Terrance Simien and The Zydeco Experience 

When it comes to Creole culture and Zydeco music, two-time Grammy award winning Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience represent hard. They  repre-sent the past, the present and the future of American roots music. This six piece inter-generational and multicultural group is highly skilled, formally trained and are very ex-perienced performers.Their expertly curated repertoire is a hypnotic blend of zydeco-roots-reggae-gospel-old soul-funk and New Orleans jazz. This unforgettable  live music experience inspires joy, hope and a deep feeling of community.  

Zydeco is the roots music of Black and multiracial, French speaking Creoles of Louisiana. The main instruments are accordion and frottoir (zydeco rubboard) driven by African and Caribbean rhythms, and in the case of this dynamic group, anchored by extraordinary lead vocals and harmonies. Meet the group: Terrance Simien, (accor-dion, vocals)  Danny Williams (keyboards, vocals), Stan Chambers (bass guitar, vo-cals), Ian Molinaro-Thompson (drums), Noah Boshra (saxophone) and a rotating  trombone or trumpet.    

True to himself and his deep roots, Simien is an 8th generation Creole whose family is documented in history books as one of the first families of Louisiana. Simien personi-fies authenticity in every imaginable way as he continues to redefine his genre and ele-vate its visibility. Now enjoying legendary status of an accomplished 40+ year career, Simien, his bandmates/collaborators have toured to more than 40 countries and per-formed 8500+ concerts. The only one of its kind, their Creole for Kidz and the His-tory of Zydeco youth, family and student educational program was developed 25 years ago for K-12 and college students. This dynamic live performance with a study guide has helped raise the cultural IQ of 250,000 students, parents and teachers. 

Their music has been featured in multiple theatre released films and the band has made on screen appearances as well. One of their proudest moments was having zydeco featured in an historic Disney film, The Princess and the Frog that featured their first Black princess. Terrance collaborated with the legendary Randy Newman on the zydeco song for the movie soundtrack, but it was having the word zydeco spoken in the film that was just as important for the genre! Their music is also featured on a new theme ride based on the film, and at both U.S. Disney theme parks. They also have a song and a Disney compilation CD of the music heard on the new ride.  

Their music has also been placed in many TV adverts and they’ve had feature stories in every major newspaper and respected music publications, like Rolling Stone and Bill-board Magazine. They’ve recorded with the likes of Paul Simon, Art Neville, Dennis Quaid, the Meters, Marcia Ball and Dr. John to name a few. They’ve toured with Los Lobos, the late Robert Palmer, Dave Matthews Band and even had Steve Wonder join them on their their stage to play harmonica on their zydeco song!  

DJ Miles Bonny

 Miles Bonny is one of the more prolific musicians to call Taos home. The eclectic musician has his name on more than 14 albums and even more released singles. "9 beats," the newest of his musical children, may leave casual Bonny listeners surprised as it diverges from the usual R&B and soul vibe that we’ve come to expect from the artist. But Miles has deep roots in hip-hop mixing and beat production. “Basically, my history with making music started with trumpet and then beats,” Bonny explained.