Horace Trahan’s first real stage was the Liberty Theater in Eunice, Louisiana, after a staff member heard him at a jam session at the Jean Lafitte Acadian Culture Center and decided the kid needed an audience. He walked out with his accordion, played Iry LeJeune’s “Viens Me Chercher” solo, moved the room to tears, and earned a standing ovation before he’d ever had a proper band around him. That was the beginning. On Tuesday, August 11, Trahan brings that same accordion, along with three decades of what he’s learned since, to Abilene Bar & Lounge in Rochester.
About the Show
Trahan grew up in a French-speaking household in Ossun, Louisiana, with Cajun music as the ambient sound of daily life, though by his own account he came to it sideways, preferring rock and roll until Felix Richard, who also taught Zachary Richard, put an accordion in his hands at 15 in Cankton. His influences run from Iry LeJeune and Aldus Roger to Hank Williams and Bob Dylan, and his voice carries what Flat Town Music describes as a “soulful, plaintive” quality with LeJeune’s print all over it. Within six months of starting lessons he had his first booking; by 18, he was touring with the legendary D.L. Menard, performing in New York, Boston, Chicago, France, and at the Atlanta Olympics.
His catalog runs from Ossun Blues on Swallow Records (1996), which earned him CFMA Accordionist of the Year honors in 1997, through Keep Walking (2010), an album whose songwriting takes on perseverance and social justice, and Until the End (2017). He made a deliberate shift from Cajun toward zydeco in the early 2000s, a move unconventional within his Louisiana community at the time, and the Ossun Express has since become what Rhythm & Roots calls “a quintessential zydeco dancers’ band, playing not only tunes that are a joy to dance to, but are musically sophisticated as well.” The band includes scrubboard veteran Rodney Bernard, with more than 50 years on the instrument, alongside Trahan’s son Canaan also on scrubboard — two generations anchoring the rhythm section. He sings in English and in French. In 2012, he collaborated with Canadian electro hip-hop group Radio Radio on Havre de Grace, which won best hip-hop album at both the ADISQ and the East-Coast Music Awards, a credit that tells you something about a musician who has never been interested in staying inside a single genre.
Opening the evening is Heavy Bone Zydeco, a five-piece ensemble from Ithaca formed in March 2024. Jonas Puryear (accordion/vocals), Joe Hayward (bass/vocals), Sam Schmidt (guitar), Cole Stearns (washboard), and Zeb Whitford (drums) bring varied musical backgrounds to the Louisiana Creole dance tradition, billed as next-generation zydeco rooted right here in upstate New York.
Venue & Logistics
Abilene Bar & Lounge sits on Liberty Pole Way in downtown Rochester, a 200-capacity room in the Finger Lakes region where the stage and the audience don’t have much distance between them. That closeness suits Trahan well; zydeco at this level is music that wants to feel the room pushing back. Doors open at 6 p.m., music at 7 p.m.
Tickets
Advance tickets are $15; day-of-show tickets are $20, available online through abilene.showare.com. Buy tickets.