PORT ARTHUR —
At this weekend’s Mardi Gras festival expect to hear a lot of good Cajun accordion — a sound that may bring back memories of the old Rodair Club, a legendary Cajun dance club, where many of the musicians got their start.
“Everybody within 40 miles would go to the Cajun dances every Saturday night,” said Jed Bellot, who literally grew up at the Rodair Club
Bellot will perform tonight with his Cajun band The Port Arthur Playboys.
The club, started around 1965 by Joe Thibodeux, held weekend dances with authentic Louisiana French Cajun music for over forty years and spawned some of this weekend festival’s most talented musicians.
A distinguishing feature of these performances were the heavy rhythms made by the diatonic Cajun button accordion players, like Bellot, his father Jerry Bellot, Geno Delefose and Wayne Toups, all who got their start at Roudair and all who will be playing this weekend in Port Arthur.
Bellot, the frontman for his band, started attending the dances first only after being coerced into it by his father.
“I used to get in trouble as a kid and had to go to the dance hall with my dad on weekends,” said Jed Bellot.
“From then on it just became a part of my life,” he added.
According to Bellot’s father, taking the children to Cajun dances is rooted in the old time Cajun tradition. His family has roots far back into Louisiana Cajun history, he said.
“The word baby-sitter didn’t exist in their vocabulary back then,” said Jerry Bellot, “the kids go with you to the dance.”
The Rodair Club closed down shortly after Hurricane Rita but a new venue, the Pine Tree Lodge on LaBelle Road in west Port Acres, has restarted the tradition that so many Southeast Texans enjoy: gettin’ down on the bayou.
“We’ve been playing a lot of gigs at the Pine Tree Lodge and it has been a good-ole Rodair time,” said Jed Bellot.
The Port Arthur Playboys will perform Sunday night at the Pine Tree Lodge.
Jerry Bellot will be playing from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Friday morning at the Lamar State College-Port Arthur Student Center and the Port Arthur Playboys will be playing at 9 p.m. Friday on the Green Stage
“You’ll get a chance to experience a real Cajun music and you might even turn out married the next day,” said Jerry Bellot.
Jerry Bellot met his wife at a Cajun dance at the Rodair Club in the 1960s.
bjanes@panews.com
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