
Andre Thierry and his band perform in Palo Alto. Photo by John Noltner.
Resources
This list was created in 2012. It was updated in 2024.
Visiting Northern California
The Bay Area zydeco scene welcomes visitors and has several events each week. You can download the monthly calendars at http://calendar10.tripod.com/.
Good reads
The definitive book about the Bay Area’s Louisiana music scene is Cajun and Zydeco Dance Music in Northern California by Mark DeWitt, an ethnomusicologist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. DeWitt, who studied accordion under Danny Poullard, was one of our three humanities consultants.
The most comprehensive, and fun, book about zydeco in general is Michael Tisserand’s Kingdom of Zydeco. It has a hefty chapter on the West Coast scene. Also worth reading (and oohing over the photos) is Ben Sandmel and Rick Olivier’s book Zydeco!
The Creole migration to Northern California was part of a larger exodus of six million Southerners of African descent from 1915 through 1970. Isabel Wilkerson chronicles the Great Migration in her epic book The Warmth of Other Suns. Wilkerson’s book follows three migrants who left the South during different decades, and she tells their stories with intimacy and compassion.
Speaking of intimate narrative, Queen Ida Guillory shares her personal migration story, along with her favorite recipes, in Cookin’ With Queen Ida. Berkeley psychologist and musician Blair Kilpatrick describes her own love affair with the accordion, and with Creole and Cajun music, in Accordion Dreams.
Confused about the distinction between Cajun and Creole? Wondering where zydeco fits in? Read Herman Fuselier’s fun and informative article “Zydeco is Not Cajun Music.”
Finally, check out American Way magazine’s February 2012 article about the Northern California zydeco scene, written and photographed by Zydeco Nation’s own Barry Yeoman and John Noltner.

Mark St, Mary at a zydeco dance for the Oakland Black Cowboy’s Association at the No Name Ranch in Hayward. Photo by John Noltner
Good music
You won’t go wrong with anything by Queen Ida. In particular, we love Caught in the Act!, Mardi Gras!, and On Tour.
The current star of the West Coast zydeco scene is Andre Thierry. Here are links to his music.
Andrew Carriere, who migrated to the Bay Area from South Louisiana, sometimes plays with the Creole Belles. Their music is available on their website.
Mark St. Mary has made several recordings, but they are hard to find. Occasionally, one pops up on Amazon, such as Classic Bon Ton.
Danny Poullard, whose garage jam sessions were legendary, performed on several recordings. The most sublime, and rarest, is Poullard, Poullard & Garnier. More readily available are the California Cajun Orchestra’s Nonc Adam Two-Step and Not Lonesome Anymore.
The best recording of a Bay Area zydeco church dance is Clifton Chenier Live at St. Mark’s, recorded in 1971. Chenier’s banter with the crowd about Louisiana, “where the crawfish got soul,” is priceless. The CD is produced by Arhoolie Records, which deserves recognition for its relentless efforts to preserve American roots music.
Arhoolie also recorded Californians Eric & Suzy Thompson, who discovered Louisiana French music during the folk revival. That CD is Adam and Eve Had the Blues.
The Zydeco Flames are very popular in Northern California. Their recordings include Fire It Up and Bank the Fire. Also popular is Motordude Zydeco, with whom R. C. Carrier has played. You can hear their music here.
In our documentary, we recounted the story of Creole musician Amédé Ardoin, who was assaulted in Louisiana for accepting a handkerchief from a white woman. His complete recordings are now available as a two-CD set called Mama I’ll be Long Gone. Also, check out this segment from the PBS documentary, Don’t Drop the Potato.
Finally, listen to Richard Ziglar and Barry Yeoman’s other music-related documentaries, Still Singing the Blues and Truckin’ My Blues Away.
Good film
The documentary filmmaker who popularized California Creole music, as well as Louisiana music in general, is Les Blank. Danny Poullard appears in Blank’s films Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers and J’ai Ete au Bal.
Good radio
Our favorite zydeco programming is on KRVS, the NPR station in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Here are some other stations with zydeco programming as of 2014 (sometimes by itself, sometimes mixed with other Louisiana music). Check the web sites for times.
- KFAI 90.3 FM, Minneapolis MN
- KMUZ 88.5 FM, Salem OR
- KPFT 90.1 FM, Houston TX
- KXCI 91.3 FM, Tucson AZ
- WRFG 89.3 FM, Atlanta GA
- WRIR 97.3 FM, Richmond VA
- WOMR 92.1 FM, Provincetown MA
- WWOZ 90.7 FM, New Orleans LA

