Although some would argue this until their dying breath, Houston, not Southwest Louisiana, is the present Mecca of zydeco. There’s a zydeco happening six nights/week with scads of new bands popping up everywhere. In midst of all this is accordionist Leroy Thomas, son of legendary drummer Leo “The Bull” Thomas, who differentiates himself from his nouveau peers by adhering to the John Delafose old school of zydeco.

His latest supports that statement well but what’s even more apparent is that this Stetsoned one’s sense of humor. The title song about the monkey and the baboon kissing too fast is indeed a giggler while “Thomas Boyz Boogie” is another one of those ‘don’t mess with us, we’re really bad this time’ songs. If it’s not laugh-out funny, it’s usually great fun like “If You Love Leroy” (Get out on the dance floor) or the Rasta-flavored “I Don’t Work No More.” Thomas consistently finds his barrel-down, mashdown riff like on “Baby, I’m Hungry” or the French sung “Mom M’a dit Pas Voler” and drives it home, guaranteed for another set of smiles and one more dance.

For Thomas, it’s a landmark recording—the first on his newly-christened Thomas Records and more importantly, his first without Papa Bull. But if you’re gonna ride without the Bull, at least take the Bull’s other son, Lee Andrus who’s a spitting image of his hard-hitting pops. He raps the skins just as hard, rockin’ steady while pounding through the toms like the afternoon’s first thunder. The last two tracks feature Thomas on piano-note accordion a la vintage Clifton Chenier. Even though Beau Jocque past on roughly eight months ago, Thomas is the first to pay tribute to the zydeco giant with the touching slow number “Don’t Ya Cry No More, Beau.” Even when there’s no Bull here, there’s never any bull here.