Cedric Watson

Flights & Sounds of Summer

August 28, 2009, 8:00 PM
Free Dance Instruction at 7:30 PM
Free Admission, $8 Parking (Map)

Accordion master Cedric Watson won a Grammy nomination for his first album; now he’s on the road backed by his south Louisiana zydeco swamp-mates on guitar, bass, drums and rub board.

Though Watson is only in his mid-20s, the Grammy-nominated singer/accordionist/fiddler is recognized as one of the leading exponents of both old-timey Cajun music and its R&B-infused sister, zydeco. He was born in East Texas, where the music has as strong a foothold as it does across the border in Louisiana, where Watson has moved and been embraced by the musical community.

It’s not a culture that’s best preserved in a museum, but instead is kick-started nightly on sweltering dance floors. Come see Watson at the dance party, and you’ll hear why the music has kept generations dancing, and why even babies bump to those rub-board rhythms. Watson explores the roots of Louisiana’s Creole music playing a variety of old-school zydeco styles, original material and Creole traditionals; the polyrhythmic and syncopated sounds of Africa and the Caribbean are unmistakable but the songs are sung in the easy, rolling French of south Louisiana. Artist Website