Geno Delafose

The son of late influential zydeco accordionist John Delafose, Geno Delafose has continued to expand on his father's musical legacy. Together with his band, French Rockin' Boogie, Delafose has blended the traditional sounds of zydeco with the excitement of modern dance music. "We have that old country feel," Delafose said during a late-'90s interview, "that soft swing and then we have that loud, bluesy, get-down thing going on, too. We try to mix it up, give everybody something they can dance to."

A native of Eunice, a small town in southwest Louisiana's French triangle, Delafose played frottoir (rub board) in his father's band, the Eunice Playboys, at the age of seven. He went on to appear on seven of the band's albums, including a collaborative effort with his father, Pere et Garcon Zydeco, in 1992. Although he briefly played drums, Delafose switched to the accordion after his father developed heart problems. He continued to play the squeezebox after his father died in September 1994. While he favors the single-row and triple-row diatonic button accordion for traditional tunes, he switches to the piano accordion for up-tempo zydeco rockers.

Appearing as an opening act for his father's band since 1993, Delafose released his debut album on Rounder, French Rockin' Boogie, the following year. His band, which took its name from the album's title, included Charles Prudhomme on rhythm guitar, Steve Nash on frottoir, Popp Esprite on bass, Bobby "BB" Broussard on lead guitar, and Delafoses cousin, Germaine Jack, on drums. The group released two more discs on Rounder, That's What I'm Talkin' About! in 1996 and La Chanson Perdue in '98, and also appeared in John Sayle's film Passion Fish and the soundtrack of Eve's Bayou. Residing in a rural section of Duralde, a few miles north of Eunice, Delafose continued to raise horses on his Double D ranch. In 2003 Delafose and company returned after a five hiatus with Everybody's Dancin' on the Times Square label.