Customer Reviews

Lafayette Marquis

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The last C.C. album saw him trying to be many things at once, most disapointingly a Cajun-flavored Stevie Ray Vaughn. As anyone who has heard the albums he produced for Cajun visionaries Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys (an incredibly forward-thinking band who would be ranked up there with Radiohead and Steve Earle if their own Cajun roots didn't marginalize them to mainstream listeners), C.C. is something of a maverick, with one foot in Louisiana and one in cyberspace. Here he is in full flight, perverting and distorting classic swamp pop grooves and even some early Cajun-sounding stuff into a funhouse hall of mirrors of roots reinvention. Even the most pedestrian boogie licks are dismantled and reassembled into intriguing new tapestries. Don't miss out on this one...

Just when I'd all but given up on finding new music to like, I heard C.C. Adcock's "Stealin'All Day" on my XM satellite radio. I put his "Lafayette Marquis" CD on my Amazon.com Christmas wish list, but nobody bought it for me.
Then, last week, I heard Adcock interviewed on XMPR's Bob Edwards Show, listened to other tracks on the album and immediately ordered a copy.
I can't stop listening to it - well, maybe long enough to write this, but it's going in the background.
I've always had a weakness for Louisiana-style music - Cajun, Zydeco, creole, you name it. I'm old enough to have bought Dr. John's first album (the voodoo-rock "Gris Gris") when it was new and still listen to it every month or so.
Adcock, who has played with Bo Diddley and Buckwheat Zydeco, is a huge talent and the album is an absolute delight.
In a world of watered-down pop and derivitive rock, Adcock's music is potent, original, delightfully swampy and a helluva lot of fun.
I'd write more, but I want to e-mail some friends about this album.

With his snarling, gritty guitar tones, swampy grooves, and scratchy vocals, C.C. Adcock makes butt-shakin' music that blends rockabilly, old-school Memphis R&B, New Orleans funk, Cajun dancehall tunes, and juke-joint blues. He's young, but no poseur: Having paid dues with Bo Diddley and Buckwheat Zydeco, Adcock knows rootsy textures like the back of his hand. But despite the tremolo guitar and slapped upright bass, this isn't a retro-sounding record. Adcock and his various producers bring a hip sonic edge to the music that keeps the moods fresh and the vibe ominous. Doyle Bramhall joins Adcock on two songs, and together they raise 6-string hell. Boasting richly layered guitars and heaps of attitude, Adcock's music is soulful, somewhat twisted, and deeply satisfying.

This CD smokes. It's got a lewd, hip-shaking boogie-beat, atmosphere thicker than Louisiana fog, production that emphasizes the beat, molasses-thick lyrics that don't aspire to profundity --- yeah, "Lafayette Marquis" is the good times music you've been looking for. The late-night alternative to Bryan Ferry or Barry White. The worthy successor to Dr. John, Z.Z. Top and John Fogarty.

C.C. Adcock hails --- that's the word for guys like this --- from Lafayette, Louisiana. That's Cajun country, west of Baton Rouge. Average rainfall: 61 inches a year. On rainy days in his childhood, little Charlie Adcock learned to play guitar. By 14, he had a band --- Boogie Chillun' --- that he remembers as "a rhythm and blues Menudo." He played with Bo Diddley and toured with Buckwheat Zydeco. Good connections got him a record deal, and a much-praised first CD.

A decade passed, and now we have "Lafayette Marquis." Well, he is a nobleman --- at least in his clothes. He likes custom-made suits and expensive shoes (the reptilian pattern on the CD cover is from his boots). But when he talks about his songs, he's no gent. One song, for him, is "a score to a cock-fighting scene --- it's about a couple of oilfield, renegade, ruffneck podnuhs of mine."

How fun a guy is C.C. Adcock? Listen to him talk about his home town: "On any given night, you can start out in the country with some food, drop in to a Cajun dance hall and watch the old folks glidin' round the floor, then put the top down and jump back into town and rock around to the new sounds of some up-and-coming-cats. Then, you can cross the tracks and bump at a Zydeco disco, have a few Crown & Sevens and -- at the end of the night -- head south to another Parish where they stay open all night, and you can boogie `til daybreak in front of a classic swamp-pop jukebox and still make it home in time for Mass. And that's not even a fairy tale night."

This CD is like the souvenir of such a night. A monster of a car --- an old Mercury with a sleek V-8 under the hood. A VFW hall you almost can't see through the foggy night. Women in cotton dresses, men in jeans. Beer in bottles. And on stage, a powerhouse band, playing tight songs about loose females. A crazy fiddler gives the boogie some Cajun twang. The drum sounds hollow as a barrel. The bass player drives the beat like a steam engine. And above it, C.C. sings lyrics that are family-friendly only because they're too slurred to hear.

Get the party started.

THIS YOUNG MAN IS BAD AZZZ

shades of coco robicheaux, dr john, anders osborne, early dr john etc
some swamp rock for yo'azz
good stuff!

listen and then listen again!

Heard Y'all'd Think She'd Be Good 2 Me on sirius blues 29, and it blues me away!! Went out and bought the CD right then, and haven't been so happy in years. Fabulous, funky, scary guitars, vocals and 'haunt you all night' rhythms add up to the best new sound I have every heard. Be believing it, I am out there buying every bit of music this man every touched!!

And if you never heard C.C.'s first CD, but get into Daniel Lanois, 16 Horsepower, Calexico, Giant Sand, Yo La Tengo, Alejandro Escovedo, and so on, go get it AND don't miss this CD! I loved the first CC Adcock CD a decade ago, but with this new CD, he has honed his production skills as well as his songwriting and guitar work. The best release of the year from a great artist I thought I'd never hear from again!

Impossible to stand still when you listen to this album. Energy, virtuosity, rich musical complexity and depth. A bravura performance!

A CD has not rocked like this in a loooong time. Track 1 "Y'all'd Think She'd Be Good 2 Me" alone is going to force you to move. Nothing here disappoints. Get it now.