I’ve not heard a lot of zydeco music in my life, except for some
\nscatterings of it on albums like Paul Simon’s
\nGraceland<\/i> or some work by Buckwheat Zydeco. It’s not that I
\ndon’t like it, it’s just that I’ve never really cultivated a taste
\nfor it. (Keep in mind, I’m a native Chicagoan, who has rarely
\nventured outside of his stomping grounds; travelling to New Orleans
\n– though it might be a beautiful city – would be the equivalent of
\nheading into the jungle for this timid white boy.)<\/p>\n
At this point, a package from Rounder containing
\nBayou Ruler<\/i>, the latest release from Steve Riley and the
\nMamou Playboys, arrives in the mailbox, giving me a chance to
\nbroaden my musical taste buds a bit. While the band isn’t zydeco in
\nits purest form, this album still has enough quality performances
\non it to satisfy both the purist and the novice.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it is the music on
\nBayou Ruler<\/i> that will be the key to its clicking with the
\nlisteners – that is, unless you can speak French. Most of the
\nvocals on the disc are done in French – however, this almost seems
\nto add the mystery of zydeco music for me. It almost makes it seem
\ndark while maintaining a party atmosphere in the playing. A few
\nsongs are performed in English – including “Let Me Know,” which
\nappears in French early on the album as “Laisse-moi
\nconna\u00eere”.<\/p>\n
Riley and crew mix in elements of rock (“Let Me Know”, “All For
\nThe Better”) and blues (“Mama Told Papa”) into their music,
\ncreating a mix that should draw the interest of many a listener.
\n(And although I honestly don’t think I’d know true Cajun music if
\nit came up to me and introduced itself, I can hear traces of it in
\nthe music.) However, am I the only one to think that “Je suis pas
\nun couillon” sounds like music to a game or talk show? The uptempo
\nbeat of almost all the songs and the inclusion of accordion signals
\nthat Riley hasn’t forgotten the roots of zydeco, which he
\ncontinually pays tribute to.<\/p>\n
There are touches of humor contained in
\nBayou Ruler<\/i> as well, such as the constant spoken claims to
\nthe “throne” on “King Zydeco” (I swear, one of the voices sounds
\nlike it was done by Droopy Dog). Even in the French, Riley and crew
\nthrow enough humor in to balance some of the more dark lyrics.
\nSample lyric from the translation of “J’ai \u00e9t\u00e9-z-au
\nbal”: “There are some who like brunettes \/ And others who like
\nblondes. \/ I’m not like that. \/ I like both.” (Can I get an “Amen”
\nhere?)<\/p>\n
So it sounds like everything on
\nBayou Ruler<\/i> is great? Well, not so fast there. Besides
\nallowing yourself enough time with the disc to develop an
\nappreciation for this genre, the album itself takes some time to
\nreally discover the nuances of. You really won’t begin to develop a
\ntrue appreciation for the music contained herein with one listen –
\nand I doubt many people will have the time or patience to really
\ntrying to crawl under this album’s skin.<\/p>\n
The truth is, zydeco isn’t the easiest form of music to develop
\nan appreciation for. (I think the hardest is opera – and, frankly,
\nI can’t stand opera.) Riley and the Mamou Playboys do an admirable
\neffort in trying to win over a new crowd with
\nBayou Ruler<\/i>, and it is worth checking out if you’re just
\ncurious about the genre. But if you’re a diehard zydeco fan, you
\nmight not warm up to the merging of styles and cultures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7467],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39131","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-steve-riley-and-the-mamou-playboys","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39131"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}