Don't know much about Slowdowner although it seems to be a fave of some Braves. It's been mentioned several times before on this forum, but Audacity (a free program to download) has been very useful to me -- not only slowing tempos and changing keys of tunes, but converting .aiff files to .mp3s.

I hear a lot of A and G boxes used in zydeco now, whereas back in the beginning of the nouveau movement, most tunes were on a Bb or C. Bb boxes still tend to dominate zydeco, but not quite like they did in the early 90's.

It was Boozoo who pioneered nouveau stylings and ushered in the single row adaptation, away from the traditional piano accordion by many artists. In many opinions, Zydeco Force was the first nouveau zydeco band. Others say it was Preston Frank or the Creole Zydeco Farmers. Regardless, it was Boozoo, "That's Who!" that provided the catalyst of change from the Clifton/Dopsie/Sydney/Sam Bros. old school style to the double-kickin' sound that is prominent in zydeco today.

The triple-row style of zydeco shares about half of what I hear in the overall sum modern zydeco. Most single-row players eventually introduce the triple-row into their arsenal because many of them want more of a challenge. The cool thing about the triple-row sound is, in many uses, it has an old-school flavor, embracing the roots of zydeco.

In my observation, it is the bands featuring the single-row as their primary sound, are the most popular. That leaves a lot of stellar triple-row advocates like Roy Carrier, Chubby Carrier, and Terrance Simien doing well at big festivals and touring states outside of Louisiana, but not attracting the crowds at the local Louisiana clubs.

Perhaps it's the limited scale of the single-row diatonic -- the trance-like drone of the groove that gathers folks around, but there's just something about the percussive jamnation of the single row sound. It's a ball-busting boogie that sounds like it came straight out of the woods. There's no other sound like it.

R!CK