Customer Reviews

Highly Seasoned Cajun Music

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I was listening to the Gumbo Channel on Spinner.com, looked at the Spinner player on my desktop...and saw that the band I was hearing was indeed Coteau! The "Cajun Grateful Dead". This was Michael Doucet's other effort (along with the much better known and longer lasting Beau Soleil).

These guys came together in '76, right when we all began to realize that the Cajun culture was precious, unique, and about to be lost. They played Cajun standards, dressed up with dual electric guitars and full drum kit. I danced myself into exhaustion on many Friday nights when Coteau was playing gigs in Baton Rouge...

But I digress..if you like Cajun music, or any unique, genuine, heartfelt music, then buy this disk! Coteau got back together in '97 to record this, their first and only album. They sound as great and energetic as they did in '77 playing at the LSU union. Coteau brought the young back into the dance halls. Had there been no Coteau, there may well have been no Cajun revival, no Zachary Richard, Wayne Toups,

These guys have something say...you gotta hear it!

I'm not quite sure how to describe this music--"Beausoleil meets the Allman Brothers meets the Grateful Dead" might be a good start--but "highly seasoned Cajun music" seems like a pretty apt description, with the seasoning consisting mainly of lead electric guitar lines and drumming that owes more to rock and roll than the Cajun tradition. The original group Coteau was led by Beausoleil's Michael Doucet in the 1970s; the group on this recording is part original, part reconstruction.

In any event, we can rejoice that an attempt was made to get the group back together to do a modern recording, because Highly Seasoned Cajun Music is every bit as fun as highly seasoned Cajun food, and just as energetic. From the opening instrumental, Arcadian Two-step," through the Grateful-Dead-like "Basic Lady," the high spirits of "Zydeco Gris-gris," the rollicking high spirits and hilarity of "Grand Mamou," the complex and compelling "Mardi-Gras," and the sweet closer, "Sugarfoot Rag," this is a diverse musical collection that explores rock, Cajun, country, Zydeco, swamp-pop, you name it--and makes it all sound like the most fun, danceable, hummable music in the world.

For those who have never heard Cajun music, this CD might serve as an excellent bridge--if you like it, you then might want to try some recordings by groups such Beausoleil, Steve Riley and The Mamou Playboys, Filé, and the Mamou Prairie Band. But be careful--you might get hooked!