Johanna Devine did what any aspiring singer-songwriter does—she wrote a batch of songs with plans to eventually record them on voice and guitar. But when producer Dirk Powell heard them and realized the Nouveau String Band front gal’s affinity for ’30s Western swing, ’50s torch jazz and rockabilly, not to mention early ’60s country, genre-hopping [...]
Multi-CFMA award winner Kevin Naquin has consistently fielded good line-ups and delivered quality recordings, but this slamming disc is the dancehall fireball’s best yet. A few personnel changes provide a renewed sense of vigor, and newest member Seth Guidry leads a relentless attack with a monster bass groove.
Vocally, the Ossun Playboys are stronger than ever [...]
With the ongoing revival of Cajun music, there’s nothing earth-shattering about a competent accordionist who happens to be in his mid-20s. Unless you factor in Ryan Brunet, that is. He doesn’t hail from the prairies of Southwest Louisiana, the territorial hot bed of traditionalism, but Vin Bruce’s bayou country, where decent traditional players number in [...]
Early on, the Cajun wunderkind Feufollet proved capable purveyors of the trad dancehall variety. By their third album, Tout Un Beau Soir, a self-awareness established the framework that they have built upon ever since. Granted, they can still slam it in a traditional dancehall sense, but the disc’s beauty lies within its cavernous creativity, boundless [...]
Lafayette blues rocker Michael Juan Nunez doesn’t waste any time in getting to the meat of the matter on American Electric, his third carefully crafted release in a decade. On the blitzkrieg opening track alone (“Punks Like You”), his protagonist averts a bloodbath by standing up to a drunken bully. It’s intense and sets the [...]
Cajun honky tonker DL Menard is best known for his immortal “La Porte Dans Arriere” (“The Back Door”) that sold 500,000 copies alone in 1962 and has been a staple in the Cajun repertoire ever since. More importantly, he has remained a cultural icon through his lovable, affable personality and seemingly infinite supply of oneliners. [...]
Lafayette’s Walter Jr. has covered a lot of ground with his last few releases: greasy, slippery funk; raucous blues; jazz and quiet acoustic folk. But that was the secular side of him. There’s a spiritual aspect as well, which is sincere and honest without any of the heavy-handedness of over-the-top evangelical pronouncements. True to his [...]
The days of singing about the hardscrabble life made famous by many a bluesman are over, so why keep reinventing the same wheel? At least that’s the credo of Brother Dege, who offers an updated perspective of the age-old Delta blues. Compared to the mammoth sound production of his Lafayette electric-rock groups Santeria and Black [...]
It’s getting to be a familiar story. If you want a zydeco CD that sounds slamming good, just head on over to the Candy Man, a.k.a. Chris Ardoin. In recent years, T-Broussard and Willis Prudhomme have done just that. Now add Jo Jo Reed to the list of satisfied customers. Though Reed’s been in the [...]
Chubby Carrier has spent a career perfecting his party package live shows, so it stands to reason that this would be more of the same, right? No, not quite. Carrier does do his best job ever reaching out to a diverse demographic with a variety of hooks. The breezy dance rendition of Bad Company’s “Feel [...]
