Customer Reviews

Cajun Legend - Best of

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The very first Cajun album I bought growing up in Southwestern Louisiana was Nathan Abshire's "The Good Times Are Killing Me" on Swallow. My life was never the same. This disc collects the titles on that LP along with some other sides cut for Swallow. Nathan crossed musical boundaries and there are two standout examples of his ability to fuse styles on this disc--check out his rocking version of Joe South's "The Games People Play" and a weeping track of Hank Snow's "I Don't Hurt Anymore." The Balfa Brothers are backing Nathan up here and the whole album has an easy flow revealing musical relationships forged in Louisiana's dancehalls. Great renditions of Cajun classics are here, I have never been able to purge the burning version of "Choupique Two Step" from my mind. If you can only own one Abshire album, this would be it. But who can own only one Nathan Abshire recording.

As far as I can remember, I can vividly recall seeing those blue Swallow records spinning on the turntable and hearing the words, "Heyyyyyyyy Negreeeeeeeeessee!" being shouted out by the singer. This isn't meant to be a slight towards African-American women. This is the chorus to one of the coooolest cajun songs ever, Pine Grove Blues. Top that with first class accordion playing backed up with the Balfa Brothers and you have a milestone hit on your hands.

Nathan Abshire is known as "Mr. Accordion" and he earned that name through 50+ years of playing music.

This CD is THE one if you want to hear Nathan. It contains the Swallow sides and while not as raw as the Khoury's and not as smoothed out as the La Lousianna sides, this fits right in the middle. Just enough to be funky, happy, and sad all in one album. This is an essential CD if you want to hear Nathan at his best.

If you're looking for the Mardi Gras song that starts out with the stomping and the horses clopping, that's on the Fais Do Do cd, Nathan Abshire and his Pine Grove Boys. That's the raw stuff, unpolished cajun music at it's best.

I grew up listening to this music and this man is loved by young and old alike! Awesome album, anyone that is a Cajun music enthusiast should have this in their collection.

This is one of the most beautiful recordings that I own, or that I have ever heard.
Its naturalness and spontaneous beauty is transcendent. There is a not a false note,
or a song on this recording that is less than inspiring. I listen to it often and am
always impressed by its purity of expression, and the perfection of the playing as an
expression of the Cajun musical genre. There are very few recordings which can said
to be perfect, and this is one. It is a masterpiece.

Well, it is about time that I started to review some of the work of the good old boys and girls from the bayous down in Cajun country. Places like Lafayette and Lake Charles evoke memories of time and place in Cajun musical history. You know at the edges of the places where the likes of Hank Williams and Jerry Lee Lewis learned their crafts. And places where all kinds of mixes of music and races blended to form unique sounds all their own. Accordions, washboards, fiddles, guitars and what ever came to hand on those whiskey-drenched Saturday nights.

And on those nights come names like Clifton Chenier and Booboo Chavis that form the black influenced strand of the music. The Hackberry Ramblers and the likes of Waylon Thibodeaux form another, the good old white boys. French Acadian exiles, English "swamp foxes" of undetermined origin, black escaped slaves, "poor white trash"- it is all there mixed in one form or another. For the most part there were no serious conscious attempts to mix the strands but how could the intermixing influences be avoided in that small isolated area of southwest Louisiana. And all under the umbrella of what I call the "French blues". Get your dancing slippers on.

If you, like me, need to have your Cajun music with accordion then your first stop is to this band under review, Nathan Abshire and his Pine Grove Boys. For pure Saturday night party time down in Cajun country the band with Abshire leading the way with his accordion can't be beat. Listen up to "Pine Grove Blues" "Musician's Life", "Sur le Courtableu", "Belisaire Waltz", "French Blues" and "Valse de Bayou Teche". Nice.

There are only a handful of legendary Cajun artist in this unique brand of music,The Balfa Brothers,Iry LeJeune,Amede Ardoin,The Breaux Family,Austin Pitre,and this extraordinaire singer/accordionist,Nathan Abshire,who inspite of these recordings never made a living of his music,and remained a blue collar worker for the rest of his life. This twenty song "best of" recording is compiled from Nathan Abshire's first two albums on the Swallow label - "Pine Groove Blues","The Good Times Are Killing Me". Abshire is backed by the phenomenal Balfa brothers adding that extra Cajun fire to this mostly up-tempo repetoire, featuring great instrumentals,"Fee Fee Poncho","Shamrock", and "French Blues", other notable songs: Abshire's signature,"Pine Grove Blues","Games People Play",and Hank Snow's,"I Don't Hurt Anymore". This is the real deal traditional Cajun sessions with all French lyrics,extremely powerful - though not the same impact of Iry LeJeune or The Balfa Brothers. Give Nathan a spin,it's a helluva good time,the audio is excellent.