The World’s ‘Zydeco Capital’ Has Little Zydeco
Opelousas Struggles To Reclaim its Music Legacy
May 9, 2018
by Herman Fusilier
The Advertiser
Dustin Miller gets nostalgic when he talks about his Lawtell dancehall, Miller’s Zydeco Hall of Fame. Miller and his wife, Nichole, dated in the zydeco music landmark, built in 1947 as Richard’s Club.
The Millers purchased the dancehall in 2012 and enjoyed brisk business until April 26, 2017. That’s when a suspected arsonist reduced it to ashes. An empty lot remains.
“I miss it a lot,” said Miller, who is also a state representative from District 40. “I think my wife misses it more than me.
“I’m confident something is going to come. It’ll be back.”
That “something” is a complex irony in St. Landry Parish. Zydeco is as popular as ever, with Grammy-winning musicians playing from California to New York City and beyond.
But the music is nearly invisible in Opelousas, which the state legislature officially declared in 2000 as the Zydeco Capital of the World. A trail ride or occasional band during the seasonal, Music & Market series are the only respites.
Miller’s was the last full-time zydeco club in St. Landry Parish. According to Miller, the trial for William Kevin Rideau, the suspect arrested for allegedly burning the dancehall and the Charcoal Lounge, should begin within a month.
After 69 years in business, Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki closed in January 2016. In an interview at the time, second-generation owner Tony Gradney blamed a “disrespectful” young crowd and high band fees.
The Original Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival in Plaisance, which drew close to 10,000 people annually in the 1980s and ‘90s, has been reduced to an indoor dance in the Yambilee Building. Thousands who attend the Step-N-Strut Trail Ride, which encountered legal wrangles as it outgrew several parish locations, had to travel to Avoyelles Parish last year.
Although zydeco is scarce in its cradle, the music is regularly featured in surrounding cities and west into southeast Texas. Breaux Bridge hosts a weekly Zydeco Breakfast. Bands regularly appear at venues throughout Lafayette .
“The music and geographical heart of the music has shifted to Lafayette,” said zydeco historian Rod Sias. “That’s not a bad thing. That’s the way it is."
“I care about the culture deeply, but I have to be realistic.”
Those words are painful for Sias, a longtime architect who was hired last fall as chief administrative officer for the city of Opelousas. He is also the founder of the Zydeco Historical and Preservation Society, a nonprofit established in 2000.
His parents, James and Hazel Sias, were members of the Treasures of Opelousas, a grassroots organization that organized the first Zydeco Festival in 1981. He witnessed the festival grow from a tiny party in a soybean field to one of the biggest events in the Southeast.
Sias said for the music to thrive again in its roots, a well-connected, committed investor is needed. He points to the B. B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi, a $14-million interpretive center with memorabilia, concerts, seminars and youth events, as a model.
“Zydeco needs someone with a vision and time to champion that vision and sell it to people with resources,” said Sias. “B. B. King was able to champion his resources and his legacy, even after he died.
“The museum is in a rural area, in a small town, just like Opelousas.
“We have the Zydeco Historical Preservation Society. We have the vision. But we don’t have resources. You can’t skip steps. It’s a very slow process.”
Keepers of history
With live zydeco on the wane, Opelousas may become the music’s preservation capital. The new role was clear last March with the unveiling of the Amédé Ardoin statue at the St. Landry Parish Visitors Center.
A native of Eunice, Ardoin recorded highly-influential French songs in the 1920s and ‘30s that helped pour the foundation for zydeco and Cajun music.
Ardoin, who died in 1942, is buried in an unmarked grave at the state’s mental institution in Pineville. But a grass roots “Bring Amédé Home” project compiled donations and matching government funds to build a $30,000 steel statue in Ardoin’s honors.
More than 500 fans crammed into the Visitors Center for the unveiling on March 11, the 120th anniversary of Ardoin’s birth. Musicians, families and fans continue to visit. Brochures promoting the statue are being distributed at welcome centers statewide.
“People want to take their picture in front of it,” said Celeste Gomez, the parish’s tourism director. “It’s a great story that a lot of people have never heard.
“We’re still helping to keep the roots (of the music) and how it began. That’s probably our role at this time — to make sure it’s not forgotten and to teach people where it came from.”
Bringing live music back
Local efforts to preserve zydeco’s roots include a traveling exhibit explaining the music’s history. The banners are on display at Gator by the Bay, a zydeco, blues and crawfish festival in San Diego.
A giant replica of a rubboard, a percussion instrument in zydeco, will be unveiled May 22 in Sunset.
Fans are also getting a taste of the weekly dances of yesteryear. Radio station KFXZ 105.9 FM is sponsoring “Friday Night Live,” a live music show at Evangeline Downs Racetrack and Casino.
Stephanie Smallwood, programmer and on-air personality at Z105.9, said 80 percent of the acts have been zydeco.
“The casino reached out to us for a 13-week commitment,” said Smallwood. “It’s been very successful. A lot of the artists are reaching out to me now. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue.”
The series is scheduled to end June 1. Miller says more permanent solutions are needed.
The state senator and nurse practitioner hasn’t ruled out a return to the music business.
“I can definitely see me or my family getting back into it at some point, somewhere, some time. It’s going to always be embedded in us.
“Our Zydeco Fest, I think that was the biggest economic engine we had in St. Landry Parish. Why can’t the St. Landry Parish zydeco industry come together to bring that back? We were drawing people from other countries.”
