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The rocking release of this summer for me is the Mamou Playboys’ Voyageurs. With a decidedly rock and blues sound fused with traditional Cajun instruments, Steve Riley and his band (now with Kevin Wimmer on fiddle and vocals) takes us on a new adventure to places we’ve never been. A Wild Journey As World Music News Wire
describes it,
Voyageurs bursts with the full growl and sparkle of the region’s music, honed over decades. With the new member, the band finds the funky, unexpected crossroads of rock, blues, country, zydeco, and just about every other branch of Americana out there. It’s quite a trip, from East Texas wedding travails (beloved Cajun singalong “Brasse Donc, Le Couche-Couche”), to the wild journey of Mardi Gras (Dewey Balfa’s galloping classic “Le danse de Mardi Gras”), to saying a playful good riddance to your hometown (“Au Revoir Grand Mamou”). “You bring what you need with you and you keep pushing forward,” explains Riley, describing the band’s journey and the Cajun experience.
“A lot of the songs on the record are about travels.There is all this imagery that’s really striking, all the things you had to go though to leave your home and take your music and your message around the world.” Another Grammy? Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys began over twenty five years ago with a reputation for excellence. Their stunningly clean and cohesive performance of Cajun French music from the backwaters of Southwest Louisiana propelled them into the world music limelight early on, and their third release, Trace of Time, garnered them a Grammy
nomination. They received another Grammy nomination in 2004 for Bon Reve, in 2009 for Live at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and again in 2011 for Grand Isle. I sense another Grammy nomination in 2015 for Voyageurs. Leaving Grand Mamou Voyageurs
treads a fine line between gleeful nostalgia and thoughtful innovation, playing with favorites by Cajun masters like Dennis McGee and Canray Fontenot. The band powers through a traditional, none-too-subtle jingle meant to spread the word about where to get liquor (“Allons Boire un Coup”), though they turned the double-fiddle tune into a syncopated wink at second line. Riley turns convention on its head with the opening track, “Au Revoir Grand Mamou.” “There are a bunch of songs about coming back to Mamou,” smiles Riley, “and I thought it was time to try something different.” The Mamou Playboys’ strong connections to other Louisiana traditions emerge naturally from the band’s deep approach to
the material. “Boozoo’s Blues” by the zydeco icon Boozoo Chavis fits seamlessly into the Playboys’ sound revealing the close relationship between the francophone Cajun and Creole cultures in Louisiana that has existed for hundreds of years. It’s a gulf Riley and band have bridged before by exploring Creole repertoire, and the band continues this approach with pieces like “Madame Faillelle,” a beauty for accordion and fiddle that Riley and Wimmer take to unexpected places, and “Bernadette,” with the colorful layering of Sam Broussard’s guitar. “Sam’s playing is such an integral part of so many of the album’s songs both rhythmically and texturally,” asserts Riley. Riley’s New Instrument Hits New Notes Travelers can’t be set in their ways, and Riley never rested on his roots. A disciple of Dewey Balfa (as is Wimmer), Riley discovered, as he and Playboys began to work on several tunes Wimmer brought to the table, that his diatonic accordion could not do what they wanted it to do. So they commissioned a new instrument from a maker in France giving the diatonic Cajun accordion the sharps and flats it didn’t have previously. The challenges of Wimmer’s tunes like “Malcolm’s Reel” and “Bottle it Up”
lie deeper, and push the technical issues of Riley’s instrument. “‘Malcolm’s Reel’ and ‘Bottle it Up’ are both played in a unique positions rarely used on the Cajun accordion. Very few songs are played in that position, and none are as complicated as this,” reflects Riley. “It’s a real finger twister. After we play this song, I feel like I’ve been pushed to the limits. But it’s a lot of fun!” A New Voice Kevin Wimmer’s vocals and fiddle give the Mamou Playboys a new voice we haven’t heard
before. His vocals on “Bernadette”, “Madame Faillelle” and “Boozoo’s Blues” have a bit of the Johnny Winter growl, the proper voice for a blues song. Wimmer has been playing fiddle since the tender age of three. He performed frequently with Dewey Balfa and learned the essence of the tradition directly from him. Over the years he has performed most notably all over the globe with Preston Frank and the blues and swing inspired Red Stick Ramblers. Sam Broussard generates a cyclone of guitar. On acoustic, electric and electric slide he carries the music of his ancestry farther than it’s ever gone, and garners the lion’s share of spontaneous applause for his soloing skills. Add to that his
songwriting, arranging and tenor singing and the result is a feast of creativity that can motivate a packed dance hall or a concert audience. Kevin Dugas on drums and Brazos Huval on bass are a Cadillac V-8 of a rhythm section. Known throughout South Louisiana for their “hydromatic” groove, they are the Wyman and Watts, the Muscle Shoals, the Double Trouble of the bayous, and they draw crowds in their own right wherever they perform. So take a little trip with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and enjoy some new song territory you haven’t heard before on Voyageurs.
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