Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys – Bayou Ruler

In their ten years together, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys have steadily become more prominent on the Louisiana scene, fueled by a combination of youthful energy, glorious chops and a enthusiastic reverence for the Cajun tradition. They’ve recorded six albums, each steeped in the heritage of Iry LeJuene, the Balfa Brothers and the Hackberry Ramblers, yet with a vitality that was hard to match.

Nothing Riley and his bandmates have done before, however, could have prepared us for their seventh release, Bayou Ruler. The second you hear the down-in-the-swamp guitar chords that start it off, you know this is not a typical Cajun hoedown; throughout, Riley & the Mamou Playboys cut a wide swath through the music of Louisiana.

Producer C.C. Adcock, one of Lafayette’s best guitarists and songwriters, helps to foster the adventurous nature of Bayou Ruler. The echo on Riley’s vocals on the title cut, the use of pedal steel on several tracks, and the blistering saxophone on the bluesy “The Wink” take the Playboys to places they’ve never been before, yet they never seem out of place. Not that they’ve left their Cajun roots totally behind: Tunes from the songbooks of Clifton Chenier (“Mama Told Papa”) and Dewey Balfa (“My True Love”) are rendered with refreshing enthusiasm.

Bayou Ruler stands as a testament to the genius of Riley and his band, able to keep the traditional sound they choose to work with alive while simultaneously bringing it several steps into the future.