The album’s conceit is announced in the opening to “Mello Joy Boy Theme Song,” when a voice through some faraway radio announces, “The Mello Joy Boys are on the air.” Lost Bayou Ramblers present the Mello Joy Boys is a mythical radio broadcast featuring a mythical dance band from the 1940s, with the name coming from Mello Joy coffee, a brand made and sold in Acadiana.

 

There are western swing and boogie tracks here — guest Wilson Savoy’s piano and Louis Michot’s fiddle burn together on “Mello Joy Boogie” — but unlike the Red Stick Ramblers, Lost Bayou Ramblers blend Texas and Louisiana genres rather than hopscotch from one to the other. “Fais Pas Ca” is Bob Wills’ “Trouble in Mind,” but with the lyrics sung in English and French. It also features the lap steel guitar, as does much of the CD, but the track looks west without really going that way.

 

As the band celebrates Cajun music’s past, it does so by embracing the sound of that past. Louis Michot’s fiddle has a familiar, abrasive quality, and Savoy’s piano sounds like a plinky upright. There’s no attempt to remove the sonic rough edges to make the music palatable to a broader audience, and the results will fill dance floors. The ambitious celebration of the texture of Cajun culture is what makes Lost Bayou Ramblers present the Mello Joy Boys something bigger, and it makes the band one to watch.