It's 7:25, Friday night, and the staff at Lafayette's Grant Street Dancehall has begun to get nervous. Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers - one of the hottest zydeco acts in the land and Grant Street's featured attraction this evening-have yet to begin their 7 p. m. sound check.

The holdup isn't the Hi-Rollers, all five of whom have been calmly shooting the breeze among themselves since they arrived half an hour ago. The holdup is Beau Jocque himself and the van he's driving, a van full...