The 2014 faculty at the Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival covers a lot of musical ground. But we’re particularly excited to welcome some serious Creole & Zydeco power to Port Townsend this year in Corey Ledet and Cedric Watson.

Corey Ledet

Corey Ledet spent his summers with family in Louisiana immersed in the Creole culture. He learned everything he could and incorporated the culture in all areas of his life – the traditions, the food, and most importantly, the Creole/Zydeco music. He studied the originators of the music such as Clifton Chenier, John Delafose, and Boozoo Chavis. He branched out to include studying any (and all) artists of Zydeco and learned the main instrument of the music – the accordion.

Corey came to truly love any type of accordion – the single-note, triple-note and piano key accordions – and any others. He worked at building his skills until he knew each one fluently. He keeps one foot firmly in the tradition while exploring surrounding influences in order to create the best of both worlds. He is able to infuse old and new styles of Zydeco into his own unique sound from all of the people he studied and was influenced by. He also appreciates the other traditional sound indigenous to Louisiana in Cajun music and has been able to expand his repertoire to include these influences as well.

Cedric Watson

Cedric Watson is one of the brightest young talents to emerge in Cajun, Creole and Zydeco music over the last decade, a four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist & songwriter with seemingly unlimited potential. Originally from San Felipe, TX, Cedric moved to south Louisiana, immersing himself in French music and language.

Over the next several years, he performed French music in 17 countries and on 7 full-length albums with various groups. With an apparently bottomless repertoire of songs at his fingertips, Cedric plays everything from forgotten Creole melodies and obscure Dennis McGee reels to more modern Cajun and Zydeco songs, even occasionally throwing in a bluegrass fiddle tune or an old string band number. Cedric’s songs channel his diverse ancestry (African, French, Native American and Spanish) to create his own brand of sounds.