BEAUMONT, Texas — Nothing gets toes tapping and people out onto the dance floor like zydeco.
Louisiana native Wayne Toups told 12News about his love for the music.
"It's basically a zydeco southern rock rhythm and blues with a Cajun flair and an Acadian flair too," said Toups.
Toups is one of the many famous zydeco musicians who is honored at the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur.
The zydeco music stems mainly from southwest Louisiana, it focuses mainly on a mix of rhythm and blues while telling a story.
"That stuff had an influence on the way I sang, and the way I played accordion. That's the kind of music I grew up on. And singing Cajun music with a blues voice was kind of different," Toups said.
With Beaumont being only 30 miles from the Louisiana border, it makes sense that more than just the music made its way to Southeast Texas.
"The culture itself. For so many people in this area, it is their culture. It was what originally brought them and their ancestors to this area," said Port Arthur Visitor Bureau Executive Director Tammy Kotzur.
June 2023, Governor Greg Abbott crowned Port Arthur as the official Cajun Capital of Texas, so its safe to say that zydeco, is here to stay.
"We share so much in our music and our culture, especially the food around here. I mean you can't get people to leave Southeast Texas with what the Cajun's do to food around here," Museum of the Gulf Coast Director Tom Neal.
There's no question why Southeast Texans can't get enough of the food or the music.