Though there aren’t as many various artist Cajun-zydeco compilations being released these days, The Rough Guide to Cajun & Zydeco is one of the few that actually makes sense. Instead of featuring randomly selected tracks or historically based selections showing where the genre has been, music journalist/OffBeat contributor Herman Fuselier selected 15 tracks showing where [...]
Tag Archives: zydeco
Various Artists, The Rough Guide to Cajun and Zydeco (World Music Network)
February 1, 2012 – 12:46 am
Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Business Award: Scott Billington
January 1, 2012 – 12:14 am
It’s hard to explain what Scott Billington has meant to New Orleans and Louisiana music in the past two plus decades. These following words must suffice: Classified. Give Him Cornbread. Funk is in the House. Irma Thomas. Tangle Eye. Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas. The Houseman Cometh. Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band [...]
The Grammy Awards: Everything vs. Everything Else
January 1, 2012 – 12:06 am
“And the Grammy in the Category of Contradiction and Confusion goes to ….” That announcement would be made at next month’s Grammys if zydeco music veteran Terrance Simien had his way. Simien is still steaming that the Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album was one of 31 categories the Recording Academy cut last year in [...]
Corey Ledet, Do You Want More? (Independent)
December 1, 2011 – 12:55 am
When Corey Ledet sings about going back home on the freewheeling opening track, one has to wonder if this first generation/Clifton Chenier style of zydeco is indeed his home. Out of today’s current crop of players, no one does what Ledet does quite as well or as naturally. With dazzling trills and fingers flying dizzyingly [...]
Step-N-Strut Trail Ride: Too Many Steps?
December 1, 2011 – 12:08 am
Trail rides were once the best-kept secrets in zydeco. Now, google “zydeco trail ride” and the first result comes from, ironically, The New York Times. Travel writer Shaila Dewan waxes poetically about her trip to the Pineywoods Trail Ride in Evangeline Parish. There are also links to an events calendar, YouTube videos and discussion forums. [...]
C.J. Chenier, Can’t Sit Down (World Village Records)
November 1, 2011 – 12:56 am
C.J. Chenier’s last album, The Desperate Kingdom of Love, went about as far outside the zydeco mainstream as you can get—ominous title, PJ Harvey title track, generally downbeat feel. But that was also a fairly explicit post-Katrina album, and it’s likely to be a one-off in his catalog. He’s back to party-band mode this time, [...]
Festivals Acadiens et Créoles Celebrates Cajun and Creole Culture on the Weekend
October 13, 2011 – 3:18 pm
Since 1972, Festivals Acadiens et Créoles has been serving up the best of Cajun culture to an amassing fan base. The annual festival, held in Lafayette’s Girard Park, delivers a zestful combination of food, crafts and Cajun music that ranges from Cajun giant Steve Riley to Creole traditionalist Joe Hall to the fiery zydeco-rock of [...]
Rosie Ledet, Come Get Some (JSP Records)
October 1, 2011 – 12:56 am
Come Get Some what? It’s a Rosie Ledet CD, so what’d’ya think? Sex, of course. Or, more precisely, decidedly female zydeco soul filled with double entendres and lots of hip-shaking grooves, a sound at which Rosie Ledet typically excels, especially in live settings. Based on her last CD effort, 2005’s Pick It Up, one veteran [...]
Classie Ballou: Boozoo’s Bottom
October 1, 2011 – 12:17 am
In the world of zydeco, the accordionists and front men are the names in lights. But like R&B and funk, in zydeco the bass players are living legends. Classie Ballou, Jr. brought the bottom end of zydeco out of the late ’50s and early ’60s into a new standard. Before his long, infamous tenure with [...]
Cedric Watson’s Creole Kora
September 1, 2011 – 12:09 am
Cedric Watson is quickly becoming a sponge of world music. “I like any kind of music that’s related to Louisiana music and Creole,” says Watson, who was nominated for a Grammy last year. “Brazilian music called forró is triangle and fiddle and it has accordion in it. It’s the same thing [as Creole], but it’s [...]
