BEAUSOLEIL AVEC MICHAEL DOUCET
LIVE IN LOUISIANA
WAY DOWN IN LOUISIANA 

This marks BeauSoleil’s 30^th anniversary, much of that time spent at the top of the Cajun music tree. “You play Cajun music because it moves you,” says leader Michael Doucet. Certainly the group has been conveying the essence of their Acadian French ancestry and in its early years it was one of those groups that were actually helping to preserve the music. Over the decades Cajun music has managed to break out of its South West Louisiana preserve and become internationally popular. BeauSoleil have played a major role in the vitality of the genre and when you hear this album, taken from various live shows, you can understand why they have become so popular and are in such great demand.

TAB BENOIT
BROTHER TO THE BLUES
TELARC

Recent winner of the Blues Award (formerly a WC Handy) for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year with Fever For The Bayou, Benoit is one of the finest ‘younger’ blues players around and his award this year was fitting recognition of his considerable talent.
Benoit is almost a veteran on the Louisiana music scene after 15 years or so of playing and, while you might think that he is following familiar territory on the album’s opening song - Gonzalez Chandler’s ‘Pack It Up’ - he suddenly shifts gears and adds fiddle, pedal steel (also played by Benoit) for the title. The album marks a departure for Benoit – and a welcome one at that.
‘I’ve always been a fan of country music,’ he writes in the liner notes, ‘I like the roots of American popular music, and the blues is a big part of that. But before there was blues and country there was country blues.’ 

BLUERUNNERS
HONEY SLIDES
BAYOU VISTA RECORDS

This is the fourth album from the Bluerunners in their near twenty-year career and it is not only the band’s most accomplished to date but also shows room for future development. The album title is apparently a reference to the fried marijuana and honey concoction that Rusty Kershaw would make for Neil Young during the sessions for On The Beach. (Now we know the reason for all the angst!)

COWBOY MOUTH
VOODOO SHOPPE
ELV

You gotta love any group that sings “she looks like she slept with Guns ‘n’ Roses but I busted her singing her all the boy band songs…she had to go ‘cause she didn’t know who Joe Strummer was.”
It almost doesn’t get better than that lead off track, dedicated to the founder of The Clash and his band. It shows the typical tongue in cheek humour that has endeared this band to fans in their hometown for more than a decade (with occasional forays into national success).  It also shows that not all the music coming out of Louisiana is funk, Cajun, zydeco, jazz or blues and that this is one of the bands that can rock with the best of them from outside Louisiana. Their live shows are phenomenal - enjoyable even if you are not that familiar with the band’s music or enamoured of the style.

SUSAN COWSILL
JUST BELIEVE
BLUE CORN MUSIC

It is a little difficult to believe that this is the same Susan Cowsill who sang on The Cowsills’ hits like ‘Hair’, ‘Indian Lake’ and ‘The Rain, The Park & Other Things’ - though I am not sure that anyone hearing the voice here would make a connection with any of those songs. That seems almost another universe away. This, then, is some survival story. Cowsill has sung backing vocals for Dwight Twilley, Hootie & the Blowfish, The Smithereens, Carlene Carter and she was also a member of The Continental Drifters, a New Orleans favourite. So, forty years into her career, this is her first solo album and it is impressive. She has a fine voice and it is a little hard to imagine that someone has not previously spotted her for a solo effort. Apart from a very nice reworking of The Beach Boys’ ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ – one of the greatest songs of all time and appearing as a hidden track here – the material is all original (by Cowsill or with Russ Broussard) and on the strength of the writing it is hard to believe that this is Cowsill’s debut. It certainly should not be her last solo outing.

DR JOHN
MERCENARY
BLUE NOTE

Savannah-born Johnny Mercer started out as an actor but soon demonstrated his talents as a singer and then as a lyricist. When he moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s he penned ‘I’m An Old Cow Hand’ for Bing Crosby and his composing career took off. He later collaborated with Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Jimmy Van Heusen, Henry Mancini, Hoagy Carmichael, amongst many others. He also wrote the music for some MGM films and composed ‘Moon River’ for Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Mercer ended up writing the words or music (or both) to more than 1500 songs and it is amazing how many of his songs, or songs with which he was associated in some way, have become part of the popular music vernacular.

