Richard Allen and the Louisiana Experience
Woodinville, Washington, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2009 | SELF
Music
Press
"Richard Allen and the Louisiana Experience know how to spice it up Louisiana style.....bring your dancing shoes so you can throw them in the corner.."
Chubby Carrier, 2011 Grammy Award Winner -
"When I first received the CD, from Richard Allen, and saw it was from a guy from Washington State, my first thought was, 'well, here's another outsider Zydeco music musician wannabe'. Well, I hesitantly opened the CD and put it in the player, and upon listening I was quite impressed. Then reading the liner notes, I knew why. This was one of our local guys who just happened to be living in Seattle, but playing home grown Louisiana Music. Bottom line... I LIKE DAT ME! (Paul Marx -
"I drove up to Edmunds last night to see Richard Allen and the Louisiana Experience perform at Engels Pub. They played to a packed house and had everybody jumping non-stop for almost two straight hours before taking a break. Borrowing the vernacular from another generation, they were like totally awesome. That boy knows Zydeco! I believe Allen could put a Zydeco twist to Beethoven's 9th if he chose to. He's that good. But then Allen's roots run deep in Louisiana. That might be why he plays with such passion. Along with Richard Allen were Jeff Ziontz on lead guitar, Jerry Johnson on bass, and Andrew Cloutier on drums. The band really clicked and put out a lot of energy which the crowd gobbled up. If you ever get a chance to see them, go!" - Gary Wallace
Discography
Richard Allen & The Louisiana Experience Release Nows the Time on September 19, 2013
Recorded at Buttersounds Studios Rec Room in Seattle, WA, Richard Allens Nows the Time captures the lifeforce of Louisianas Creole Culture. Allen, on piano accordion, crosses boundaries of culture, musical genres, race, state lines and generations with his heart-pumping, soul-clenching, foot-stomping new music has just enough Pop/Swing to draw all generations to the traditional Creole-French boogie beats, without sacrificing the centuries old soulful cries of passionate lost love, declarations of devotion, as well as praise for the Louisiana Culture itself.
Photos
Bio
Richard Allen the "Godfather of Fun"
Deep in southwest Louisiana, in the heart of the region called Acadia, French speaking people pass down a culture hundreds of years old, rich in music, dance, food, language and love and kinship among family and community.It is called joie de vivre, or the joy of life, and the sounds and images of that Acadian tradition filled Richard Allen's world as a boy in Lafayette.
It was a childhood filled with the smell of cooking, spicy gumbo on the stove, a cornbread stuffing in the oven, crawfish on to boil and okra frying, with mom presiding over the stove, laughing with the cousins crowding in the kitchen.Richard loved to watch as everyone from grade school kids to grandparents got together in the yard and danced the twisting, swinging zydeco dance, boots scuffing out the insistent rhythm of the music on a warm summer night.
But what he loved the most was the music.
He remembers his great-grandmother and great uncle playing traditional songs on the accordion, singing in French and stomping their feet on the old wooden porch. Any gathering was a reason to play music and eventually everyone who could play an instrument gathered in a circle and joined in. Men and women with guitars, fiddles, accordions and scrub boards, sometimes more than a dozen at once, worked together in perfect rhythm while voices sang out in French above it all.
Richard grew up to become the third generation of his family to play that music, embarking on a lifelong journey to master the accordion. Along the way he learned more about the music of his roots and the culture of his roots.
In reality, the music and the culture can't be pulled apart. Zydeco music is the song of the voices and music three hundred years of people who came to south Louisiana seeking fortune or were driven there by fate.
It started out as Creole music, a blend of the music of French Acadians driven from their Canadian homes in the 1700s, of the Creoles descended from French and Spanish settlers, of the Caribbean music of slaves and the gospel and blues of the rural south.
German farmers contributed the accordion, Irish immigrants the fiddle, and Zydeco was born. It first emerged among the Creole people in the 1920s, and they sang about love and the joys of daily life, about fishing and dancing and the work they did, reflecting the world in which they lived.
As Richard learned everything he could about the music that would become his life, he incorporated all the styles of the music of the region, both Creole "la-la" and zydeco, into his personal style of accordion.
As a young man, he immersed himself in the zydeco scene in Lafayette, watching and playing music with some of the best zydeco musicians in the world, including 2011 Grammy award winner Chubby Carrier.
Determined to refine his skills, he moved to Austin and then to Atlanta to complete his musical education. He formed his first band there, called Joie De Vivre, then returned to Lafayette to found two more bands; 503 Avenue C and Magic Pepper Groove.Today, Richard lives in Seattle, where he is exploding on the music scene with his band Richard Allen and the Louisiana Experience.
He might be a long way from Louisiana, but everywhere he plays, he takes his home with him. At his shows, Richard and his band take over the stage with their high-energy, kick-butt-and-takin'-names music while dancers fill the floor. As they play, they recreate that joie de vivre that is the Cajun way of life, where people eat, drink, sing along, and dance to the rhythms of Louisiana
Richard has performed with many kings of Zydeco and Cajun Music, such as:
Sean Costello
Chubby Carrier
Curley Taylor
Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Cha's
Harry Hypolite
Charlie Wooton
Kevin Sutton
Buckwheat Zydeco
Al Berard
Polly O'Keary
Alice Stuart
Randy Oxford
C.C. Adcock
Rod Cook
Andrew Cloutier
Scotty Harris
Lissa Ramaglia
Stacy Jones
C.D. Woodbury
T.K. Hulin
Jamie Bageron
Rod Cook
Alice Stuart
Mark Riley
Opening band for Pat Benatar
and many more............
A night with Richard Allen truly is a Louisiana Experience
Band Members
Links
