Synopsis
A history of the birth and development of zydeco music documents the many aspects that encompass the artform, including African-Caribbean rhythms, French-English lyrics, and dance styles, and details the popular and influential zydeco artists of today and yesterday.
From the Publisher
Quote from Annie Proulx about THE KINGDOM OF ZYDECO"Michael Tisserand has given us a good one. THE KINGDOM OF ZYDECO is richly anecdotal, as moving and intimate as the music, a fine front-porch history of zydeco from the blackjack dirt farms of Louisiana to the oil refineries of coastal Texas. It is as much about human beings and Creole culture as music, about personal foibles, misadventure, white/black tensions, work and parties, trouble in the night and truly extraordinary characters. The gritty, vibrant voices of the musicians--well-known, obscure, dead, living, recorded, unrecorded--give this work extraordinary vigor and juice. This is an important book for anyone with an interest in life, American music, southern culture, dancing, accordions, the recording industry, folklore, old dance clubs in the weeds, fortune tellers, hoodoos or shotguns. Somewhere in the book a father tells his musician son, 'whatever you do, give the people a satisfaction.' Michael Tisserand does that for the reader." ! ! ANNIE PROULX
