“A Tribute to Roy Carrier” (1947 - 2010)
A Fund Raiser To Rebuild Roy Carrier’s Offshore Lounge
At Slim’s Y Ki-Ki Lounge, Opelousas, Louisiana
Saturday, January 1, 2011
http://www.roycarrier.com/biography.htm
The 14th Annual Carrier Family New Year's Celebration, this year subtitled “Keeping Roy’s Dream Alive,” was a high-octane event fueled by a dozen of the best zydeco bands (fairly complete list below) in the country.
The timing was perfect. Dancers from Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston, Austin, Madison, San Francisco, Nashville, Birmingham, Portland and beyond had come to Louisiana to welcome the New Year in a staggering amount of venues from New Orleans to Opelousas. Hundreds of them wanted to come to Opelousas to put an exclamation mark on several days of dancing.
They came as an act of love for one of zydeco’s crown princes, the late Roy Carrier, who died in May 2010. Roy Carrier knew how to have a good time and he was intent on growing the zydeco community. He was a mentor and cheerleader to many aspiring musicians. He also owned Roy Carrier’s Offshore Lounge, Louisiana, which is in desperate need of repair.
They know the members of the bands, their songs, and their histories. Many women I dance with softly sing the lyrics of their favorite songs as we dance. Dick Brainard of Vancouver, a friend of Troy Carrier, convinced him to organize this tribute concert today, New Year's Day, while hundreds of dancers who knew Troy's father Roy, were still in Louisiana. That's the way it worked.
“Keeping Roy’s Dream Alive” was a fundraiser Roy Carrier’s family, led by his son Troy “Dikki Du” Carrier, organized to raise money to repair and refurbish Roy’s legendary dance hall in nearby Lawtell, Louisiana.
Family members took the stage between acts to thank patrons for showing up. They exhorted us to buy Roy’s CDs, commemorative T-shirts, and posters piled up on a table near the door. We did.
Every band played for free. Roy Carrier was one of their own. In this part of the country, you don’t turn down a friend in need.
Dancing began at 2:00 PM. I arrived at 2:45 PM. I left at 9:30 PM. I don’t remember sitting down. I do remember eating a huge bowl of red beans and rice. In southwest Louisiana, if there’s a dance, there’s food. It might be sold inside, it might be sold on a truck or a stand outside the premises. It will be home cooked. It will be good.
There was a box for donations at the food table. After paying $4 or $5 for gumbo or red beans and rice or jambalaya, people dropped fives, tens, and twenties into the box to help Roy’s family rebuild his rickety dance hall.
Dancers I talked to today say Roy’s Offshore Lounge really could use an upgrade. The biggest complaint, especially from women, was acknowledged several times by Troy Carrier - “Fix the bathrooms!”
Dancers’ descriptions of the flimsy interior of Roy’s Offshore Lounge underscored the fact dancers went there because they loved Roy more than his dance hall. From all accounts, it sounded like the place would collapse in a huff and a puff of a Louisiana thunderstorm.
A woman from Connecticut commented on her first visit. “I stepped out of the car and went up to my calfs in muck… totaled my brand new dance boots.”
Music is a tough business, even in Louisiana where it’s a way of life. Many musicians have day jobs to make sure the mortgage gets paid and the groceries bought. Roy worked on an oil rig offshore and played his music in his “offshore” lounge when he got home.
Roy’s sons Troy and Chubby are in the music business. They believe that if they get Roy’s Offshore Lounge up to modern building code, the dancers will show up again. It will be hard – but it would be harder to walk away from a father’s dream.
In a thank you speech to a hundreds of dancers who kept pouring into Slim’s Yi Ki-Ki all day long, Roy’s daughter recalled his favorite saying: “What you gonna do with a man like that?”
Answer: Rebuild his dance hall.
Partial List of Bands –
Lil’ D & the Zydeco Allstars (Dikki Du’s son).
Dexter Ardoin.
Horace Trahan & the Ossun Express
Corey Ledet Zydeco Band
Dikki Du & the Zydeco Krewe
Chubby Carrier/Earl Washboard Sally.
T Broussard & the Zydecdo Steppers.
Jeffrey Broussard & the Creole Cowboys.
Lil’ Malcolm & the House Rockers.
Koray Broussard & Zydeco Unit.
Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble.
Plus a Brass Band from the French Quarter showed up around 6 pm and blew the crowd away with its funky trumpet trombone tuba percussion performance.
A few of the bands
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