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http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=09-Jan-2015&lang=ru&s=9796
http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=09-Jan-2015&lang=ru&s=9796
09-Jan-2015
by Rita Davidson Barnea
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 Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe, Chubby Carrier and the Swamp Band, paid tribute on Tuesday December 30th to the bandleader’s father, the late Roy Carrier, during their 5th annual tribute party at Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki in Opelousas.Also performing were Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys, Corey Ledet and His Zydeco Band and Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie. “I always like to go old school,” organizer Troy “Dikki Du” Carrier said. The non-smoking event was a successor to the holiday bash that Roy Carrier hosted for more than 15 years before his death in 2010 at the Offshore Lounge in Lawtell. For almost 30 years at that location, the elder Carrier allowed newcomers to jam with his band The Night Rockers on Thursday nights and encouraged them to carry forward the traditions of zydeco music. “Musicians who didn’t know how to play zydeco, that’s where they learned,” Dikki Du said. The lounge helped to launch many musicians, including Delafose, Beau Jocque and Carrier’s Grammy Award-winning son Chubby. Roy Carrier developed his singular accordion style after a farming accident that claimed part of an index finger. Like his father, a sharecropper, he mostly played gigs in St. Landry and surrounding parishes. His primary job on an offshore oil rig - seven days on, seven days off - allowed him time to practice when he was away and perform and record while he was at home. After he retired from the rig in the late 1980s, Roy Carrier helped to spread the popularity of zydeco by touring beyond Louisiana. Wherever he performed, he encouraged his fans to visit Louisiana. That’s how the Carrier Festival around New Year’s Eve became a destination event for out-of-town music lovers, his son said, “So many people were coming down for New Year’s and the Carriers’ event”, Dikki Du added, other venues started to book special events that make the turn of the year a busy season in Acadiana for visiting zydeco dancers and musicians from coast to coast. Proceeds from the event may help speed up the reopening of the Offshore Lounge, which closed after his father’s death. Earlier this year, he paid off his father’s $10,000 loan on the club. “Now I can sleep at night,” the younger Carrier joked. “I took on the challenge to keep the Offshore Lounge on the ground in Lawtell,” he said. “I wanted it to be paid off before anything else happens there.” |