Betty LeBlanc at a zydeco dance in Palo Alto. Photo by John Noltner.
Credits
The radio documentary Zydeco Nation was produced and written by audio documentarian Richard Ziglar and journalist Barry Yeoman. The North Carolina-based duo has collaborated on several radio projects, including the two-part Still Singing the Blues. They also produced a series of GulfWatch stories after the BP oil spill.
Most of the photographs were taken by John Noltner. He is a Minnesota-based photographer whose work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Midwest Living, Smithsonian, Health and the New York Daily News. He is also the creator of A Peace of My Mind, a multimedia arts project that bridges divides and builds community through storytelling and art.
Jason Richmond of Sound Pure Studios in Durham, North Carolina, recorded the narration.
We are indebted to Mark DeWitt, Will Spires, Barry Ancelet, and Ben Sandmel, who served as humanities consultants. Their first-hand experience with the zydeco cultures of California and Louisiana, combined with their scholarship and generosity, helped give this project both depth and precision.
Fiscal sponsorship for Zydeco Nation was provided by the International Documentary Association and Deep Springs College. The documentary is financed, in part, by a generous grant from California Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Our distributor was AARP Prime Time Radio. They had a one-hour slot on more than 160 broadcast outlets throughout the United States, and Zydeco Nation was broadcast throughout their network between Jan. 31 and Feb. 14, 2012. It has also aired on dozens of stations outside AARP’s network. Special thanks to executive producer Angel Livas for overseeing AARP’s end of the partnership and for her smart final edits; engineer Ben Pizzuto for the final mix; host Mike Cuthbert for the IDs and announcements; and Larry Gannon, vice president for television and radio programming, for his enduring support.
We appreciate everyone who helped match our grant from California Humanities. We are particularly grateful to these generous donors: Joanna & Howard Maclay, Ann Banks, and Sheree Morgan. Thanks, too, to our in-kind donors: Ellen Simms & Tom Colton, Julnar Rizk & Lindsey Boullt, Melissa McDonald & Eric Grundstrom, and Larry Rosenfeld.
Two pieces of music on the documentary were performed specifically for our program. Thanks to washboard player Ruben Moreno and accordionist Andre Thierry for creating the train music that begins the show. Thanks, too, to Andre Thierry for his solo performance of “Valse De Derniere Fois,” the song he used to play for his grandfather.
The radio documentary contains interviews with the following people: R.C. Carrier, Andrew Carriere, Charlmaigne Chavez-Thibodeaux, Dana DeSimone, Mark DeWitt, Queen Ida Guillory, Lance Henry, Blair Kilpatrick, Charlotte Lane, Betty LeBlanc, Wilbert Lewis, Lena Pitre, Warren Semien, Ray Stevens, and Andre Thierry.
We appreciate everyone else who assisted with the production of this documentary:
Lynne Adrine • Kenya Baker • Tawann Bradford
Marc David • Tommy Folen • Blair Kilpatrick & Steve Tabak
Ed Poullard • Sue Ramon • Irene Segura
Keith Woods • Barbara Yaley

Andrew Carriere and his band perform at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. Photo by John Noltner.
Finally, we want to thank all the radio stations that broadcast Zydeco Nation. The stations within the Prime Time Radio network are too numerous to name. But we do want to mention the stations that independently aired the documentary. Here they are listed by market:
- Atlanta GA (WABE and WRFG)
- Ann Arbor MI (WCBN)
- Austin TX (KUT)
- Boston, Worcester, and Cape Cod MA (WUMB and WOMR)
- Chicago IL and vicinity (WBEZ and WDCB)
- Cincinnati OH (WVXU)
- Cottage Grove OR (KSOW)
- Connecticut — much of state plus Eastern Long Island (WNPR)
- Cupertino CA (KKUP)
- Durham NC (WNCU)
- Huntsville AL (WJAB)
- Idaho — southern part of state (Boise State Public Radio); Sandpoint (KRFY)
- Lafayette LA (KRVS)
- Marin County CA (KWMR)
- Mendocino County CA (KZYX)
- Michigan — central and northern (WCMU)
- Minneapolis-St. Paul MN (KFAI)
- Monterey Bay CA (KAZY)
- Morehead KY (WMKY)
- Nashville TN (WFSK)
- New Hampshire — entire state (NHPR)
- New Orleans LA (WWNO and WWOZ)
- North Dakota — entire state (Prairie Public Radio)
- Oklahoma — much of state (KGOU)
- Oregon — western part of state plus northern California (Jefferson Public Radio)
- Rio Grande Valley TX (KMBH and KHID)
- Salt Spring Island BC (CFSI)
- San Bernardino CA (KVCR)
- San Francisco CA (KALW)
- San Mateo CA (KCSM)
- Shreveport LA and surrounding parts of LA, AR, and TX (Red River Radio)
- Sonoma County CA (KRCB)
- Springfield IL (WUIS)
- Sullivan County NY (WJFF)
- Syracuse NY (WAER)
- Tucson AZ (KXCI)
- Viroquia WI (WDRT)