they see that accordion and rubboard, they are like, what the hell is going on here? What is that Black guy doing with an accordion?” he said. “And then people go crazy for the wash board. They just never thought of that as an instrument, but it really makes a distinctive sound. ... It’s an instrument that nobody else has in their band. When they see that thing, people go crazy especially if someone is rubbing it right.”

Kool said the zydeco-style washboard adds percussion that enhances the genre’s Afro-Caribbean and creole sound.

“You hear even Latin rhythms sometimes in zydeco,” he said. “Dwight’s got a lot of soul and R&B in his music, but still some very old zydeco soul.”

Kool said he expects to see people flood the El Casino dance floor as soon as Carrier and his band start playing.

“It’s infectious, in a good way,” he said.

Doors to Friday’s show open at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7:30. Admission is $20 for KXCI members and $25 for non-members in advance through kxci.org; it’s $30 at the door.