It doesn’t seem that long ago when Ann Savoy and Jane Vidrine performed informally at a crawfish boil where Arhoolie’s Chris Strachwitz was in attendance. Their harmonies literally took Strachwitz hostage who encouraged the pair to pursue it further. That they did and soon thereafter the Magnolia Sisters and their auspicious debut put Cajun music in touch with its feminine side. Five years later the all women’s group has comfortably established themselves in a commonly thought of male-dominated genre.

Their sophomore 20-track effort shows the quintet playing much like the ancients—rootsy raw fiddling, assertive accordion stylings with a reedy, buzzy tone and pronounced guitar rhythms all supported by unmistakable back beat. Imagine, if you will, a group of Brigadoon-like women playing as long as the Hackberry Ramblers except they never aged (or got wrinkly) and that’s an apt description of their pure old-timey sound. Though Savoy is the only accordionist, she also plays fiddle, bass or guitar while Vidrine alternates between guitar and fiddle and Tina Pilione switches between fiddle, mandolin and bass. Between the three potential fiddlers, there’re several twin fiddle pieces and even a triple fiddle track that are simply superlative. Known for her impeccable Cajun guitar and ringing triangle playing, Christine Balfa shines the brightest on banjo ukulele that often lends a nostalgic rag feel to the proceedings.

Though they’re as danceable as any prairie dance band, witness the driving “Hippi Taiaut” sung by Lisa Reed, or the opener “’Tit Mamou,” there’re others that serve as summer afternoon jammers like the Dennis McGee twin fiddle piece of “La La La La.” Yet, in between swing things like “Hé, Là-Bas” or classics like “Dedans le Sud de la Louisiane,” the Sisters journey to less traveled roads or forge new trails all together. No French group has ever sung harmonies like they do—Savoy and Vidrine are masters in melding their voices together, then gracefully creating tension between the notes. This is particularly evident on a cappella ballads from Allan Lomax recordings of Hedier Segura and the dirgeful “La Belle et La Capitaine” that unleashes an artful, underlying drone. So what’s the bottom line here, you ask? Cher Amis has enough riches to make one a spiritual millionaire several times over and that is our final answer.