Music
Travis Matte: Sound of the 1960’s Cajun Dance Halls (Mhat Productions)
The 1960s had to be an exciting time for Cajun music. Even though it hadn’t reached hipster status yet, its dancehalls were thriving, a scene held together by dedicated musicians keeping their precious cultural commodity from succumbing to the destructive onslaught of Americanization.
Dylan Aucoin and The Judice Ramblers: Dylan Aucoin and the Judice Ramblers (Swallow Records)
It must be an exciting time for Cajun music with all the emerging young guns carrying the cultural banner forward. Count 23-year-old Dylan Aucoin among that class. The talented accordionist has been fronting The Judice Ramblers since high school, not long after meeting soulmate and fiddler Luke Huval at a jam. When Aucoin landed his first gig, he dialed Huval immediately, and bam, the nucleus of the band was formed.
Tom Andes: Those LA Nights (Independent)
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Tom Andes attracted attention two years ago with the release of his debut EP Static on Every Station and its buzzy REM-influenced title track.
Preston Frank & The Frank Family Band: Seventy-Five (Soulwood Records)
As time marches on, Preston Frank’s stock continues to rise as an icon of old-time Creole and Zydeco music. The septuagenarian accordionist and vocalist, a fourth-generation musician, is one of the last living links to traditional Creole music, where Creole and Cajun once broke communion together but have diverged in quantum leaps since then. Preston still performs regularly with his family band consisting of progeny Keith, guitar; Jennifer, bass; and Brad, drums; whom he mentored as kids decades ago when assembling the crew.
Has Beans: Cookin (Independent)
What do you get when you take alumni from an assortment of Lafayette bands like Red Beans and Rice Revue, Filé, Lucky Playboys, Hadley J. Castille’s Sharecroppers, Basin Brothers, Coteau, The Traiteurs, HardHeads, Native Sons, Tortue, and countless more? You get the Has Beans, a veteran group with a quarter of a millennium’s worth of experience, give or take a month.
Smoky Greenwell: Blues For Democracy (Greenwell Records)
Give props to Greenwell for his socially conscious “Homeless Christmas” (from Smokin’ Christmas) for an ugly subject that’s easy to look the other way.
Johnny Angel and Helldorado: Long Days, Short Pay (Independent)
When Johnny Angel gets into something, he immerses himself so deeply he might as well be a Luddite off the grid.
Ghalia Volt: Shout Sister Shout (Ruf Records)
Look at Ghalia Volt’s feet; you won’t see any grass growing underneath them since she constantly evolves her musical landscape. Since the Belgian blues guitarist’s arrival in the Crescent City in 2016, she’s already cut several albums.
The Groove Krewe featuring Jonathon Boogie Long: Blues From the Bayou (EP) (Sound Business Services)
To understand Blues from the Bayou featuring Jonathon Boogie Long and its predecessor recording, Run to Daylight featuring Nick Daniels III, is to understand the Groove Krewe. The Groove Krewe is not the typical performing group with the same perennial frontman but a triumvirate of music industry veterans Rex Pearce, Nelson Blanchard, and Dale Murray.
Corey Ledet Zydeco: Médikamen (Nouveau Electric Records)
If you haven’t noticed by now, Corey Ledet is on a mission to burrow deeper and deeper into his Creole culture. On his 2021 album Corey Ledet Zydeco, the zydeco accordionist revealed his passion for Kouri-Vini, a French lexified Creole language and the native tongue of his father CJ and other family members. On that pivotal 2021 recording, Ledet sang five songs in the language and vowed every song would be in Kouri-Vini from then on. With Médikamen, he holds true to that promise. All songs were recorded in his cultural idiom.
