Concert features zydeco music

Sisters will get a big taste of Louisiana-style fun on Monday, January 23 as Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys heat up Sisters Country.

Jeffery Broussard is known as a zydeco accordion master and bandleader, comparable to the likes of Clifton Chenier and Buckwheat Zydeco. On stage the band has perfected their ensemble approach using fierce dynamics and the irresistible Cajun groove that leaves no toe untapped.

Jeffery Broussard is a torch-bearer of the Creole music tradition, and the January concert hosted by Sisters Folk Festival is bound to bring the warmth and Creole flavor of New Orleans to Central Oregon deep in the heart of winter. This show is the first in the Sisters Folk Festival 2012 Winter Concert Series, with the remaining two shows being Welsh songwriter Martyn Joseph on Friday, February 10 and New York-based trio Red Molly on Thursday, March 8.

Born in Lafayette, Louisiana to Ethel and Delton Broussard, Jeffery is the youngest of 11 children (with five brothers and five sisters). The family lived in Frilot Cove, Louisiana, a rural community northwest of Opelousas, on a farm where his father was a sharecropper. His father left sharecropping to work for an oil company when Jeffery was thirteen, and his mother died of cancer two years later. Jeffery left school after seventh grade in order to farm full-time (digging and sorting potatoes) to help make ends meet.

Broussard grew up fishing in the bayous, riding horses across the fields with friends, and most of all, working hard. As is the case with many zydeco musicians, Jeffery's career started very early in life - at the age of 8 - playing drums in his father's band, the renowned Delton Broussard & the Lawtell Playboys. Whenever possible, Jeffery would sneak his daddy's accordion down from the closet where it was stored and would teach himself how to play. During his teen years, Jeffery also played drums in his oldest brother Clinton's band, Clinton Broussard & The Zydeco Machines. It was in this band that Jeffery played the accordion in public for the first time.

Zydeco music is played on a variety of accordions, but most commonly the triple-row and single-row diatonic button accordions. The fiddle is essential to authentic roots zydeco, and Jeffery is one of a handful of Creole fiddlers currently touring. He plays his own style, developed using only two fingers on the strings, sometimes a third, but never a fourth. He plays by sliding into and out of the notes. Broussard's range, seldom seen in zydeco, includes traditional songs of the old masters, original tunes, single-note and triple-note accordion, and fiddle. Jeffery Broussard is one of the genre's most dynamic performers.

Originally called Creole music, French music, or la-la music, zydeco's musical roots go back to European, African, and Caribbean musical traditions with syncopated rhythms. Jeffery Broussard's path to becoming one of the most influential accordionists and vocalists in modern zydeco music is rich in tradition, struggle, and hard times.

The evening will be complete with Creole food served by the Depot Café, and a zydeco dance workshop with the band in the Sisters High School Commons at 6 p.m., prior to the show.

For more information on Jeffery Broussard and the Creole cowboys contact the Sisters Folk Festival at 541-549-4979, or [email protected] Tickets are $15 advance, $20 at the door, and $10 for students.

They are available at Paulina Springs Books of Sisters and Redmond, or Footzone of Bend.

Tickets are also available from the Sisters Folk Festival office at 541-549-4979 or online at www.sistersfolkfestival.org.