Rosie Ledet (born Mary Roszela Bellard; October 25, 1971) is an American Creole

Zydeco Zydeco ( or , french: Zarico) is a music genre that evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers which blends blues, rhythm and blues, and music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native American people of Louisiana. ...

accordion player and singer. Her songs are known for their sultry and suggestive lyrics. She tours and records with her band, the Zydeco Playboys.

Biography

Born in

Church Point, Louisiana Church Point (french: Pointe-à-l'Église) is a town in Acadia Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,560 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Crowley Micropolitan Statistical Area. Church Point is known as the Buggy Capital ...

, Ledet listened to rock music in her youth. Although she was in an environment where zydeco was heard, she took little interest in the music at the time. She first became fascinated with zydeco music when she was 16 years old. She attended a zydeco dance at Richard's, a famous zydeco club in

Lawtell, Louisiana Lawtell is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. The name is a portmanteau of the names of its two founders: Lawler and Littell. State Representative Dustin Miller is a native of a ...

, and saw Boozoo Chavis play, which inspired her to start learning to play zydeco. At this dance, she also met Morris Ledet, her husband-to-be. She learned the accordion watching Morris play. When he heard her, he stepped aside allowing her the spotlight, and became her accompanist on the

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

. Morris then brought Rosie to his producer, Mike Lachney, a veteran zydeco producer. Lachney was so impressed that he quickly set up a recording session. Lachney then took Ledet to Floyd Soileau, of the

Maison de Soul Maison de Soul is a Louisiana-based Zydeco and blues record label. It was founded in 1974 in Ville Platte, Louisiana by Floyd Soileau and remains under his ownership. It is one of four record labels under Soileau's Flat Town Music Company umbr ...

label. Soileau also was impressed and gave Lachney a contract to produce five albums with Ledet. She started playing around Louisiana and Texas in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

. The same year, she released her debut album ''Sweet Brown Sugar'' on the Maison de Soul label. She resides in

Iota, Louisiana Iota is a town in Acadia Parish, Louisiana. The population was 1,304 in 2020. Iota is part of the Crowley Micropolitan Statistical Area. History The history of Iota is identified with Pointe-aux-Loups (French for Wolf Point), one of the old ...

Discography

''Sweet Brown Sugar'' (

) *

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

''Zesty Zydeco'' (Maison de Soul) *

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

''Zydeco Sensation'' (Maison de Soul) *

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

''I'm a Woman'' (Maison de Soul) *

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

''It's a Groove Thing!'' (Maison de Soul) *

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

''Show Me Something'' (Maison de Soul) *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

''Now's the Time'' (Maison de Soul) *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

''Pick It Up'' (Maison de Soul) * 2011 ''Come Get Some'' (

JSP Records JSP Records is a British record label, founded in 1978 by John Stedman (John Stedman Promotions), releasing recordings by blues musicians such as Professor Longhair, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Witherspoon, Louisiana Red, Deitra Farr, Charlie Sayles, ...

) *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

''Slap Your Mama'' (JSP Records)

Awards and honors

*1995:

Best of the Beat Awards ''OffBeat'' is a New Orleans, Louisiana monthly local music magazine founded by Jan V. Ramsey in 1987. The magazine, published by OffBeat, Inc., focuses on the popular music of New Orleans and Louisiana, which is generally R&B, blues, jazz, ...

, Best Emerging Zydeco Band or Performer *1995: Best of the Beat Awards, Best Zydeco Vocalist *1996: Best of the Beat Awards, Best Emerging Zydeco Band or Performer *1996: Best of the Beat Awards, Best Zydeco Band or Performer *1996: Best of the Beat Awards, Best Zydeco Vocalist

References

External links

* *
Pick It Up: Rosie Ledet LSU Eunice websiteBiography on Piedmont Talent
Zydeco accordionists 1971 births Living people Louisiana Creole people American accordionists Women accordionists Singers from Louisiana People from Iota, Louisiana People from Church Point, Louisiana 21st-century accordionists 21st-century American women musicians 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers Maison de Soul Records artists JSP Records artists {{US-singer-stub