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Jimi Hendrix of the accordion promises to get Whistler jumpin’

Who: Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band Where: Buffalo Bill’s When: Wednesday, March 24 Tickets: $20 With proportionally large numbers of both vacationers and residents that have temporarily forfeited the house, spouse and young ’uns p

Who: Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band

Where: Buffalo Bill’s

When: Wednesday, March 24

Tickets: $20

With proportionally large numbers of both vacationers and residents that have temporarily forfeited the house, spouse and young ’uns priority trilogy, Whistler is a card-carrying member of the League of Party Towns.

But even a party town needs to be taught how to party every once in awhile. Call it a professional development seminar this Wednesday night when Whistler plays host to the wonderful wackiness that is Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band.

"You like havin’ fun? Because there ain’t no party like a Chubby party!" claims the gregarious Carrier with all the conviction of a revival evangelist.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the signature sound of the deep Southern swamps has set up camp in Whistler. And it’s not the first time for Carrier and Co., although it’s been upwards of seven years since they last made the people of Whistler groove the way they do on the Louisiana Bayou.

Those that were around for Carrier’s last visit might be surprised just how much the artist has changed, judging only by the pimp-daddy Afro get-up and bling he sports on the cover of last fall’s Ain’t No Party Like a Chubby Party 12-track release on Carrier’s own Swampadellic Records.

Rest assured it’s all in jest, spurred on by the same sense of fun that defines Carrier’s music.

"I grew up in the ’70s you know? That look, I brought it back. I got tired of taking pictures where I looked like I was taking a high school prom picture," says Carrier.

He describes his music, appropriately, as not a bisque, or a chowder, but a "gumbo" of different influences.

The funk of his impressionable youth is unshakeable, along with the energetic southern Baptist church gospel his Momma exposed him to every Sunday morning, the blues guitar his Daddy used to play, and the Caribbean and African world beats he says are major motivators for his current musical creations. His tunes are even a little bit country; Garth Brooks is on regular rotation in his CD player.

Underneath it all, however, is the traditional zydeco sound – a uniquely regional concoction of accordion-driven up-tempo dance music crossed with the blues – continued in the mould of others in the Carrier clan. Grandfather, father, brother and cousins were and are zydeco players in their own right and there are plenty of fourth and fifth generation nieces and nephews ready to carry the Carrier torch.

It’s a good thing because the world could use all the zydeco Chubby and his cohorts can dish out. It may take party people born outside the Louisiana Bayou a song or two to pick up the zydeco two-step that Carrier has been doing since he could walk, but they get it eventually. They get Earl Salley giving it on the washboard, and the grinning frontman one fan once deemed the Jimi Hendrix of the Accordion.

And Whistler’s gonna get it on Wednesday. It’s a party town after all. And there ain’t no party like a Chubby party.

Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band hit Buffalo Bill’s this Wednesday, with two 75-minute sets of zydeco zaniness. Tickets are $20, available in advance from Buffalo Bill’s and Bestsellers. Doors swing wide at 8 p.m. with Carrier set to take the stage around 9:45.

For more information call 604-932-2446.