FATS DOMINO
ALIVE AND KICKIN’
TIPITINA’S FOUNDATION

A few months ago I angered some Paul McCartney fans with some disparaging remarks about his latest album. However, while I remain sceptical about the merits of this work I will give praise where it is due and say that his 1999 album of covers, Run Devil Run, was mighty and his version of ‘Coquette’ – a hit for Fats Domino – was one of his best covers ever. Which prompts me to suggest that perhaps Macca could put his downtime to good use and either record with or produce his hero Fats Domino, whose latest effort smacks a little too much of the DYI touch. I think Sir Paul - who has an obvious affinity with Fats’ work - would do a superb job.
Surely someone has thought of getting Fats back into the studio with some high profile guests and a gun production team? (You don’t have to look outside New Orleans for the band). This sort of thing seems to be happening for many older artists who were far less successful than Domino. There is even a new Jerry Lee Lewis album in the can for imminent release so why not Fats?
In the meantime, if you were hoping that Fats might be able to emulate the brilliance of his Imperial recordings of the 1950s on this album then think again. If you are a fan and happy that the 78-year-old Fats is alive, living back in New Orleans and definitely kickin’ then this, at least, is a welcome return to the studio.

ERIC LINDELL
CHANGE IN THE WEATHER
ALLIGATOR

Eric Lindell might not be been very well known outside New Orleans but hopefully that is about to change. Originally from California, Lindell arrived in the Crescent City and, like so many other musicians, just stayed (as you do). Seven years and six indie recordings later he has been signed up by Alligator – a good move on their part. Obviously, someone from the Chicago label had caught one of Lindell’s many fine shows and reached the conclusion, like so many others of us who have seen him during Jazz Fest, that his is a talent worth nurturing..

THE NEW ORLEANS SOCIAL CLUB
SING ME BACK HOME
BURGUNDY/SONY BMG

At the outset I have to say that if I had the chance to join this particular Social Club I would do so immediately – whatever the fees. Check out the membership so far: Dr John, Ivan, Charles and Cyril Neville, George Porter Jr and Leo Nocentelli from The Meters, Irma Thomas, Marcia Ball, The subdudes,  Willie Tee, the Mighty Chariots Of Fire, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, John Boutté, Henry Butler and Raymond Weber.
Of all the albums to emerge out of the Katrina catastrophe - and which either pay tribute to New Orleans or are fundraisers – this is by far the best. The album hangs together a lot better than most of the other albums because it is not merely a selection of songs randomly strung together. The basic studio band is a cracker for start and, while it is a surprise to learn that it was recorded in just a week last October, the quality of the musicianship must have ensured pretty smooth sailing in the studio. All of the musicians would have known each other very well and most of them would have played together at some stage over the years.

 
VARIOUS ARTISTS
HURRICANE RELIEF: COME TOGETHER NOW
HABITAT/MUSICARES

You can hardly fault the intentions of this 2-CD multi-artist benefit album to aid the Gulf Coast victims devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. However, like many such projects that feature big name acts the music varies from excellent to awful. I would normally steer away from any album containing any music from the artist Wyclef Jean, who once destroyed a Johnny Cash song so completely on a tribute show that I have never been able to forgive him. The fact that he is here with Norah Jones should be a double warning. But that is only a personal thing and there are plenty of other musicians I don’t think much of included here for me to complain about for hours to come.
From the outset this is proof positive that big names do not equal good music and that some musicians just keep on getting worse the older they get. Then again, there is also the disturbing tendency to think that we all need to hold hands and have a sing along when we are feeling down. So here we get Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears In Heaven’ sung by Mary J Blige, Andrea Bocelli, Phil Collins, Robert Downey Jr, Elton John, Steve Tyler, Kelly and Ozzy Osbourne, Pink, Rod Stewart, Ringo Star and Velvet Revolver. I don’t know about you but if they sang it to me I’d be jumping back into the floodwaters! Rod Stewart does not redeem himself on a mercifully short ‘People Get Ready’ but his guests Jerry Lawson & Talk Of the Town almost do.

 
READ ALL THESE REVIEWS IN FULL IN THE JULY ISSUE