Born in 1983, Cedric grew up in San Felipe, Texas surrounded by the blues, old soul, country, and zydeco music. Though hip-hop was then popular amongst his peers, Cedric developed an affinity for the old-style French songs of Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas.

He soon found himself in Lafayette, Louisiana where he became part of the musical community and began contributing to the continuity of Creole music, quickly immersing himself in French music and language. Over the next several years, Cedric performed French music in 17 countries and on 7 full-length albums with various groups, including the Pine Leaf Boys, Corey Ledet, Les Amis Creole with Ed Poullard and J.B. Adams, and with his own group, Bijou Creole.

He has played with some of the great names in Creole music, such as Dexter Ardoin and the Creole Ramblers and Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys. With the Pine Leaf Boys, Cedric added a Creole and Zydeco foundation to the group’s roots Southwest Louisiana sound. Cedric continues to explore the roots of Louisiana’s Creole music with his own band, Bijou Creole.

He has performed in places across the United States as well as in Frech Canada, various parts of Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Africa and Asia. He has said he wants “to present the Creole Nation of Louisiana to the Creole Nations in other parts of the world, to make these Creole cultures aware of the existence of each other.”

In 2010 Watson appeared in season 1 episode 7 of the HBO series Treme with Wilson Savoy. Watson left the band to form Bijou Creole in 2007. Cedric Watson plays a variety of old-school Zydeco styles, original material, and Creole traditionals. The polyrhythmic and syncopated sounds of Africa and the Caribbean echo in his ensemble. He plays accordion, fiddle and gourd banjo. His greatest mentor who Cedric considers his musical Godfather is Edward Poullard. He also recognizes James Adams as a great mentor.

Cedric’s creative style and obvious joy in playing make him an engaging and exciting performer. Moving with ease between fiddle and accordion, his natural playfulness on stage makes him just plain fun to watch. More recently with Bijou Creole, he is developing an expansive modern take on his adopted state’s already hybridized Creole sounds, flavoring it with a mixture of soul, stringband and Afro-Caribbean influences, an approach that reached its fullest expression yet on 2013’s Le Troubadour Creole. One of the brightest contemporary talents to emerge in Cajun, Creole and Zydeco (Louisiana French) music over the last decade, Cedric Watson is a four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist & songwriter with seemingly unlimited potential.