Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys

July 16, 2008

Cajun Festival

When Cajuns go out on the weekend looking for a band that will recharge their pride and identity, they find it in STEVE RILEY AND THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS.

Steve Riley and David Greely, the founding members of the band, have been working for over sixteen years along with Kevin Dugas on their New Cajun Music.  The knowledge of tradition gained from their mentors, such as Dewey Balfa, Belton Richard, and Walter Mouton, has long been second nature. On their first four albums, one of which (Trace of Time) was a Grammy finalist, they extended the Cajun renaissance into the nineties by exploring obscure reaches of archival territory, bringing gems of forgotten lyrics and melodies back to dance hall, local radio, and the lips of Cajun youth.

All this tradition provided the foundation for some later radical unorthodoxy. The albums Bayou Ruler and Happytown set new standards for alternative Cajun music, as down home dance floors would empty, their fans in shock, then slowly refill as they listened and realized that it was Cajun music after all. Just when Steve and David were ready to relax, Sam Broussard, the soul of folk heresy, joined the group- ready to immerse himself in the music of his forbears, and to question every status quo for miles. More recently they were joined by young bassist Brazos Huval. This collaboration produced Bon Rêve, their latest album, traditional as hell, yet full of innovations that are natural and unforced enough to refresh both worldwide and Cajun audiences, who drink it up like an ice-cold six-pack.

In the down home dance hall the two-step and the waltz rule the night. On festival and concert stages the Mamou Playboys are freer to satisfy their hunger for variety and delve into diverse facets of Cajun melody and lyric. The swagger of the two-step can be balanced with some of the more delicate sounds intended for the hearth or the fields. All the ingredients of Cajun music are bathed in the concert spotlight- ancient ballads, twin fiddle tunes, zydeco, swamp-pop, rich harmonies, venerable new songs, and brand new old songs in a seamless blend of preservation, discovery and invention- and it can all be enjoyed without checking your sense of pitch at the door.

All these flavors included in one STEVE RILEY AND THE MAMOU PLAYBOYS concert silence the skeptics who think it "all sounds the same." This band is from Louisiana's Gulf Coast, south of the American south, and it is brimful of sounds as compelling, diverse and exotic as one evening of music can possibly hold.

Visit Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys online at http://www.mamouplayboys.com/