Zydeco!

by Ben Samdel

On Saturday nights in Southwest Louisiana working men and women exchange their work clothes for plumed Stetsons and fancy dresses and converge on rural road houses for an infusion of zydeco - the exuberant dance music of Louisiana's black Creole community. In eighty portraits of the genre's leading people and places and through extensive interviews and historical commentary, photographer Rick Olivier and journalist - musician Ben Sandmel have created a book as spirited as the rollicking music it so vividly illuminates. Once an obscure regional tradition, zydeco now enjoys worldwide popularity. In this book, two respected veteran observers draw on more than thirty years of combined professional experience to explore zydeco's rural roots and trace its emergence on the global stage. Through Olivier's innovative use of lighting and Sandmel's skill as an interviewer, zydeco irons such as Clifton Chenier, Boozoo Chavis, and Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural guide readers through their music, its com