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 Sammy Naquin lives to play music that makes people feel good, have fun and want to dance.
When you catch Sammy Naquin onstage he’ll cook up a Louisiana musical gumbo, with a strong traditional zydeco / cajun / creole roux, with some zydeco blues (a la the great Clifton Chenier, one of Sammy’s early mentors), spiced with New Orleans jazz and R&B, maybe a dash of country and just about anything else he’s heard in his travels. He will mix it up till it becomes one and serves it up smokin’ hot.
“I like music from all over the world” says Sammy. “I’ll take anything and throw it into the pot.” But he never strays too far from his authentic Louisiana roots. Besides Clifton Chenier, the “King of Zydeco,” another of Sammy’s inspirations was Rockin’ Dopsie Sr. He continues to pay homage to the pioneers of zydeco like Boozoo Chavis, Nathan Williams (and the Zydeco Cha-Chas) and his friend Zachary Richard.
Naquin is known for his distinctive, powerful and compelling accordion style, built up in nearly 30 years of playing.
Sammy was born into a musical Cajun family and raised on the bayous around Montagut, south of New Orleans. His great-granddaddy played accordion, the band often performing at a club in Point Barre. His father and uncle also played guitar. Sammy started on guitar around age 5 or 6, but soon switched to accordion. “My daddy was a minister in a French church. There was a lady who played the accordion, and that was the first time I had seen that .” He was hooked. His father soon gave Sammy an accordion for his birthday and within 6 months Sammy was playing on stages.“There was a guy had a little club called The Camp in a place called Bobtown. Jimmy Southern - he'd been a professor in Cuba! - was playing accordion there. Another man, Buddy Miller, showed me some licks.” Sammy remembers his first session with recording artist Gene Rodrique, known as the “Lonesome Pine From Valentine.” Sammy was too young to drive so Rodrigue, stoned drunk, (this was back in his drinking days) picked him up at home and stopped at every bar along the way to the studio. The result was a track, called “You’re Breaking My Heart.”
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