The new album by Steve Riley and the
Mamou Playboys, Bon Rêve, has been
called “the Sgt. Pepper of Cajun
music.” After beginning as a traditional Cajun band 15 years ago, Riley and the
Playboys veered into experimentation. Riley acknowledges that the previous two
albums “jumped all over the place, but this one is pretty cohesive.”
Bon Rêve is supposed to be a return to a
traditional mode. But the Beatlesque diversity of sound on the album reveals
that if you try to go home again after being out in the world, you will bring a
little of the world back with you.
Not
that Cajun music is some pure musical form that cannot be sullied. Far from it.
When pressed to describe the sound of an old-time Cajun dancehall band, Riley
draws a distinction. He cites Walter Mouton and the Scott Playboys as
emblematic of the Breaux Bridge/Lafayette sound, which employs drums and steel
guitar and has more of honky-tonk feel.
He
contrasts that with the more rural sound of the Mamou area, which originally
used no drum kit and an acoustic guitar carried the bass line. The Balfa
Brothers are representative of this sound and it was the starting point for the
Mamou Playboys.
I
ask Riley if some of the Playboys’ music could be called “swamp pop.”
“That
was just ’50s rock ‘n’ roll,” he says, “but then you’d hear an accordion in it
somewhere. There were a lot of regional hits and some national ones, like Phil
Phillips’ ‘Sea of Love’ and Fats Domino’s ‘Walking to New Orleans.’ The Beatles
pretty much ended it.”
But
it lives on in southwest Louisiana; one of the bands that Riley plays with when
he is home is the Little Band of Gold, anchored by legendary swamp-pop drummer
Warren Storm. The soul of versatility, Riley also sits in with a band called
Racines (“Roots”), which includes Balfa Toujours’ Kevin Wimmer and Charivari’s
Mitch Reed, both players from more strictly traditional bands.
Steve
Riley began playing the single-row accordion (standard 10-button Cajun model)
22 years ago at age 13. About a decade ago he started playing the three-row
“Italian” accordion; you can hear it on “Jamais une autre chance” from Bon Rêve.
One
difference between Cajun music and most zydeco is the interplay of the
accordion and the fiddle (the fiddle is often absent in zydeco bands). They may
double up and play the melody together, have the accordion take the rhythm and
the fiddle lead, or reverse it. All of this can happen in the course of one
tune. But, says Riley: “If I’m holding the accordion, I’ll kick off the tune.”
Riley
is also an accomplished fiddler, and he and David Greeley, the co-founder of
the Playboys, play together on several tracks of the new album. Recently, on
National Public Radio some alt-folk know-it-all said that, “the fiddle is not a
rhythm instrument.”
When
you hear the Cajun twin fiddles you will realize how seriously wrong that is.
Cajun fiddlers play two strings at a time, producing both a drone and harmony,
with one player taking the lead and the other rhythm. It is, to put it mildly,
a stirring sound.
Intrigued
by his surname, I asked Riley about his heritage. He said that both his parents
were French speakers. His mother’s people came directly from France and his
father’s from Canada, but “the Irish have been in Louisiana for a long time.
Some of the great Cajun players were Irish, like Dennis McGee.”
Riley
has toured in Ireland and likes Irish traditional music, but doesn’t know the
tunes. I allow that you can only do so much in one life, and he says, “Well, I
still got time.”
The
Playboys have toured in French Canada and his voice brightens when I mention
Quebecois band La Bottine Souriante. “We had a great time playing with those
guys,” he says. Knowing that the Acadians became Cajuns in the 18th century, I
asked if the two bands knew the same traditional tunes.
After
a pause, Riley said softly, “No, we had to teach each other our own tunes.”
Steve
Riley and the Mamou Playboys will appear Saturday, June 5, at Harmony
House, 58 East Main Street, Webster, at 8 p.m. Esther Brill will lead a dance
lesson at 7:15 p.m. Tix: $10. 533-1616
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2004.
