The Carrier family is as synonymous with Zydeco music as beads are with Mardi Gras.

Dikki Du Carrier marks the third generation of the Carriers to keep the musical tradition alive. Zydeco is a family thing. If one plays, everyone plays!

He picked up the washboard at nine years old, the drums at 13, and traveled the world professionally at 19. But Dikki's life changed when he decided he wanted a band of his own. “The big dream was to have your own Zydeco band,” he says. “Years ago I said, ‘Hell, I’m not gonna have a band, I don’t even know how to play accordion.’”

Dikki describes the experience of teaching himself how to play accordion. “I just stayed in a room and played the accordion for a whole year. I just went away from music because I really wanted it, but it took a whole year to learn it.”

Although Dikki is open about the rigors that come with being a touring musician, he is quick to praise its benefits. “You meet a lot of great people, and the music is happy music. People that hear it for the first time— they don’t know exactly how to pronounce Zydeco but they will not stop dancing.” 

Yet it is the future that gets Dikki the most excited. Zydeco continues to grow as a music genre, including a short-lived category in the Grammys from 2008-2011 that Dikki's brother Chubby Carrier won in 2011. “That is amazing and what I’ve wanted to see—Zydeco and the Grammys,” says Dikki.

There’s also the planned reopening of the legendary Offshore Lounge in Lawtell, Louisiana, created by Dikki's father as a haven for Zydeco. “We would do jam sessions every Thursday night,” says Dikki. “The guys that had dreams of wanting to play Zydeco would come there and study him. That’s where a lot of people got their start. My father really did a lot for the music.”

Dikki honors his late father’s memory by holding a festival for him every year and is dedicating his upcoming album to him.

-Nikki Hedrick