Like most music-infatuated teens living a stone's throw from Houston, Brian Terry grew up under the influence of hip-hop, R&B, and funk emanating from the north. “I was also into B. B. King and Bob Marley,” recalls the 27-year-old Barrett Station, Texas, native, “but it all got mixed together with the sounds I'd been hearing since I was born.”
That music is zydeco (the name comes from les haricots, the French word for beans), a spirited concoction of accordion and rhythm derived from the Cajuns of coastal Louisiana. Although the music's roots are planted in bayou country, eastern Texas has a large population of Creoles for whom zydeco is a way of life.
A regional phenomenon for years, zydeco went global during the '80s, led by such local luminaries as Boozoo Chavis and Queen Ida. One of the best of the bunch was Stanley Dural Jr., alias Buckwheat Zydeco, whose fleet-fingered accordion style has figured prominently in Terry's life since day one.
“My dad and Buck had known each other for many years,” says Terry, who began his accordion apprenticeship with Dural at age 13. “My mom and dad were raised on the music. They put zydeco down into me.”
“This funky stuff we do is just a natural thing; it's just the way we play our instruments.”
Having a mentor in zydeco maven John Delafose and his accordion-playing son Geno (a distant cousin) didn't hurt, either. As a youngster, Terry frequently visited the Delafose clan in Eunice, Louisiana, riding horses, feeding cows, and, most of all, playing music. By the early '90s, Terry was ready to hit the stage himself. With brothers Rick and Pat in tow — and with the fervent support of their dad, who helped supply their gear — he formed the Zydeco Travelers and joined the ranks of the Houston club scene.
What set Terry apart from his regional predecessors was his ability to meld Louisiana-style accordion riffing with the funky dance rhythms of his formative years — a formula he eventually dubbed z-funk. Today, Terry sports a ripe repertoire that gracefully weaves old-school zydeco with James Brown — style R&B, soul, and hip-hop.
“This funky stuff we do is just a natural thing; it's just the way we play our instruments,” says Terry, whose most recent album, Funky Nation, Dural produced for his own Tomorrow label
(to download an MP3 of the song "Funky Nation," or to hear an excerpt, go to the Online Extras page). “With the zydeco element thrown in, you're not limiting yourself as just a funk or R&B player. It's like the way Prince has done it; he leaves himself open to all kinds of genres. I want to reach people that way.”
Unlike a typical funk rhythm section, Terry and crew temper the backbeat onstage so they don't overpower the accordion colorations. “We definitely know we can't go out slamming; we have to keep it respectable,” says Terry. “We center everything around the accordion, which isn't a real dominant type of instrument. It's something we're conscious of when we're up there playing.”
In the past few years, the Zydeco Travelers' eclectic mix of Southern exotic and contemporary dance rhythms has opened doors around the world. “We can connect with an audience in a way normal zydeco bands can't,” Terry says. “We can grab them with the rhythms and then teach them what real zydeco is about too. When you can hit on so many different genres with your performance, it's bound to work.” Terry wants to spread the zydeco gospel. “Right now, my goal is to take the music to places it's never been heard before,” he says. “There's a need for music that's uplifting and eases tension. We're not into the roughrider stuff. We're about crawfish and having a good time.”
