Mardi Gras Get Down ft. Zydeco Connection & The Bourbon St. Blasters

ZYDECO DANCE LESSONS 7PM. Before the show learn some basic

beginning dance steps including zydeco and New Orleans style dancing.

Bourbon Street Blasters: A dangerous horn section with some New

Orleans connections: Ted Wirt (AKA Raider Eddie) on Saxophone is a local

favorite on the Valley music scene for decades. For 18 years he was the

musical director/arranger for the Charles Neville/Skeletones Big Band

playing mostly R & B transcriptions from New Orleans groups of the 1950s.

Mike Spencer (AKATriple Louie) on trumpet, playing for decades in a variety

of musical groups including-especially Sidewheel Gambler, a traditional

Dixieland group. Spencer has earned his nickname by impersonating three

Crescent City personalities: Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan, Louis Prima.

Both Wirt and Spencer are very busy with a wide variety of jazz, swing, R&B,

and ethnic groups including the 4 decade Springfield Radiators

Brian Bender(trombone) performs with The Pangeans (world music),

Klezamir (Jewish Music), The Gumbo Jumbo Dixieland Band, The Butterfly

Swing Band, Elixir contradance band, and many other local and regional

groups. He also works as a freelance live sound engineer and owns and

operates Face The Music Recording Studio in Shutesbury, MA.

Zydeco Connection has been bringing the irresistible sounds and infectious

rhythms of zydeco from Southwestern Louisiana to New England since

2004. Dominated by the button or piano accordion and the frottoir also called

the rubboard or washboard. Zydeco is guaranteed to get your toes tapping.

We are from Franklin County playing a spicy mix of zydeco, waltzes, two-

steps, blues, boogie woogie and some swing. We pay tribute to all the great

musicians who continue to preserve, define and expand the music of rural

Louisiana. Zydeco has it’s origins in Cajun music incorporating the sounds of

Rhythm & Blues, adding electric guitar and bass and drums to get it’s unique

blend of driving rhythms creating a music you have to dance to. In fact

there’s a dance step called the zydeco and people often refer to going to the

dance as going to the zydeco.