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Delafose determined to keep music genuine
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Edmonton Journal, Delafose determined to keep music genuine >>
When Gino Delafose sings about red beans and rice or cooking up crawfish, the sentiment is as authentic as it gets.
"There's nothing flashy about me," laughs Delafose over his cellphone. I'm just a good old down-home country boy."
He was outdoors taking a break to discuss his musical and agricultural roots on the family farm around Eunice, La. In fact, the leader of French Rockin' Boogie was playing foreman before the call, managing a crew of planters putting in a new crop of rice and soybeans.
"We can cut the rice crop twice and then we flood the field one more time and we can raise crawfish," adds the agile accordionist.
On top of working the farm, Delafose still manages to put in between 150 and 200 dates a year on the road (that's down from 250; he's getting choosier). His French Rockin' Boogie band is considered one of the finest examples of southern groove music for the way they mix hints of blues and swing into the classic Cajun-zydeco gumbo.
As to whether his music is Cajun or zydeco, Delafose points out that despite what many people maintain, they re not mutually exclusive styles.
"I'm part of both. The conventional thinking is that if you're black, it's zydeco and if you're French, it's Cajun, but I'm black and I've got French blood too. My grandmother only spoke French, I sing in both French and English, and we cover both traditional Cajun and zydeco numbers."
(Cajun music takes its name originally from the Acadian settlers who ventured to Louisiana after they were forced to leave Nova Scotia during the 1700s. Cajun bands tend to focus more around fiddle melodies than the accordion.)
Delafose considered being a cowboy but admits he was probably destined to make music a career after all, his father John Delafose led one of the finest zydeco bands in the south, the Eunice Playboys. Delafose, who sat in with them from the age of seven, played drums and toured with the group once he left high school, eventually switching to accordion to share parts with his dad.
When the elder Delafose died in 1994, Geno took over leadership of the band. He's chosen to keep to their more traditional roots than some other current permutations of Cajun or zydeco music. After their initial recordings for Rounder in the mid-1990s, the group wound up on Time Square Records with the acclaimed album Everybody's Dancin' (2003). In addressing the group's evolution Delafose says, "I've just polished things up a bit."
He alternates between piano accordion, single-note and triple-note accordions. Players on rhythm guitar, washboard, bass and Delafose's nephew fill out the band, mixing up classic traditional tunes, numbers by Delafose and his father, and the occasional new cover.
Delafose is optimistic about the future of the music.
"It's still pretty healthy. A lot of guys took off and did other music but I see it coming back with people trying to learn the older traditional styles now. The dance grooves have actually slowed down a lot since I started, because the young dancers now can do the two-step but they can't waltz, and there's less French singing than there used to be: That's what makes us kind of traditional. I play it, I sing it and it's a way of life."
And then, with a promise to entertain his Edmonton audience, Delafose said thanks for the break and went back to sowing rice and beans.
-Roger Levesque 05/04/05
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