Wayne Toups
& Zydecajun
Live 2009
Swallow Records
visit Wayne's website
also available on the
Louisiana Music Factory
This group, Wayne Toups & Zydecajun, is arguably one of the premier examples of the melding of Zydeco and Cajun music playing right now and also one of the best live shows you will see. As good as this disc is, it pales to seeing their show in person because of the visual impact they make; their clothes, their antics on stage, the interplay of group members, and Wayne Toups acrobatics while playing the accordion. However if you are not going to southern Louisiana and they are not playing somewhere near you this disc is about the best substitute you can get.
The disc was recorded at 4 different venues three of them are live, with the majority of the disc recorded at the Crowley Rice Festival (yes rice is a big deal in that neck of the woods) and one track is in a studio. Many times during live
recording the crowd is a distraction but here it isn’t and you can almost hear the band kick to another gear when the crowd starts to go crazy. Toups’ accordion and vocals, as well as the guitar of Tony Ardoin and Marty Broussard on steel guitar (not a common instrument in Cajun or Zydeco music), the keyboards of Don Hayes, power the band, and the beat is held rock solid by Matt Janise on drums and Chevy Foreman on bass. The sound is nicely balanced and the live crowd never intrudes or takes away from the music of the band. A very solid disc that shows the power and variety of this band, there is a good mix of tunes with some slower ones that allow the band to ratchet back the intensity, they even cross over into some Cajun Honky-Tonk.