Rating:
Genre:
Cajun
Release Date: 11/19/2002
As part of
Rounder's 30th anniversary celebration, this album collects the finest
zydeco available on the label within the last 30 years. As
Rounder is one of the premier forces in archiving
traditional musics, the liner notes are outstanding, with a nice history of the genre paying heed to the original innovators. Having paid the proper dues to the founders of
zydeco, it proceeds to throw the listener into a musical collage of the more previous material (that which has been available on
Rounder, that is). This newer material is essentially split stylistically into the followers of
Clifton Chenier and those of
Boozoo Chavis. In the
Chenier camp are
Nathan Williams,
Lynn August,
Li'l Brian Terry, and the outstanding
Buckwheat Zydeco. In
Boozoo Chavis' camp is
Beau Jocque, among others. Every aspect of the genre is covered in some manner or another here, with the high-energy party
zydeco of
Buckwheat Zydeco, the
funk-influenced
Beau Jocque, the more
Cajun end of it in
Steve Riley, and the
Delafose family providing numbers. There's even a nod to the founder,
Amede Ardoin, in a couple of songs with his descendants,
Chris and
Sean Ardoin, who show off some incredible accordion work along the way. Throughout the album, it's a rollicking affair as the party-makers from throughout southern Louisiana make appearances with a song or two. As far as
zydeco collections go, this is an outstanding one with all the necessary bases touched upon. For the newcomer, then, it's a wonderful album. For the initiated, it's still a good album for its breadth, though single albums by a number of the artists might serve as a longer lesson in the history of the genre.
~Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
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