Word: landreth
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Cajun musicians are a colorful, immensely talented lot whose fame is just beginning to reach beyond the bayous and prairies of backcountry Louisiana. Among them are the scholarly accordionist Mark Savoy; guitar virtuoso Sonny Landreth; Michael Doucet, the leader of the fiery Cajun band Beausoleil; and Zydeco players like Keith Frank, Geno Delafose and Terrance Simien, whose dynamic marriage of white Cajun and black Delta blues offers a thrilling alternative to rap and processed...
Major record labels are starting to take notice. Musicians like Landreth, Wayne Toups and Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural have been marketed beyond the "roots music" category, and Cajun-Zydeco festivals and clubs have sprung up on both coasts. The Cajun-Zydeco sound has influenced mainstream artists as well. Paul Simon's homage to Zydeco and its late "king,'' Clifton Chenier, That Was Your Mother, was one of the highlights of his multimillion-selling Graceland album. Country chanteuse Mary Chapin Carpenter won a Grammy in 1992 for Down at the Twist and Shout, her foot-stompin' tribute to Cajun music in general...
...best synthesist of them all, however, is Landreth, 43, a long-haired, laid-back bottleneck ace whose virtuosity evokes comparisons with Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. A long-time sideman for such musicians as John Hiatt and John Mayall, the Mississippi-born, Lafayette-bred Landreth also played with Chenier in his prime. His first major-label solo album, 1992's Outward Bound, displayed a brilliant command of styles, including Chet Atkins-style flat picking, Delta blues and slide guitar. His most recent album, South of I-10 (referring to the interstate that bisects Louisiana), is even better. Creole Angel...