Graham Reid | | <1 min read
BeauSoleil: Rouler et Tourner (Rollin' and Tumblin')
Cajun music from Louisiana is perhaps an acquired taste: it's more about feel than finish, dancing and drinking than deliberating and thinking, and of course it has fiddles and accordions.
The latter two might be the most off-putting aspect for some.
But this album by these long-running Cajun revivalists has so much going for it that it could hurdle the barriers: guests include Natalie Merchant, John Sebastian, Garth Hudson, Bill Keith, jazz trombonist Roswell Rudd and others . . . and the material includes Creole reworkings of Bob Dylan's take on the traditional Rollin' and Tumblin', Bobby Charles' I Spent All My Money Loving You and JJ Cale's The Problem in the same context as traditional tunes (the lively Bosco Stomp a standout) delivered with wobbly and hoarse vocal passion by fiddle player Michael Doucet.
There's enough dance and scraping fiddle for traditionalists but also a dollop of new treatments for the casual listener.
But, an acquired taste nonetheless. One for funtimes and barbecues definitely.
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