Joe Falcon, Cajun Music Pioneer: Live in Scott, LA, 1963 (Arhoolie Records)

If by some odd chance you’re enough of a Cajun-music fan to have an original, 29-year-old copy of this album on vinyl, you’ll still want to pick up this newly reissued CD. At 15 tracks long, it’s five “previously unreleased” tracks longer than the vinyl version, and because those tracks include “Corrine, Corrina,” “Jole Blonde,” and “99 Year Waltz” – not to mention the occasional singing of Joe’s drum-playing wife Theresa – we’re talking significant reconfiguration indeed. Not that newcomers shouldn’t investigate. Rare indeed are the tolerably EQ’d recordings of authentic Cajun live gigs from before JFK was shot. Newcomers, however, should note two things: that “tolerably EQ’d in this case means (to quote the liner notes) “quite remarkable .” considering [the recording] was made with one microphone standing at a table near the bandstand,” and that “quite remarkable” in this case means exactly that, one-mic technology notwithstanding.