Zydeco Music and Dance with Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys, Nov 6, York, PA

By John Hope

Get your dancing shoes out
and get ready for a rockin’ good time when Jeffery Broussard and the Creole
Cowboys, a high-energy traditional Zydeco band, comes to York on Saturday,
November 6 for a concert and a Zydeco dance workshop. The event will be held at
the Agricultural and Industrial Museum, 217 Princess Street in York and is
sponsored by Susquehanna Folk Music Society.

The dance workshop begins at 2:30
and the concert at 4. Advance ticket sales are available at www.sfmsfolk.org.

During a dance workshop  Jeffery
Broussard will take you deep into Southwest Louisiana into the world of Zydeco
music and dancing. You will learn to Zydeco dance and waltz as it’s done by the
folks in Opelousas, Louisiana, the Zydeco capital of the World. Jeffery will
explain that it’s important to listen to the music while you dance in order to
match your dancing steps to the beat. You will learn the basic Zydeco step, the
position, the subtle weight shifts and the push and pull of your partner.
Zydeco dancing is easy and fun.

When Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys
begin to play, you’ll be ready to join in the fun of Zydeco dancing. Laissez
les bon temps rouler! Let the Good Times Roll!This is “couple
dancing” but you don’t need to come with a partner. In Zydeco dancing it’s
typical for people to change partners after each song, so even if we have a
gender imbalance during the workshop, everyone will get a chance to dance.

One
of the most influential accordionists and vocalists in modern Zydeco music,
Jeffery Broussard played a number of forms of Zydeco music before returning to
the more traditional sound with his band, the Creole Cowboys. He started
playing drums at age 8 in his father’s band—Delton Broussard and the Lawtell
Playboys. He left school after seventh grade to help his family farm make ends
meet. But whenever he could, he’d sneak into the house to get his father’s
accordion out of the closet and teach himself to play it.During his teen years,
Broussard played drums in his oldest brother’s band, Clinton Broussard and the
Zydeco Machines. It was then that Jeffery played accordion in public for the
first time when his brother let him play a few songs. He was too shy to speak
or sing, however, and it wasn’t until he joined the band Zydeco Force that he began
singing on stage.

Observers say it is quite possible that without the struggle
and hard times that Broussard has experienced in life, he would not play and
sing with the emotion and soul that he expresses. Broussard himself says that
music is in his genes and blood as a gift that God gave him to pass on. “I do
it because it’s something that I enjoy,” he says. “I do it to make people
happy, and myself. I don’t want our traditions to die. I don’t only play music
just to play. I play from my heart. Half of the time when I’m playing, it’s
like my hands leave my body. I don’t even know what I am playing. Any songs
that I play, I add what I think will make the melody more beautiful. There is a
lot of me that goes into the music that I play.”Realizing that there are only
five Creole fiddlers left, Broussard has started to play the fiddle as part of
his determination to keep the traditional music alive. “By playing traditional
music, that is my way of giving back to my community, to my culture, and to get
others interested in the music, in other parts of the country, and to fulfill
my daddy’s dream,” he says.

Concert tickets are $20 General Admission, $16 for
SFMS members, and $10 for students ages 3-22. Zydeco Dance Workshop tickets are
all $10 general admission. Advance tickets are available through Brown Paper
Tickets at (800) 838-3006 or online at http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com. This event is
part of a series made possible by a grant from the Pennsylvania Humanities
Council and is presented in collaboration with the York County Convention &
Visitors Bureau and the York County Heritage Trust. It also is made possible in
part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. SFMS is supported by
a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, administered locally by the
Cultural Alliance of York County.

For more information, visit the Susquehanna
Folk Music Society web site at http://www.sfmsfolk.org

Folk Music Organizer, Marathon Runner

Jess running the Harrisburg Half Marathon

Jess Hayden, the Susquehanna Folk Music Society’s Executive
Director is running the Harrisburg Marathon on Sunday, November 13, 2011 to
benefit the Susquehanna Folk Music Society.

Cheer Her On! Hang out with friends and watch for Jess along
the race route. The Harrisburg Marathon starts and finishes on City Island. In
between, the 26-mile course travels along the beautiful Susquehanna River, past
the state capital complex, through Wildwood Lake Park and the HACC campus, and
along the Harrisburg Greenbelt.

Sponsor Jess’s run
with a donation to Susquehanna Folk! Online donations can be made at: http://www.sfmsfolk.org/events/Jess_marathon.html
or make a check out to “SFMS” and mail to Susquehanna Folk Music Society,
378 Old York Road, New Cumberland, PA 17070.

