September 17

Blues Legend Charles Brown was born on September 13, 1922 Texas City, Texas. Mr. Charles Brown was a major musical figure in the pre-rock and roll era of the late Forties and early Fifties. As a membe...

Willis Prudhomme, lead accordionist of Willis Prudhomme & the Zydeco Express was born on Tuesday, September 22, 1931 in Kinder, Louisiana. Willis Prudhomme was one of twelve children and grew up as a...

Andrus Espreé, known to the Zydeco Nation as Beau Jocque (which means Big Guy), died of a heart attack in Kinder, Louisiana on September 10, 1999, at the age of 47. Lead singer of the Zydeco group Bea...

Mark Matthews, the oldest surviving Buffalo Soldier in the United States Army, died on September 6, 2005 age of 111. While working at a racetrack in Kentucky, he met several Buffalo Soldiers, and when...

Blues pianist Albert "Sunnyland Slim" Luandrew was born on September 5, 1907 in the Mississippi Delta on a farm near Vance, Mississippi. The son of a preacher and the grandson of a slave, Albert "Sunn...

The Original Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Festival, the world’s oldest and first Zydeco Festival, was started on September 4, 1982 on a farmer’s field in the Plaisance community on the outskirts of Opel...

Lee Allen Zeno died on Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 3:30 pm at the age of 71 after a long struggle with cancer at his residence in Lafayette, Louisiana. An accomplished, world-renowned, and two-time Grammy...

Odetta Holmes, "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement" and "The queen of American folk music", most affectionately known as Odetta, died on December 2, 2008 from heart disease in New York City at the...

Malcolm X born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to Earl and Louise Little (Louisa Norton). His father was an outspoken Baptist lay...

Guitarist/singer Roscoe Chenier was born November 6, 1941 in the rural community of Notleyville, just east of Opelousas, Louisiana. The son of Arthur and Philomen Chenier, he is a cousin of the late,...

Wilson Anthony "Boozoo" Chavis, famed zydeco accordionist died on May 5, 2001 while on tour in Austin, Texas. Known as the "Creole Cowboy" for his signature C&W attire (complete with white Stetson and...

Freddie "Big Roger" Collins, native of Bayou Chicot, Louisiana and Houston Bluesman died on October 2, 2001 at the age of 66."Big Roger" Collins hosted a blues show on KPFT in Houston, and organized "...