breaking barriers creates energy

Lost Bayou Ramblers

Kalenda

Rice Pump

The Lost Bayou Ramblers have always pushed the limits of Cajun Music , however on this disc, “Kalenda,” they take things to new levels in many ways and the results are well worth the listen.  These six musicians and their four special guests take this to new and unprecedented levels of extending these boundaries further and further, yet still being grounded in the Cajun Music traditions.  One of the first things to realize is that Louisiana and New Orleans are both very porous, and by that I mean they are built on a solid foundation that is over-layered with a loose soil that is not compacted and thus readily accepts everything into it, mixes it all around so that formerly impervious edges are blurred and hard and fast demarcations become more tranquilly accepting of foreign matter.   Thus what was once solid has become tasty like a well mixed cookie batter or better, a jambalaya of tasty ingredients.

With the approaching of the time for a new disc they decided not to over think things, but rather to make it an extension of their live shows.  They like the natural push of the music and just extend it into new territory, the studio.  The grounding bass rhythms reflecting the accordion/fiddle interplay and rhythms. Letting the Kalenda legacy become a reflection of the Cultural Diversity of the land and the music of the area.  It is huge and leads into all kinds of different areas.

The most common meaning  for Kalenda is a courting dance but looking it up we found this

Kalenda:

A. A Haitian stick fight

B. A forbidden dance that slaves did in Congo Square in New Orleans

C. A Cajun girl who, in song, danced close “to make the old ladies mad”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00vyVY8Zfrg

The band is comprised of brothers Andre (Accordion and Lapsteel) and Louis Michot (Fiddle, T-Fer, Floor Tom), Eric Heigle (Drums and T-Fer), Korey Richey (Bass, MPC, Guitar, Synth Bass, T-Fer), Jonny Campos Guitar (Pedal Steel, Tape Manipulation), Bryan Webe ( Bass on “La Valse de Balfa/The Bathtub”, Synth Bass on “Si J’aurais Des Ailes”), and Kirkland Middleton (drums on “La Valse de Balfa/The Bathtub” and T-Fer on “Sabine Turnaround” and “Aloha Golden Meadow”).  The special guests are Spider Stacy, Leyla McCalla, Jimmy Horn and Dickie Landry.

This is one of those special discs that just goes into the player and then leaps out of the speakers at you, engulfing you in a sound that is bigger than the room you are in.  It is for the most part written by the Michot brothers, and Produced by Korey Richey, Co-Produced by Eric Heigle, and engineered by those last two persons.  Whether you are a long time Cajun/Creole music fan or new to the genre this is one of those special discs that you will keep coming back to (the player in my truck did not want to give up the disc without a fight and I had to pull over and battle the changer in order to change the disc).

by bob gottlieb