Louisiana Saturday Night Revisited

This virtual tour of the dance halls, festivals, and saloons of south-western Louisiana follows Ace’s similar recorded visit to the area two decades ago. But the music is still retro, looking back towards the 1950s and 60s, when white Cajun musicians were trying to build careers by absorbing early rock‘n’roll and black zydeco rhythm and blues. The resultant hybrids are sometimes dubbed ‘swamp pop’ or ‘Zydecajun’, but the justification for such names lies more with the location of the recordings and performances than with any particular musical innovation. In some cases the bands represented here, which still work the area today, have simply borrowed familiar rock or blues hits from the likes of Chuck Berry and Big Jay McNeely. In creating their own songbooks, the musicians have added little more than an occasional accordion to pre-existing forms. There is, however, regional representation in some of the song titles and subject matter, notably on Jamie Bergeron & The Kickin’ Cajuns’ country rocker ‘RCA (Registered Coonass)’ and Michael Hurtt & His Haunted Hearts’ ‘Come Back to Louisiana’, featuring a charmingly arcane echo on voice and guitar. What really belongs to the place is the good-time feeling and the impetus to dance.