Two Universes

Feufollet started out as a Cajun children's band before maturing into one of the most exciting young bands in the Lafayette region. Led by guitarist and vocalist Chris Stafford, Feufollet have witnessed many line-up changes over the years – the most recent when lead singer and songwriter Anna Laura Edmiston left Louisiana for Montréal. This came after the superb En Couleurs, an album on which a traditional folk sound came powered by a youthful zest and exuberance. It took a while, but Feufollet have found a gifted replacement for Edmiston in Kelli Jones-Savoy, a strong singer-songwriter who in addition is a skilled Appalachian fiddler skills.

The band have subsequently re-modelled their sound: there are fewer songs sung in French, while the arrangements sometimes suggest a desire for rock dynamics, with the band swinging between Cajun and Appalachian flavours and country rock and indie rock. This generally works – while ‘One Foot in My Door’ is somewhat stilted and ‘Early Dawn’ a flawed attempt at stadium rock, tunes like ‘Red Light’, ‘Questions Sans Responses’, ‘Know What's Next’, ‘Hole in My Heart’ and ‘Cette Fois’ are superb, as fresh and exciting as anything I have heard this year.