Waylon and Sammy

The Original Bourbon Street Cajuns

Mardi Gras Records

 

It’s the tale of two Bourbon Street Thibodeauxs, to badly paraphrase VP candidate John Edwards. While both are grizzled veterans of the Bourbon Street scene, Jimmy Thibodeaux has been battling it out since the early ’90s in various aggregations and watering holes along the world’s most celebrated street. Contrary to the occasional notion that anything on Bourbon is a cheap imitation sell-out, most of these tunes unleash considerable intensity with pouncing pianos, southern rock guitar riffs and Thibodeaux’s relentless accordion playing, all the while staying true to its roots. The motley crew kicks off with Clifton Chenier’s jumpin’ “Everybody Calls Me Crazy,” then launches into an airtight “Jambalaya” loaded with liberty-taking lines (‘Son of a bitch, we’re going to build a big ditch on the bayou’) and then settles into “Little Black Eyes” with pleasing steel guitar lines. They come roaring back with pounding original zydeco with “Boozoo” and “Steven Paul Zydeco” before cruising into the Grateful Dead’s “Goin’ Down The Road.” Whew, only halfway through and you need another lung, and the disc’s second half doesn’t let up.

Waylon Thibodeaux’s Bourbon Street tenure surpasses even Jimmy’s, stretching all the way back to the mid-’80s. On a similar mixture of Cajun and zydeco tunes, The Original Bourbon Street Cajuns finds the former Louisiana State fiddling champ blazing fearlessly ahead on track after track while deft accordionist Sammy Naquin has no problem keeping pace with his Houma homeboy. They gang tackle zydeco staples and Cajun chestnuts, making it a party in the process with Waylon hollering, “You can shake yo’ body and you can shake yo’ — wahaaaaahhhh!” on “Washboard Fever.” That keeps the fun barometer pegged in the red. Although there’s enough energy to blast off to the clouds, in the latter tracks, the drumming is a bit overzealous in the mix. Still, that fits the boisterous Bourbon Street ambience and when you’re on Bourbon, do as the Bourbons do.