Josef Lynn “Big Red” Arline grew up in Hillister, Texas, about an hour north of Beaumont. Like many vocalists and performers, church was the place where Josef discovered how much music inspired him. As an older youth, he observed how music had a profound, often spiritual, impact on some and he realized how he gained satisfaction from seeing folks fulfilled by his music.

Josef attended school in nearby Woodville, Texas. He was an athlete, played high school football, and a student of the arts. Josef played trombone in the school band and experimented with other instruments, finding that he could learn just about anything he picked up. In his junior year in high school, part-time construction work became nearly a full-time job, which replaced his football and music participation. Josef chose the construction trade after high school and became a skilled and respected builder.

A few years later, Josef was offered a private construction project in Murray, Utah, in the Salt Lake City area. He was married by then and moved his wife and a daughter to Utah. After the initial project was complete, Josef stayed in the area as the demand for contractors and residential building market was hot. But, music was in his blood. In his spare time, Josef would sample the local music scene in Salt Lake City as well as the commercial music business. This led to part time studio work as a background vocalist and several voice-overs in commercials for radio, including major spots and promotion for the Kentucky Lottery and the Idaho Potato Commission.

In Salt Lake City, Josef worked and hung out with several “framing” carpenters who where Tonga drummers as well as an electrician from Trinidad who headed a reggae band. Josef learned and played Reggae, hung out with those guys, and performed on occasion with different groups at the Safari Reggae Club in Salt Lake City. Not long after, he became lead singer of a Reggae group and remained for a few years while working construction and living in Utah.

Josef discovered Blues after moving back to Southeast Texas to make their home. He hung out with “old-school” Blues musicians and enveloped himself in the Blues scene of the area. Josef performed vocals with a couple of different Blues groups. One in particular had a somewhat mixed format of Rock, Blues, & Zydeco. This mixed format gave Josef the opportunity he felt he needed, but, when the group would play Zydeco they would do so without the accordion. Josef knew this wasn’t going to work, so he picked up an accordion, learned it, and added it to the group.

Zydeco, from that moment, has been a part of Big Red. Zydeco, a close relative of Blues and Creole accordion and surely kin to Reggae, gave Red the unique space he needed to develop the Big Red Zydeco sound as a writer and performer. Part of his Creole heritage, Red’s accordion sounds of choice were influenced by Zydeco greats: John Delafose, Clifton Chenier, Boozoo Chavis, & Buckwheat Zydeco.

Big Red put together the Zydeco Playmakers and began playing trail rides and private parties as well as arranged their own private Zydeco bashes. A few performances at Pappeaux Deaux’s Seafood Kitchen in Beaumont, Texas created a whirlwind of bookings for the group. The group later nearly outgrew their local place of practice, which was essentially an old barn-like structure they referred to as the Hockless Place, when locals and others began gathering at their practice sessions.

After some time, Red took the group into the studio and cut their first recording project, titled Zydeco Lady, which was never released to any label in the hopes of a record deal. Big Red and the Zydeco Playmakers struggled the first few years with all the woes of the music business, especially the local music scene.

In 2004 Big Red assembled his second recording project at EMF Productions in Lake Charles, Louisiana with the help of Ken Turner, engineer. In March of 2005, Big Red and the Zydeco Playmakers’ Secret Ingredients, their first official CD, was released on Maison de Soul Records.