First Person: Sean Ardoin

Sean Ardoin is a five-time Grammy-nominated Kreole Rock & Soul artist from Lake Charles, Louisiana. He’s also a Cannes Silver Dolphin Award winner for the documentary on Louisiana that he hosted called Amplify: Louisiana. He can most readily be found singing on stage while wearing his signature glasses.  

You are part of the bloodline of Cajun/Creole/zydeco music. What’s it like being connected to the history of a musical tradition?  

Being a part of that musical legacy is an honor, a privilege and something I don’t take lightly. I’m a fourth generation Creole accordionist. It started with Amede Ardoin, who was the father of modern Creole and Cajun music, of the songbook. Then my grandfather, Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin. He was a living legend until his passing. And then my dad, Lawrence “Black” Ardoin. Everybody got a nickname. I don’t have a nickname, but it’s all good.  I also have a pretty famous little brother in this area, Chris Ardoin.  

You’ve said you don’t play zydeco. You play Creole music. How would you define the difference? 

It’s just the way it’s played is different. If you’d ask my grandfather, he would say, I play Creole music. Because he didn’t do Zydeco. But after Boozoo got famous and then Bo Jacques became the No. 1 guy, everything with a Black man and an accordion became zydeco, right?  

But zydeco proper is played with a piano accordion or a three-row accordion and scrub board. Creole music is played with a diatonic Cajun accordion, a violin and fiddle.  

Today there’s only a couple of Creole bands. There’s Jeffrey Broussard. Geno’s doing Creole music. But there are no Creole violinists. The only fiddler we have left is Ed Poullard, so we need some new Creole fiddlers to pop up somewhere. But I’m not looking. I did the traditional music for so long. But the whole time I was doing it, I saw myself doing something different.  

You wanted to evolve it further. 

I wanted to evolve it from the minute I even had a concept of what could be. 

I created the Christian Zydeco in ‘09. And then in 2018, I created Kreole Rock and Soul. And that got me two Grammy nominations. And since 2018, I’ve put out an album every year. 

How many albums does that put you at currently? 

28.  

In 2022, I did an album with LSU. LSU’s marching band is now Grammy nominated because I brought them in on my album. I’m an LSU grad and a marching band alumnus, so I’m super excited about that. We have a double album vinyl, a commemorative vinyl that people can get on my website.  

In 2024, I put out the album 25: Back to my Roots, because in ‘24, it had been 25 years since my start as a solo artist in 1999. 

How did Kreole Rock & Soul come 

to you? 

Kreole Rock & Soul happened because when I came back after taking a break of 10 years, there was a gap in the industry. The local zydeco artists, who are the mainstay of the I-10 circuit, which I call the Boudin Circuit, they don’t leave because they don’t have to.  

Why would you leave your house to go to Philadelphia for $3,500? It’s going to cost you to do that, right? Why go when you can sleep in your own bed at night and play three nights a week and be good? That left a gap in the industry because now cover bands in all of these cities are now the ones who are playing and representing zydeco. And so, whenever I’m calling and trying to go, they’re thinking zydeco from 30, 40 years ago. Because that’s what they have in those cover bands. 

That’s all they know. 

Exactly. So, they either love that or they hate that. And I’m neither of those. So, how can I accurately set myself apart in this industry, while also staying true to the culture and the mission, which is to take the culture and the music to the world?   

I started with alternative Creole. Shopping this thing. Going to all these booking conventions. And they go, what’s that? And then I got to explain it. And so, I came up with Kreole Rock & Soul. And then when I did the Kreole Rock & Soul self-titled album, and I got two Grammy nominations from it, I was like, “OK, God, I’m on the right track.”  

What’s it like being nominated for a Grammy? 

It really is surreal. I know it’s something significant, but when I go through the city, there’s still a whole bunch of people who don’t know who I am or what I do. I’m at the top of the mountain. I’m top five in the world. But I walk through, and nobody knows who I am.  

But I can tell you this. When I turned 40, my life became about legacy preservation. What is my legacy? You know, what am I leaving? Everything became about that. From that point of view, being Grammy nominated the first time, and the two-for-one album, I was like on top of the world. There’s literally no words to explain it. And then when it happens again and again and again . . . . But the other thing that’s not happening—I’m not winning. The competitor/legacy person in me is like, “Yeah, but I got to win.” 

Have the Grammy nominations opened up doors or allowed for unexpected collaborations? 

On 25, I’ve got a song, We Doin’ It. And I’m calling people like Ricky Kedj, who’s a six- or seven-time Grammy award-winning artist from India. He’s a superstar in India. He’s on that song I did. I just did a mashup and had artists do different versions of it. I had Cupid, Rissi Palmer, Paul Wall, Leela James, who is an R&B artist, Wendy Moten, Ricky Cage, Mano Beats, a Haitian artist, and Shradha Ganesh, who’s an Indian singer. All those people are on one song. It just started happening. You know, it’s amazing, man. But everybody loves Louisiana. Really. Musicians. Musicians love Louisiana. 

So, what’s happening with Sean Ardoin in 2026? 

I’m producing two festivals this year.  

The first one is Dat Zydeco Fest in New Orleans. The tagline is, “We bring the soul of Southwest Louisiana to the heart of the city.” We’re doing it at the Broadside in New Orleans on March 21st. 

The other festival idea that I have in mind is called the Good Music and Food Festival, and I want to do it right here in Lake Charles. I’m just looking for a few sponsors because it’s something that we’ve never had here. And it’s something that I believe is going to be phenomenal. 

What else? 

I also have a coffee line called Kreole Rock & Soul Coffee.  

Once my eyeglasses became a thing, I knew I had to figure it out. I didn’t want to have an eyeglass company per se. But I’m at a position now where I need to consider it and consider how to do it the best way. 

I started a marriage podcast called Better Marriage Daily. We have 37 episodes up already. It’s everywhere. Everywhere you listen. If you want to watch us go back and forth, on YouTube you can do that.  

There’s a lot going on in the world of Sean.