Richard LeBouef calls this his “Meet Richard LeBouef” album, which is funny considering his handful of recordings and the country smash hit “Empty Glass” that dominated the Acadiana airwaves in 1998. He has been a crowd-pleasing Cajun accordionist/vocalist/performer, but he’s also yearned to do more country, and it took the formation of his own label to finally put that project together. Though Hank probably wouldn’t have done it this way, LeBouef actually aims at several markets on Longneck Vacation—today’s Nashville (“Whiskey Trip”) and then South Louisiana with a few indigenously relevant tunes (“Cajun Girls,” “It’s a Louisiana Thing”) that aren’t homogenized enough for mainstream airplay. Songwriters Ken Holloway and Dustin Sonnier supply LeBouef plenty of hook-filled lines like “She’s losing his memory / two steps at a time” and the rocking “Longneck Vacation” title track, in which a vacation-deprived LeBouef vows to be “away for at least two or three cases.” It’s hard to imagine LeBouef ruling Nashville, especially considering his preference for heavy steel guitar and country fiddle provided by hot aces Richard Comeaux and Beau Thomas, respectively. The market he has the best chance of reaching is the last one he addresses—progressive Cajun—where he always manages to get the party stoked (“Cypress Inn Special”) or be touchingly sentimental (“Christie’s Waltz”). With or without the hat, good stuff.