Here is a personal message from Jess Hayden:

“I like problem solving and facing challenges. My 25 year
involvement with the Susquehanna Folk Music Society, first as a board member,
then as a program coordinator and now as the Executive Director has given me
plenty of opportunities to do both. Our small organization, located in Central
Pennsylvania, puts on an amazing amount of events a year that explore folk
music and the traditional arts trough concerts, dances, workshops, jams and
art-in-education residencies. Plus, we’re always trying something new—interesting
partnerships with groups like the York County Convention and Visitors Bureau,
concerts in offbeat venues like York’s Agricultural and Industrial Museum and engagements
with high-energy artists such as Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys. I’m
proud of the vibrant, exciting series that we are able to produce year after
year and the benefit we have been to our community.

Last New Year’s Eve, like many people I made a resolution to
get into better shape. Always a planner, I spent a lot of time figuring out how
to do this by reading nutrition and exercise books. I learned to plan out my
meals and established a regular exercise schedule at Gold’s Gym. Progress was slow
until I saw a flyer advertising the formation of a local woman’s triathlon group.
I never actually joined the group, but the flyer had gotten me thinking about
the motivational power of having a goal. I set out learning what I could about triathlons
and actually participated in one last summer.  Like what I do in my professional life,
heaving a clear vision of where I was heading helped me to redouble my efforts and
focus on a workable plan.

Running the Harrisburg Marathon on November 13^th
is the latest in a series of physical challenges I’ve put in front of myself
during the past year. I’m following Hal Higdon’s 18 week Marathon Training Plan
and so far have run over 350 miles. To me, it’s not too different from the work
of running a folk music organization. It takes hard work, endurance, good planning,
support from other people and belief in the importance of what I’m doing. That
and just putting one foot in front of the other…

By running this race I am putting two of the most important
parts of my life together; my interest in good health and physical fitness and
my love for folk music. Please consider contributing to the Susquehanna Folk
Music Society by sponsoring me for this run. It’s a wonderful organization
deserving of your dollars! ”

Jeffery Broussard & the Creole Cowboys, Nov 6 Zydeco Concert & Dance Workshop, York, PA

On Sunday, November 6^, 2011 the Susquehanna Folk
Music Society presents Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys in  a 4 pm concert preceded by a 2:30 Zydeco Dance
Workshop at the Agricultural & Industrial Museum located at 217 Princess St
in York, PA .

Jeffery Broussard
& The Creole Cowboys is one of the few traditional Zydeco bands playing
today. The band features Jeffery Broussard, one of the most influential
accordionists and vocalists in modern Zydeco, and D’Jalma Garnier III, a fiddle
and guitar player and long-time contributor to Cajun and Creole music. The band
delivers great, pack-the-floor renditions of Creole classics as well as their
own brand of contemporary Zydeco.

We asked Jeffery to tell us a little more about Zydeco music
and to tell us what we might expect at the dance workshop:

Zydeco is a
form of uniquely American roots or folk music.
It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of “la
la” Creole music.  Usually fast tempo and
dominated by the button or piano accordion
and a scrub-board (frottoir), zydeco music was originally created at house
dances, where families and friends gathered for socializing.

The word
“Zydeco” developed from the French phrase: “Les haricots sont pas salés”
meaning “the snap beans aren’t salty.”  This expression
translates to mean that times are so poor that we can’t afford salt meat to
flavor the beans.

Jeffery
Broussard will take you deep into Southwest Louisiana into the world of Zydeco
music and dancing.  You will learn to Zydeco dance and waltz as it’s done
by the folks in Opelousas, Louisiana, the Zydeco capital of the World.

Jeffery will
explain that it’s important to listen to the music while you dance in order to
match your dancing steps to the beat.  You will learn the basic Zydeco
step, the position, the subtle weight shifts and the push and pull of your
partner.  Zydeco dancing is easy and fun.  When Jeffery Broussard
& The Creole Cowboys begin to play, you’ll be ready to join in the fun of
Zydeco dancing.  Laissez les bon temps rouler!  Let the Good Times
Roll!

Some
frequently asked question about a Jeffery Broussard’s Zydeco Dance Workshop

1.   Is the dancing that he will be teaching couple dancing?

Yes.

2.   Do I need to bring a partner?

No, you
don’t need to come with a partner. In Zydeco dancing it’s typical for people to
change partners after each song, so even if we have a gender imbalance during
the workshop, everyone will get a chance to dance.

3.   What style of dancing is the Zydeco dancing most like?

Zydeco
dancing uses the basic weight shift as a two-step dance but Zydeco dancing
is done in one place and does not move around the floor.  Jeffery will
also teach the waltz during which the couples will move around the floor
in a counter-clockwise fashion.

4.   What might participants expect to learn during the workshop?
Participants will learn the basic Zydeco dance step as it’s done in Southwest
Louisiana.  They will also learn the waltz.  They will change
partners during the lesson to experience dancing with different partners.

For more information visit: http://www.sfmsfolk.org/concerts/JefferyBroussard.html