French Rockin'
Boogie to perform zydeco-style music Friday night
By Matt Holsapple
Staff
Writer
Friday, Purdue students
will have the opportunity to see a legend in the making perform live.
Geno Delafose and
his band, the French Rockin' Boogie, will be performing modern zydeco
music at 8 on Friday night in Loeb Playhouse in Stewart Center.
Delafose began playing
with his father's band, John Delafose and the Eunice Playboys, at age
7. At that time, he played the rub board but since then has become a virtuoso
on drums and the accordion. On the accordion, he refers to himself as
a "triple threat," being able to switch between the piano accordion, Cajun
accordion and triple-row accordion. He prefers playing the Cajun, with
its more peculiar dance beat he refers to as "Chinka Chink."
Delafose and the
French Rockin' Boogie play zydeco music, a blending of blues and traditional
Cajun music. He is known through the Cajun music world for sticking with
traditional zydeco music and infusing it with hints of country, rock and
R&B.
Delafose, more than
any of the current up-and-coming zydeco performers, refuses to stray too
far from his zydeco roots.
"I've seen the turn
that zydeco music is taking; there's nobody really playing the older style
any more," Delafose said.
Delafose's mentor
in music and greatest influence has been his father. Geno played with
his father's band from the ages of 7 to 19. At 19, he departed music for
two years before forming the French Rockin' Boogie.
During his two-year
hiatus from music, Delafose explored his other passion — rodeo. He
had a stint as a team roper but realized that he might have difficulty
playing the accordion with less than 10 fingers. He still wants to become
a rodeo stock contractor someday.
"My dad told me when
I was little, 'Geno, I think you're supposed to be a cowboy,'" Delafose
said.
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