"Roddie Romero feat. Lee Allen Zeno and Jermaine Prejean“

When three times Grammy nominee Roddie Romero performed with Yvette Landry and Beau Thomas in 2017 at the 'American Cajun, Blues & Zydeco Festival it felt like a showcase. He will return with Lee Allen Zeno, famed bassplayer for Buckwheat Zydeco and Roddie's drummer in 'Hub City All Stars', Jermaine Prejean. They will blow the roof off with this band.

Roddie Romero Website

Buckwheat, Sonny, Clifton, Fats. Many of three-time Grammy nominee Roddie Romero’s heroes are long-gone icons who need no introduction. Others are legendary local heroes he’s collaborated with for years. Two of them will join him on tour in Germany this fall.

As the leader of The Hub City All-Stars for more than two decades, accordionist, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Romero has long mined the many influences of the bayou country. Zydeco, blues, soul, Cajun and swamp pop music are his bedrock inspiration.

“I keep searching for a sound as good as that,” Romero says, referencing

the classic recordings he learned to play along with. Romero first led a band at age 12 and recorded soon thereafter, and over the years he’s collaborated with Los Lobos, The Mavericks and many other artists.

For his American Cajun, Blues & Zydeco festival performances, he’ll be joined on bass guitar by Lee Allen Zeno, the musical backbone of Buckwheat Zydeco’s Ils Sont Partis Band for decades. Zeno has also recorded with Lil’ Buck Sinegal and Robert Ward. Romero was a teenager when he first heard the bassman lead the world’s top zydeco band through an opening set of blues and soul classics at El Sido’s Zydeco & Blues Club in Lafayette. “He’s one of the greatest musicians to come out of south Louisiana,” Romero is quick to note.

Drummer Jermaine Prejean is the engine room of the three-piece ensemble. “As I’m coming up with things in a live setting, there are things that Jermaine seems to hear before anyone else does,” Romero says. When he was a kid, Prejean would play his drum kit along with vintage recordings until he could no longer hear the drummer on the track.

Romero is interested in a similar musical disappearing act. “I feel like I’m searching for something more creative, more original, but still wrapped in all of this that’s around us,” he says.

“The La Louisianne Sessions’ richly deserved its Grammy nomination. … (It’s) a vital, southwest Louisiana jukebox of a record that covers much stylistic ground while still sounding like the same band. ‘It’s all what we grew up on,’ Romero said. ‘It’s all these great musics together. It’s Lafayette.”

Ruben Moreno & Dwight Carrier Zydeco Soul

After the very unpleasant short-term cancellation of Dwayne Dopsie due to suddenly asking for double the fee which  was agreed on 6 months ago, the festival reacted quickly and was able to sign two more big names from Louisiana and Texas:
Ruben Moreno & Dwight Carrier Zydeco Soul
Dwight Carrier and Ruben Moreno have a long time friendship and so they enjoy the opportunity to perform together besides their own projects. The two pass along each other the instruments.  Besides accordion, Dwight also plays guitar and Ruben is an award-winning accordion player as well as a fantastic rubboard player (Ruben was at the festival in 2013 with Lynn August).  Joined by bassplayer Joseph Whitfield and drummer Albert Stewart the quartet 'ZydecoSoul' grooves like clockwork. The audience of the 'American Cajun Blues & Zydeco Festival 2018' can look forward to fireworks of two giants from Texas and Louisiana.

Ruben Moreno - accordion / vocals /rubboard
Dwight Carrier - accordion / guitar / vocals
Joseph Tobiah Whitfield - bass
Albert Antonio Stewart - drums

             Ruben Moreno

A proud young Chicano-Creole artist from Houston, Texas. 27 year old Ruben Moreno sits at the joint of Zydeco and R&B, using his band Zydeco Re-Evolution to connect the traditions he was surrounded by while growing up with the constantly changing modern trends of the music’s culture.

His childhood was spent in the company of his grandmother (who owned a bar in the East part of the city) and her friends, many of whom were Zydeco musicians. After picking up the washboard while still very young, Moreno’s musical turning point came when he performed on stage at age 10 with Leroy Thomas. It was an experience that inspired Moreno to focus his energy on becoming a performer and subsequently lead to tours with CJ Chenier and Andre Thierry.

For Moreno, though, it’s about more than just the music. He sees his career as a tool for making the world better, admiring Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bob Marley for using their talents to enable and encourage change. But he doesn’t let the heavy things get in the way of Zydeco’s natural ability to make you feel good.

Drawing on his rich musical roots, he captures both the Louisiana and the Texas Zydeco sound, and brings a fresh new energy and vision to the Creole Zydeco he loves.

         Dwight Carrier 

Bandleader, accordion player, and singer Carrier comes from a long line of distinguished musicians (he’s the nephew of Roy Carrier and cousin of Troy “Dikki Du” and Chubby Carrier, to name just a few), a family where zydeco music was a pastime for holidays and family gatherings. He embodies both tradition and a unique style that is infused with his blues and R&B influences.

Growing up in Church Point, Louisiana, in the time when rap music was gaining popularity, Carrier’s friends would laugh when he and his brother Joseph practiced their zydeco music. In 1988, his first band, Dwight Carrier and Zydeco Rockers was created, with Dwight playing accordion and Joseph on drums. When he was just 14, Dwight released his first album entitled “My Baby Left Me,” which earned him local status. In 1991 Dwight was asked to join the Creole Zydeco Snap Band, headed by Creole and blues musician Warren Ceasar. Dwight became the group’s accordionist and traveled extensively around the world for several years, including multiple appearances at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. After a break from music, Carrier returned to the family business of zydeco in 2008, forming his band Black Cat and the Zydeco Ro Doggs. They have taken their pumping style of music to both coasts and the Midwest as well as throughout Louisiana.

      'Tribute to the cajun fiddle'

Blues à Bébé is a tribute from fiddler Johannes Epremian to Louisiana's cajunfiddlers.

Christened with the waters of the Mississippi he has been looking for cajungrooves in the swamps of Louisiana for a Llng time. For songs being written and performed on the fiddle.

He will pay tribute to the masters of Louisiana Cajunfiddle like Dewey Balfa, Canray Fontenot and Dennis McGhee.

Happy sounding two-steps and waltzes telling sad stories of hard work and loneliness.

After fourty years on stage with his band 'Le Clou' he is focusing on pure Cajun with his four strings with a sideorder of Blues on the Dobro.