The son of the late influential zydeco accordionist John Delafose, Geno Delafose has carried forward his father's musical legacy while enlarging its scope. Alongside his band French Rockin' Boogie, he has fused the traditional sounds of zydeco with the energy of contemporary dance music. During a late-'90s interview Delafose remarked, "We have that old country feel, that soft swing and then we have that loud, bluesy, get-down thing going on, too. We try to mix it up, give everybody something they can dance to."
Born in Eunice, a modest community in southwest Louisiana's French triangle, he joined his father's group the Eunice Playboys on frottoir, or rub board, at age seven. Over time he contributed to seven of the band's recordings, among them the 1992 father-and-son collaboration Pere et Garcon Zydeco. After briefly handling drums, he moved to accordion once his father began experiencing heart trouble, and he kept performing on the squeezebox following John Delafose's death in September 1994. Although he prefers single-row and triple-row diatonic button accordions when playing traditional material, he turns to the piano accordion for brisk zydeco rock numbers.
Having opened shows for his father's ensemble since 1993, Delafose issued his first Rounder album, French Rockin' Boogie, the next year. The group that took its name from that release featured Charles Prudhomme on rhythm guitar, Steve Nash on frottoir, Popp Esprite on bass, Bobby "BB" Broussard on lead guitar, and Delafose's cousin Germaine Jack on drums. Two further Rounder releases followed—That's What I'm Talkin' About! in 1996 and La Chanson Perdue in '98—while the band also appeared in John Sayle's film Passion Fish and on the soundtrack to Eve's Bayou. Living in a rural stretch of Duralde several miles north of Eunice, Delafose kept raising horses at his Double D ranch. After a five-year absence he resurfaced in 2003 with Everybody's Dancin' on the Times Square label.
