Beaumont is home to old piano genius Moon Mulligan and to, well, the funky chicken. More broadly, this is home base to Texan Cajun music and the East Texas blues scene (along with Houston). It's also a zydeco center. What is zydeco? Cajun and zydeco music are related genres which are both often sung in French or a French Creole. Zydeco is uniquely Texan, developed in Houston and Beaumont by black Creole immigrants from Louisiana. Cajun music meets urban blues and Caribbean rhythms and thus, zydeco, traditionally played with accordion and spoons.
Clifton Chenier was Zydeco's king, popularizing it and giving both accordion and washboard/spoons a little more range, and zydeco happily incorporates other genres into its style today. Texas Cajun is the fusion of the traditional Acadian rhythms with Texas country-western. It does indeed tend to have more of a country and jazz spin today, with guitar, triangle, and sometimes electric, modern instruments joining the traditional ones.
Many of the live music venues (country, jazz, zydeco, blues and all) line Crockett Street and many offer food (as well as karaoke), too.
