Music
Hadley J. Castille, Refait (Swallow)
Ever since his epiphany during a tour of Canada in the early ’80s, Hadley Castille has represented a rare side of Cajun music history. While most practitioners follow the typical […]
Step Rideau & the Zydeco Outlaws, A Step Ahead (Bridge Entertainment)
When Step Rideau stepped out in Houston’s zydeco kingdom in the ’90s, he did so in a big way. Capacity crowds wrapped around the block just waiting to squeeze into […]
Gayla, Gumbo Rodeo (Independent)
South Louisiana musical fusions seem endless. Wayne Toups amalgamated the frontal attack of Cajun music with the backbeats of zydeco to birth zydecajun; Horace Trahan dropped out of zydeco only […]
Chris Miller and Bayou Roots, Bayou Roots (Bayou Roots)
It’s fashionable these days to proclaim oneself as a roots musician, especially when it comes to hunting down big money gigs. When Chris Miller, former lynchpin of Louisiana’s Kingfish, says […]
Lucky Playboys, More Luck Than Sense (Ossun Music)
Cajun-Creole hipshakers Filé ended their prodigious 20-year run with a bang with a much-ballyhooed New Year’s Eve gig in 2002. While accordionist Ward Lormand and fiddler D’Jalma Garnier could’ve slipped […]
Jason Frey & Al Berard, Old Style Cajun Music (Old Man Records)
Two of Cajun music’s most understated heavyweights find out that they’re long, lost soulmates when Al Berard (fiddle, guitar) teams up with Jason Frey (accordion, fiddle). Though Frey is […]
Laura Freeman, Color Wheel Cartwheel (Independent)
Ever since the beginning of time, mankind has been fascinated by colors, whether it was religious symbolism, military strategy, social studies or free enterprise competition. But what would colors sound […]
Lost Bayou Ramblers, Bayou Perdu (Swallow Records)
Turn the clock back 70 years, western swing-influenced Cajun string bands ride again. Well, not exactly, but at least no one will accuse Lafayette’s Lost Bayou Ramblers of being the […]
Neti Vaan, Toonzville (Jumping Man Records)
It’s hard to imagine a genre that fiddler Neti Vaan hasn’t tackled by now with her border-hopping eclecticism and folkloric sensibility of culling tunes from around the globe. But should […]
Ray Abshire, Arrete Pas La Musique (Swallow Records)
Country honker George Jones coined it; Dewey Balfa practically transformed Jones’ “Don’t Stop the Music” hit title, translated as “Arrête Pas La Musique,” into a cultural mission statement of its […]
