Zydeco and Cajun songs have long since drawn road maps of South Lousiana. Acadian places and scenery are literally put on the map in the “Lake Arthur Stomp,” “Evangeline Special,” “Blues a Basile” and “Bayou Teche Two Step.”

Terry Domingue has added another stop to the zydeco tour — “The Blue Moon Waltz.”

On his debut album, 2003’s Make You Feel Good, Domingue wrote the instrumental, traditional-inspired waltz in honor of the Lafayette watering hole where he enjoyed playing and spending time.

“I like the place. It’s cool. It’s a place to chill out, hang out,” says Domingue. “You don’t see much of the back porch … back porch zydeco.”

Domingue also is carving his name into the roadmap of traditional South Louisiana music with his marriage of modern sounds and older influences. Most of the songs are lighthearted nouveau zydeco party tunes he wrote. He breaks from the herd to perform Boozoo Chavis’ “Johnny Billy Goat” and Beau Jocque’s “Gardez Don,” singing both in Creole French.

Domingue counts the two men as his influences, along with the festivals and trail rides he attended as a youngster. It’s their style and the Creole spoken by his grandparents that he tries to preserve and spread by performing the old songs — and even writing new ones in French.

“I try to keep the tradition. I mean, I am playing the nouveau stuff too, but trying to keep both crowds — trying to keep the young crowds, the older crowd. Sometimes it’s hard, but you just got to know your audience.

“A lot of people are like, ‘Man you sure you’re 23, you got an old head with you,’” Domingue says. “They (others) are forgetting where this music came from. They are forgetting about the Clifton Cheniers, the Boozoo Chavises. A lot of them want to talk about how they want to change the game and this and that, but they got to remember where it came from. If it wasn’t for them, they probably wouldn’t be playing the music they are playing now.”

When he was only 9, after years of being fascinated by accordion players in many zydeco and Cajun bands, Domingue pestered his parents all year for one of his own as a Christmas present. Although his mother was reluctant, his father caved, and Domingue began teaching himself how to play. Between CDs, tapes and a radio tuned to the KRVS zydeco show, he picked up the skill. About six years ago, the now 23-year-old put together the first incarnation of The Zydeco Bad Boys. In June, Domingue and the latest line-up will release a follow-up, full-length record.

While the band is a part-time endeavor, it is a time consuming one. The group has played every weekend of this year and gigged 40 out of last year’s 52 weekends. His dedication to the music took him from being able to catch a few French words here and there in someone else’s conversation to being able to hold one of his own.

“It’s easier to sing (than speak Creole),” he says. “You hear the songs, and it’s easier to learn. Like anything else, you listen to rap songs, and you learn the lyrics before you learn a poem.”

While the inclusion of Creole lyrics in his music, especially his original material, sets him apart from some nouveau performers, he strives to stand out further from the crowd, working to develop his own discernable style.

“Lots of people are sounding like everybody, but I am trying to develop my own style to where they hear a song they say, ‘That’s got to be Terry, ‘cause nobody else is doing this.’”