Opelousas Struggles To Reclaim its Music Legacy
May 9, 2018
by Herman Fusilier
The Advertiser
 |
| Zydeco Dancing at Opelousas Music & Market (Photo Credit: Freddie Herpin) |
Dustin Miller gets nostalgic when he talks about his Lawtell dancehall, Miller’s Zydeco Hall of Fame. Miller and his wife, Nichole, dated in the zydeco music landmark, built in 1947 as Richard’s Club.
The Millers purchased the dancehall in 2012 and enjoyed brisk business until April 26, 2017. That’s when a suspected arsonist reduced it to ashes. An empty lot remains.
“I miss it a lot,” said Miller, who is also a state representative from District 40. “I think my wife misses it more than me.
“I’m confident something is going to come. It’ll be back.”
That “something” is a complex irony in St. Landry Parish. Zydeco is as popular as ever, with Grammy-winning musicians playing from California to New York City and beyond.
But the music is nearly invisible in Opelousas, which the state legislature officially declared in 2000 as the Zydeco Capital of the World. A trail ride or occasional band during the seasonal, Music & Market series are the only respites.
 |
| Miller's Hall of Fame was the victim of arson. (Photo Credit: Freddie Herpin) |
Miller’s was the last full-time zydeco club in St. Landry Parish. According to Miller, the trial for William Kevin Rideau, the suspect arrested for allegedly burning the dancehall and the Charcoal Lounge, should begin within a month.
After 69 years in business, Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki closed in January 2016. In an interview at the time, second-generation owner Tony Gradney blamed a “disrespectful” young crowd and high band fees.
The Original Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival in Plaisance, which drew close to 10,000 people annually in the 1980s and ‘90s, has been reduced to an indoor dance in the Yambilee Building. Thousands who attend the Step-N-Strut Trail Ride, which encountered legal wrangles as it outgrew several parish locations, had to travel to Avoyelles Parish last year.
Although zydeco is scarce in its cradle, the music is regularly featured in surrounding cities and west into southeast Texas. Breaux Bridge hosts a weekly Zydeco Breakfast. Bands regularly appear at venues throughout Lafayette .
 |
| Slim's Y-Ki-Ki closes after 69 years. (Photo Credit: Freddie Herpin) |
“The music and geographical heart of the music has shifted to Lafayette,” said zydeco historian Rod Sias. “That’s not a bad thing. That’s the way it is."
“I care about the culture deeply, but I have to be realistic.”
Those words are painful for Sias, a longtime architect who was hired last fall as chief administrative officer for the city of Opelousas. He is also the founder of the Zydeco Historical and Preservation Society, a nonprofit established in 2000.
His parents, James and Hazel Sias, were members of the Treasures of Opelousas, a grassroots organization that organized the first Zydeco Festival in 1981. He witnessed the festival grow from a tiny party in a soybean field to one of the biggest events in the Southeast.
Sias said for the music to thrive again in its roots, a well-connected, committed investor is needed. He points to the B. B. King Museum in Indianola, Mississippi, a $14-million interpretive center with memorabilia, concerts, seminars and youth events, as a model.
“Zydeco needs someone with a vision and time to champion that vision and sell it to people with resources,” said Sias. “B. B. King was able to champion his resources and his legacy, even after he died.
“The museum is in a rural area, in a small town, just like Opelousas.
“We have the Zydeco Historical Preservation Society. We have the vision. But we don’t have resources. You can’t skip steps. It’s a very slow process.”
Keepers of history
With live zydeco on the wane, Opelousas may become the music’s preservation capital. The new role was clear last March with the unveiling of the Amédé Ardoin statue at the St. Landry Parish Visitors Center.
A native of Eunice, Ardoin recorded highly-influential French songs in the 1920s and ‘30s that helped pour the foundation for zydeco and Cajun music.
Ardoin, who died in 1942, is buried in an unmarked grave at the state’s mental institution in Pineville. But a grass roots “Bring Amédé Home” project compiled donations and matching government funds to build a $30,000 steel statue in Ardoin’s honors.
More than 500 fans crammed into the Visitors Center for the unveiling on March 11, the 120th anniversary of Ardoin’s birth. Musicians, families and fans continue to visit. Brochures promoting the statue are being distributed at welcome centers statewide.
“People want to take their picture in front of it,” said Celeste Gomez, the parish’s tourism director. “It’s a great story that a lot of people have never heard.
“We’re still helping to keep the roots (of the music) and how it began. That’s probably our role at this time — to make sure it’s not forgotten and to teach people where it came from.”
Bringing live music back
Local efforts to preserve zydeco’s roots include a traveling exhibit explaining the music’s history. The banners are on display at Gator by the Bay, a zydeco, blues and crawfish festival in San Diego.
A giant replica of a rubboard, a percussion instrument in zydeco, will be unveiled May 22 in Sunset.
Fans are also getting a taste of the weekly dances of yesteryear. Radio station KFXZ 105.9 FM is sponsoring “Friday Night Live,” a live music show at Evangeline Downs Racetrack and Casino.
Stephanie Smallwood, programmer and on-air personality at Z105.9, said 80 percent of the acts have been zydeco.
“The casino reached out to us for a 13-week commitment,” said Smallwood. “It’s been very successful. A lot of the artists are reaching out to me now. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue.”
The series is scheduled to end June 1. Miller says more permanent solutions are needed.
The state senator and nurse practitioner hasn’t ruled out a return to the music business.
“I can definitely see me or my family getting back into it at some point, somewhere, some time. It’s going to always be embedded in us.
“Our Zydeco Fest, I think that was the biggest economic engine we had in St. Landry Parish. Why can’t the St. Landry Parish zydeco industry come together to bring that back? We were drawing people from other countries.”
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