Lafayette Marquis

This long awaited second recording (10 years) from this Lafayette LA native stretches past all limits of any of the boundaries of a genre it happens to touch upon. His fuzzed out guitar explodes the riffs that have been established and takes one to the outer boundaries of a Pink Floydesque space without leave the rhythms and beats of this earth. He is combining boogie riffs, with Cajun/Zydeco instrumentation and feel, augmented at times by Latin rhythms, singer/songwriter sensibilities and his unconventional take on Blues and R&B. He toured early in his life (only in his mid-30s now) with the likes of Stanley Dural, better known as "Buckwheat Zydeco," and Bo Diddley (feel through all his material the prominence of beat) and now plays now with his own band as well as Little Band of Gold, the Steve Riley, Dickie Landry, and Warren Storm led swamp super group. On this recording he makes use of the musicians from his area and abroad. Stanton Moore does a drum loop, Doyle Bramhall II adds some slide guitar and vocals, Lil' Queenie some backing vocals, Jon Cleary piano, D'Jalma Garnier, puts in some fiddle, and the late Jack Nitzsche produced "Stealin' All Day."

This disc defines genre but at the same time encompasses many of those mentioned. It is a strongly heartfelt disc that has all the steamy mistiness of the bayou swamps that make up southwestern Louisiana and is an adventure that should not be missed. And let's hope the next disc is quicker in coming than this one was.

Tracks

Edited by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)