November 12, 2019 | UHCL Staff
Anyone who meets Terrance Simien at one of his Zydeco Experience concerts might have a chance to do more than shake his hand or take a picture with him. If you ask, he might let you hold his Grammy award. Simien, who has won two Grammys in 2007 and 2008 for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album of the Year, will be performing at University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Bayou Theater on Saturday, Nov. 23, 7:30 p.m.
“I travel with my first Grammy,” Simien said. “The joke is, one can collect dust and the other can collect fingerprints!”
Simien said he has been playing zydeco music in a band since 1981. “There were only about two zydeco bands in the world at that time, and mine was one,” he said. “I fell in love with it as a teenager and had some breaks happen early in my career.”
Legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon visited Louisiana in 1985 to do research for his Grammy award-winning album, “Graceland.” Simien, who is an eighth-generation Louisiana Creole, was asked to do a session with him.
“He didn’t choose any of my material for ‘Graceland,’ but I did do a song for him that he put four-part background harmony to, and we released it as a 45,” he said. “It’s called, ‘You Used to Call Me,’ and Paul Simon is doing background vocals on that. And during the ‘Graceland’ session, he gave us a song to release to help us in our career. That song got us traveling.”
In 1986, Simien and his band worked on the critically acclaimed film, “The Big Easy,” starting Ellen Barkin and Dennis Quaid. “I co-wrote a song with Dennis Quaid that was used in a love scene, and I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the first time a zydeco band was featured in a major motion picture,” he said.
Simien said he’d done a few additional movies since then. “The first zydeco song ever done in a Disney movie was one I co-wrote with Randy Newman in ‘The Princess and the Frog,’” he said.
He and his five bandmates have never played the Bayou Theater before. “We played Houston a lot in the early days, especially benefit dances in Catholic church halls,” he said. “Our music is dance music. It’s Creole music from South Louisiana. You’ll see an accordion, a rubboard, trumpet, saxophone, bass and drums.”
The audience should recognize Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry,” and Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With,” Simien said. “They’ll have our own zydeco spin on them, as well as a few other things we mix. We’ll give you a good dose of traditional music as well.”
Find out more about the Bayou Theater or purchase tickets online.
