LSU’s Golden Band From Tigerland Scores Grammy Nomination

LSU is having quite a year! In addition to the football team's epic Alabama overtime upset, the school’s band earned a big win of its own: a Grammy nomination. 

Full Circle, the Golden Band from Tigerland’s collaboration with zydeco musician Sean Ardoin and his band Kreole Rock and Soul, is in the running for a Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album. 

“Man, I can’t even express to you in words how excited I am that my alma mater, my former band—I was in the Tiger Band—is now Grammy nominated,” Ardoin told Louisiana Radio Network. “I’m on top of the world right now.” 

The legendary Golden Band is featured on all of the album's 12 tracks.

In an August interview with The Advocate, Ardoin said that Full Circle is the first album-length collaboration between a marching band and a regular band.

"This album is historic because it's the first time that a marching band and a band have collaborated for a full album ever in the music business," he said. "So, it's another firstborn for Louisiana." 

Ardoin told the newspaper that he got the idea for the album after hearing the band perform at a game last season. It wasn’t hard to get director Kelvin Jones on board. 

"It was something unique," Jones told The Advocate. "This was something so far out of my usual territory, but it worked out great. It was bigger than I anticipated." 

About half of the 325 person band volunteered for the album, and recorded it in less than three days in April.  

This is the fourth time Ardoin, a Lake Charles native, has been nominated for a Grammy. His Live in New Orleans! album was nominated in last year’s Best Regional Roots Music Album category as well.

The 2023 Grammy Awards will air at 7 p.m. Sunday, February 5, on CBS.