Jesse Lege, Joel Savoy & The Cajun Country Revival – The Right Combination

Cajun music from the Northwest? Well, yeah. Sorta. Now living in Portland and formed in 2010, the Cajun Country Revival came together during Caleb Klauder’s Country Band’s Northwest tour promoting his album, Western Country. Coincidentally, fiddle sensation Joel Savoy and Cajun music guru Jesse Lege were also in the Northwest and Caleb invited them to sit in on his tour. The group immediately connected blending Savoy and Lege’s rustic roots music with Caleb Klauder’s honky-tonk.

Recorded by Joel Savoy at his studios in Eunice, Louisiana, their debut album, The Right Combination, was basically a magical impromptu recording that features all the trademark sounds of Cajun dancehalls and Honky-Tonk bars — the fiddles, accordion, pedal steel, piercing vocals and some rousing rural fun. But, the driving force behind The Right Combination is Jesse Lege who’s authenticity shines throughout the album. How could it not? The man grew up in a home with no power, speaking only Cajun French and listening to country and honky-tonk music on the family’s old transistor radio. But, Lege isn’t the only notable musician or member with Cajun credentials, however he is the touchstone of a group who mutually respects each other.

The Right Combination is a boisterous and engaging album covering Cajun songs like “Ouvre La Porte,” “S’En Aller Sur L’Courtableu” and “La Valse d’Evangeline”, as well as adding an interesting Cajun flavor to Loretta Lynn’s “Tippy Toeing”, Porter Wagoner’s “The Right Combination”, and the classic blues “Corina” first recorded by Bo Chatmon. The album’s lively arrangements mixing East Texas’ honky-tonk and Southwestern Louisiana’s Cajun flair isn’t “the right combination,” it’s the perfect combination and the perfect way to put a little pep in your step.

Listen to and purchas The Right Combination at Jesse Lege, Joel Savoy &  The Cajun Country Revival’s bandcamp site.

— April D. Wolfe @ Common Folk Music