This is a wildly diverse four CDs of songs from the swampy and bayou dotted area west of New Orleans, Evangeline Country. They were selected by the singers and the producers of these discs from the songs John and Alan Lomax recorded on their trip here long years ago. Upon occasion they left the songs pretty close to what John and Alan Lomax, father and son, recorded when they were in this area west of New Orleans about 1934 to 1937. The Lomax pair spent a fair period of time recording the folk songs of a diverse cross section of the music of the people living over a large area at that time. This is the area that the Cajun people, the French people who were kicked out of Canada settled in, as well as the Creoles who were mostly people who came into the culture from other countries. Creoles did not migrate from a particular native country. The term Creole was first used in the sixteenth century to identify descendants of French, Spanish, or Portuguese settlers living in the West Indies and Latin America; some people of African descent also consider themselves to be Creole. In Louisiana, it identifies populations of French or Spanish descendants that were French speaking. It is far too complex a discussion to got into in depth here.
The Lomaxes went there to dig into the cultures in the area through the musics of the cultures that were there. The idea was both to try and preserve the cultures and to find out the roots of the particular cultures. A difficult task especially when you are an outsider and don’t speak the main language of the area. However this was their life work and they made a valid attempt. This is the taking of a sampling of the Lomax’s work and rerecording the songs with modern artist and modern equipment.
This set is divided into four discs with 6 songs to a disc:
Part 1. Bad Boys and Good Men
Part 2. Love and Death
Part 3. Dancing and Seduction
Part 4. Good Women and Bad Girls
The artists are a wide variety and go from some that have national following such as Michael Doucet, Zachary Richard, and The Band Courtbouillon to those that haven’t achieved fame yet for reasons ranging from they haven’t been around long enough to get exposure, or their music is too regional and they haven’t broken out yet. ( Yes these could have been recorded on 2 discs and been more environmentally sensitive, and yet there is some justification for dividing it this way)
This is a excellent collection and there is something in here for everyone. There is exposure to the incredible scope of the music, the diversity of the music and there are the musicians who though most are unknown outside the area are fantastic. Most of the music is acoustic fiddle, accordion, guitar, and accordion, or some variety there of. It is the music that causes people to congregate and dance about life and its ups and downs. If you are unfamiliar with the music of the area it is a broad reaching and very accomplished introduction. Kudos to Producers Joel Savoy and Joshua Caffery for the job they did on this, and hopefully introducing this music to those that don’t know it.
Various Artists
I Wanna Sing Right: Rediscovering Lomax in the Evangeline Country
Valcour Records
bob gottlieb
