Sitting around hefty plate lunches inside T-Coon's restaurant in downtown Lafayette, three-fifths of Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys discuss the imminent release of Friday at last. Their sixth recording hit the shelves as this story was going to press, and its arrival may be the story of the year in Cajun music.

A soulful homecoming, the all-French-language disc was recorded in the Hub City, and released on Ville Platte's Swallow label. The pedal steel-laced album will be accompanied ...