30 Years Live!

If Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys are a new band to you, then you probably haven't listened to much, if any, Cajun music in the last few decades. From the band's formation in 1988 up through the present day, Riley has championed a distinctly tight, contemporary style of music that nevertheless remains firmly rooted in rural south-west Louisiana, which in turn owes its peculiar cultural proclivities to French-speaking Acadians who settled the area in the late 18th century. Recorded in 2018 at Vermilionville in Lafayette, Louisiana, 30 Years Live! captures Riley and his quintessential Cajun troupe, joined by special guests, in splendidly comprehensive fashion.

Across 15 tracks, familiar favourites, such as ‘La Toussaint’, ‘Pointe Aux Chênes’ and the jam-friendly ‘Eyeball at the Bottom of the Well' share the stage with new material. The latter includes ‘Freetown’, recounting the tale of a former plantation, now a historic neighbourhood district in Lafayette, which became a safe haven for freed slaves after the Civil War. For this special live recording session, Riley & the Mamou Playboys were joined by founding member and master fiddler David Greely, who in 2011 was compelled to leave the band to save his rapidly deteriorating hearing after too many years of playing in loud halls and clubs.