Steve Riley and
the Mamou Playboys
Dominos
Rounder
visit the Playboy's website
also available on tower records
This is an interesting dual disc from this group, on one side it is a video with some informative and insightful interviews with the band members and clips of them playing a club, and the other side is the latest offering of their music. This group is always embedded in the very rich traditional of Cajun music, yet keeping their fingers to the pulse and grafting new growth to their solid and strong roots. This disc at first listen isn’t quite as exciting as their previous release, “Bon Reve,” however what it lacks in initial spark, it makes up for it on subsequent listening (each definitely has its own identity). This group doesn’t stay so staid in its playing that it ignores the allure of Creole, Zydeco, and Swamp Pop, from the organic environment from which it grows. It is innovative while remaining true to the root of the music and without straying far on side excursions. They have
taken some of the tradition’s masters’ work such as D.L. Menard and Canray Fontenot, and re-energized it with refocused fully energized musicianship. Then there is the stunning original music the group, or individual parts or it, are writing, mainly coming from the pens of Riley, David Greely, and Sam Broussard. The music here has roots back to the forced migration of the Cajun people from Canada in the 1700s, but is firmly entrenched in 21 century with the strongly poetic lyrics that this group creates as the heart of its songs. It is a delicate balancing act that this innovative group strives for, and manages to consistently maintain through out its recording career.