Ida is the queen of zydeco. Her son "Freeze" adds to the delta sound.

At sixty-something young, the Grammy-award-winning grandmother of eight brings her sassy style, accordion-playing, bayou French singing and foot-stomping two-step rhythms to the islands.

Ida Guillory stands out in the man's world of zydeco with a sound that has more tinges of French folk, country, rock and Latin influences than R&B. "We're still holding onto those roots," she said in her raspy voice that sounds like honey with bits of glass.

The heir apparent of the band is her son Myrick "Freeze" Guillory, whose vocals, song-writing and accordion work are featured on her latest album, "Cookin' with Queen Ida."

Clifton Chenier, the crowned zydeco king and master, and Creedence Clearwater Revival influenced her style, Guillory said. "That raunchy, delta, down-to-earth sound," she said in a telephone interview from Maui.

Guillory has made laps around the planet performing and, until recently, played more than 200 gigs a year on the road. Her life is the stuff of fairy tales, but this queen came from humble roots.

Guillory was born in Lake Charles, La., to rice farmers and only spoke Cajun French until she was 7 and forced to speak English in school.

In 1947, her family moved to the Bay Area lured by the thought of working in the shipyards for - what a concept - only eight hours a day. She married, raised three kids and drove a school bus until the mid-1970s.

Then the magic happened.

"I got my brother's accordion out of the closet," she said.

Growing up, her family and friends would jam but girls didn't play accordion because it wasn't a "lady instrument." Girls played piano or violin or sang.

"That's the way we were brought up," she said.

Her mother brought the accordion to the Bay Area and pushed her children to keep the Creole tradition alive. But before Guillory strapped on the squeeze box, "That was the farthest thing from my mind," she said.

After learning a few melodies, she'd sit in with her brother Al Rapone's band during practice. Rapone had a rock 'n' roll band and he'd squeeze in a few zydeco numbers. People used to yell, "Play some of that stuff again!" she said, laughing.

One year a Bay Area parochial school had a Mardi Gras bash fund-raiser and musicians were asked to donate time. Her brother talked her into playing the accordion. She only had five or six songs in her repertoire.

"I'll play three," she told him.

The crowd was on its feet, and she was crowned the Mardi Gras queen of the event. A reporter wrote about "Queen Ida" and her music. The royal title stuck.

"There was no way to go back and find another name," she said.

Her latest achievement is a cookbook with the same name as her latest album. It's more than a collection of down-home recipes. It's a personal memoir of life in rural Louisiana and Texas, and "things that happened on the farm." The cookbook will "help people understand me better, how we were brought up,." she said. "My family was instrumental in testing recipes."

What: Queen Ida and Bon Temps Zydeco Band
When: 8 p.m. tomorrow
Where: Leeward Community College Theatre
Cost: $15, $13 for students, seniors
Call: 455-0385