Boue, Boucane, et Bouteilles

The good times are rolling with beaucoup Cajun-Creole chemistry on Boue, Boucane, et Bouteilles (Mud, Smoke and Bottles), the debut album by Lafayette-based Jourdan Thibodeaux et Les Rodailleurs. The album's dozen original songs blend elements of juke-joint blues, psych-rock and other exotic influences with the more familiar ingredients found in swamp-boogie romps, traditional two-stepping ballads and gracefully swinging waltzes. All of the songs are sung entirely in Cajun French by Thibodeaux, a fiddler with a magnificently gnarly voice. Grammy award-winning fiddler Joel Savoy is the most prominently subversive member of the crew, contributing a nail-scraping undercarriage to ‘Je t'Attendrai,’ a trippy melodic milieu to ‘Blues Reconnaissant’ and a tremolo-laden framework for the funky-but-downtempo ‘Si Je Reviens Pas’. Cedric Watson pulls out all the stops on his accordion on ‘Homme Brisé’ and ‘Mes Tits Cochons’, the latter being a foot-stomping tribute to Thibodeaux's beloved hogs, which he raises on his Louisiana farm. Bassist Alan Lafleur and drummer Jay Miller blaze a steady trail through the bayou, regardless of how far out things get. The result is a distinctly progressive, thoroughly refreshing approach to the Acadian repertoire.