They Do It Because They Kin : For Cajun Accordionists Queen Ida and Sheryl Cormier, Loved Ones and Music Go Hand in Hand

Successfully mixing career and family responsibilities is no easy task. But according to Cajun-zydeco accordionists Queen Ida and Sheryl Cormier, the rewards reaped from living one’s dream and sharing it with loved ones make any sacrifices worth the effort.

In fact, both women’s careers truly are family affairs.

Ida Guillory’s son, Myrick, plays accordion in the Bon Temps Zydeco Band, which plays tonight at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. Her husband manages the band, and her daughter handles bookkeeping chores. Two of her brothers played in the band in years past.

Cormier, whose band, Cajun Sounds, performs Sunday afternoon in Orange, grew up in a house in which many family members played. Her mother was a drummer, her father an accordionist. Her husband manages her band, and her son, Russell Jr., is its drummer.

Back in the late 1970s, it was Ida’s brother Al Rapone who inspired, or perhaps cajoled, the then-housewife and school-bus driver to get into the musical act. At a performance in the Bay Area celebrating Mardi Gras, she joined his three-piece band, and her trademark sound was born.

“From the time I was married up to 1976, I was content to be a housewife and mother,” Guillory explained during a phone interview from her Bay Area home. “And my mother always felt it was unladylike to be in a band. But I think the memories of my uncles playing the fiddle, cowbell, washboard and all awoke my own desire to perform. So after I raised my kids, I decided maybe it was time for me to join the family business, so to speak.”

The Lake Charles, La., native, who is now over 60, may have come late to the party, but her energy remains unbounded.

Her latest release, 1994’s “Mardi Gras,” is her ninth and finds the zydeco queen and her band paying homage to some of their old favorites, including reworkings of classic Johnny Nash and Creedence Clearwater Revival tunes.

“I went back to my roots to music I liked, and over one-half of the CD is not zydeco,” she said. “I wanted a different rhythm and spin but still keep the zydeco feel and flavor.”

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Other influences she cited range from Chuck Berry and Fats Domino to Clifton Chenier and Joe Jackson. She also confessed to listening to Perry Como and Andy Williams. “The guys [in the band] would tease me: ‘How did you go from that to zydeco?’ ”

Guillory, who started her career at 42 and now has nine grandchildren and a book of recipes (“Cookin’ With Queen Ida”), offers this food for thought: “Never feel like you’re too old to pursue another career. If it’s in your heart and you stay focused, you can do it.”

Like Queen Ida, Cankton, La.-born Cormier was initially discouraged from playing music. But, despite her father’s objections, she taught herself to play the Cajun accordion while he was sharecropping in the fields of Grand Coteau.

Now over 50 and a grandmother of two, Cormier looks back at those potential setbacks with feelings of pride and determination. After a three-year stint with her first band, she decided to do something different--form an all-female Cajun band.

“It really meant a lot to me to try being the first all-female [Cajun] group,” Cormier explained during a separate phone interview during a tour stop in Berkeley. “It meant a lot, too, that my husband said, ‘Go for it!’ ”

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In the late ‘80s, Cormier recruited band members Becky Richard, Gina Forsythe and Elsbeth Krough. The group lasted four years, disbanding when the drummer got pregnant. (Cormier said with a chuckle, “She should have played all night.”)

She cites her father, Andrew Guilbeau, as well as such top Cajun players as Aldus Roger, Walter Mouton and Blackie Forestier, as her primary influences. Forestier produced Cormier’s first single (a recording of her father’s tune, “The Guilbeau Waltz”), and furnished the band and recording studio.

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Cormier has since released five singles and three albums, including her most recent, 1992’s “Sheryl Cormier and Cajun Sounds.” Having focused on two-steps and waltzes, Cormier is looking ahead to a new recording peppered with a little more zest.

“I’d like to capture more of the spice and aggressiveness that comes through in our live shows,” she said.

Although she also got a late start on her musical career, Cormier said there are few things she’d do differently.

“I’d start at a younger age, of course,” she said, laughing, “but I’m still physically fit. . . . I do aerobics. . . . I actually looked forward to the day I turned 50 years old. But seriously, I couldn’t have done this until my son graduated from high school, and as long as I’m healthy, I have no plans of slowin’ down.”

* Queen Ida & the Bon Temps Zydeco Band perform tonight in the gymnasium at Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. 8 p.m. $10. A free food fair begins in the gym courtyard at 5:30 p.m. (714) 582-4656. Sheryl Cormier & Cajun Sounds perform Sunday at the Woman’s Club of Orange, 121 S. Center St., Orange. 3 p.m. Dance lessons begin at 1:30 p.m. $8. (714) 490-3838.