Accordion Kings & Queens: A Texas folk night at Miller

Houston's folk calendar has a long-running fixture that's easy to overlook until it's already happened, and this year's edition was no exception. The 37th Annual Accordion Kings & Queens concert, a Houston tradition since 1989, played out at the free Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park on Saturday, October 10, from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Presented by Texas Folklife, the evening was built around the accordion's role across Texas's cultural communities, pulling together polka, conjunto, zydeco, Cajun, Tejano, and swing into one bill.

The headliners were Rockin' Dopsie Jr. and The Zydeco Twisters, a Louisiana family tradition with Rockin' Dopsie Jr. (David Rubin) on rubboard and vocals, Tiger Dopsie (Alton Rubin Jr.) on drums and vocals, and Anthony Dopsie (Anthony Rubin) on accordion. It's a band that has shared the stage with Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Beyoncé, and Tina Turner, found its way into the 2024 film "Roadhouse," and recently put out the album "More Fun With Rockin' Dopsie Jr. and the Zydeco Twisters."

Opening the night were Jude Moreau and the Bon Temps Playboys, a Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco group from Texas led by Moreau, an inductee in the Cajun Music Hall of Fame who released the CD "Retourner au Les Vieux Temps" in 2002. They were joined by Susan Torres y Conjunto Los Pinkys, an Austin-based Texas-style conjunto band with Ysidro Samilpa on accordion and vocals, Javier Cruz on electric bass, Henry Tello on drums, and Bradley Jaye Williams on bajo quinto and vocals; the group was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

For anyone who missed it in person, the concert was livestreamed on the Miller Outdoor Theatre website, YouTube, and Facebook. The venue itself sits at 6000 Hermann Park Drive in the Houston Museum District, and the show went on rain or shine, as it always does. The general admission tickets under the awning — four per person over age 16 while they lasted — went on sale through the Miller Outdoor Theatre website starting at 10:00 am on Friday, October 9, and could be picked up at the box office, which opened an hour before the show. Open seating on the hill remained free, while the covered area was the ticketed section.

Texas Folklife, the nonprofit behind the whole thing, is dedicated to preserving and celebrating Texas's diverse living traditions and can be reached at (512) 441-9255 or communications@texasfolklife.org. All performances at Miller Outdoor Theatre are funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, which is a good reminder of why a night like this costs nothing to attend. If you caught it, you saw a piece of Houston folk history that's been going since 1989; if you didn't, the livestream is the next best thing.