GOIN' DOWN TO LOUISIANA

Not long ago, the future of Creole music looked bleak. Bébé Carrière, the great fiddler at the heart of the Lawtell Playboys, passed away. Danny Poulard, too, was gone. The African American French musical traditions of Southwest Louisiana, which underpin so much of what we now like to call “Cajun” and “Zydeco” music, seemed to be rapidly disappearing, lost in the din of the dancehall and the relentless boom of the electric bass. Salvation, though, often comes from strange places. In this case, it came from perhaps the strangest place of all: Texas.

Now residing in Parks, Corey “Lil Pop” Ledet originally hails from Houston, where the old music still runs strong in the families who left rural Louisiana for better work decades ago. Cedric Watson, who now lives in Lafayette, grew up in the rustic environs of Sealy, Texas. The sudden appearance of these two dynamic musicians has been a near religious experience for lovers of Cajun, Creole and Zydeco music. In Lil Pop’s virtuoso piano key accordion playing, they hear echoes Clifton Chenier’s genius. When Cedric Watson breaks into a broad grin as he channels the old songs, they recall Canray Fontenot.

But this music is about more than individual people, and Cedric and Corey are not ghosts of a dead culture. Cedric and Corey look to the past, true, but they do so as a means of creating a meaningful musical present. When you listen to this record, it will be easy to draw comparisons to the musical heroes of the past. Don’t forget, though, to think about these young men in the first strong flowering of their talent, changing and renewing the music every time they pick up an instrument. Think of all that’s yet to come.

-Joshua Clegg Caffery

 

Tracks:
1. Goin’ Down to Louisiana •
2. Broken Hearted •
3. Ma Negresse •
4. Black Snake •
5. Colinda
6. Madame Faielle •
7. Valse de Cherokee •
8. Let the Good Times Roll •
9. Canray’s One Step •
10. Mama Told Papa •
11. Richard Two Step •
12. Hungry Man Blues

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