Richard's Club was a

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

and

music venue A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Ty ...

in Lawtell, Louisiana. Proprietor Eddie Richard opened the club in 1947. It was a venue of the Southern Chitlin' Circuit, particularly as a stop between

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

and

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

on US Highway 190. Later it became a well known and historically significant

zydeco Zydeco ( ; ) is a music genre that was created in rural Southwest Louisiana by French speaking, Afro-Americans of Creole heritage. It blends African and Caribbean rhythms, blues and rhythm and blues with music indigenous to the Louisiana ...

venue. By the late 1990s, the club was regarded as "zydeco's answer to the

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...

." The building was described by Rounder producer Scott Billington as "a long, low-ceilinged building that seemed in danger of shaking loose from its foundations when the music got loud and the dancers filled the floor." In 2008, journalist Nathan Stubbs described the club as still having "7-foot high ceilings, the small wooden tables and 1970s bucket chairs, the well-worn uneven wooden floor, the screen windows with no glass. The bandstand is the same basic platform, one foot up from the dance floor. There are fans, but still no air conditioning."

History

In its early days, the club hosted

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

acts and boxing matches. Eddie Richard booked

Clifton Chenier Clifton Chenier (June 25, 1925 – December 12, 1987), was an American musician known as a pioneer of zydeco, a style of music that arose from Creole music, with R&B, blues, and Cajun influences. He sang and played the accordion. Chenier won ...

before he was well known; however, Chenier soon became popular, and the club consequently shifted completely to zydeco. After Eddie's death in 1979, his son Kermon took over the business. In 1984, Boozoo Chavis started playing regularly at Richard's Club, a moment Scott Billington has identified as significant for zydeco. In 1989,

Rounder Records Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts, by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by A ...

recorded and released the album ''Zydeco Live! Direct from Richard's Club, Lawtell, Louisiana''. This album has the only live recordings released by John Delafose. Richard's Club closed in 2006 as the result of a family dispute. The same year, Michael DeClouet purchased the building and, after upkeep renovations and a legal battle over the "Richard's Club" name, reopened the nightclub under the name Zydeco Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2012, local businessman and politician Dustin Miller purchased the building and reopened the dancehall under the name Miller's Zydeco Hall of Fame. However, in 2017, the building burned down overnight due to arson.

Notable performers

* Chris Ardoin and Double Clutchin' *

Bobby "Blue" Bland Robert Calvin Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was describ ...

* Boozoo Chavis and the Magic Sounds *

* John Delafose and the Eunice Playboys * Rockin' Dopsie *

Keith Frank Keith Frank (born October 9, 1972) is an American singer, accordion player, and producer. Dubbed the "Zydeco Boss," Frank is one of the most well-known figures in zydeco music, especially in the nouveau zydeco sound, which was influenced by other ...

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...

* Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers, who have a song called "Richard's Club" * B. B. King *

Rosie Ledet Rosie Ledet (born Mary Roszela Bellard; October 25, 1971), also known as Rosie Bellard, is an American Creole Zydeco accordion player and singer. Her songs are known for their sultry and suggestive lyrics. She tours and records with her band, ...

* Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas * Louis Prodhomme and the Zydeco Express *

Rockin' Sidney Sidney Simien (April 9, 1938 – February 25, 1998), known professionally as Rockin' Sidney, was an American R&B, zydeco, and soul musician who began recording in the late 1950s and continued performing until his death. He is best known for hi ...

Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience is a Zydeco band from Louisiana led by Terrance Simien. Awards Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience won a Grammy Awards, Grammy award for Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album, Best Zyde ...

Big Mama Thornton Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter of blues and R&B. The ''Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul'' described Thornton by saying: "Her booming voice, sometimes 200-pound fra ...

* Zydeco Force

References

{{Authority control, qid=Q124658769 Music venues in Louisiana Music venues completed in 1947 Buildings and structures in the United States destroyed by arson Buildings and structures demolished in 2017 Buildings and structures in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana Defunct nightclubs in the United States 2006 disestablishments in Louisiana 1947 establishments in Louisiana