Chanson Perdue
With a significant caveat, you could easily say Geno Delafose is a young, almost brashly traditional musician pushing the envelope on zydeco. The caveat is this: Where zydeco has become far more R&B-inflected;, Delafose takes the music back to its traditional roots, the common ground shared between zydeco and Cajun styles. "La Chanson Perdue" is Delafose's third Rounder CD and again shines with his smooth, high-mid range vocals and impeccable sense of how to make his creole French bend to fit the rhythms. His accordion playing is spirited but still in clear cahoots with Steve Nash's rubboard, and especially when the band slips into more Cajun vibes, as on "Tite Monde," you can hear for certain how much rural Louisiana Cajun French has informed Delafose. The guest appearances from fiddler Steve Riley and guitarist Christine Balfa are not to be taken as mere cameos, either, for they help churn the dance energies to a perfect pitch. --Andrew Bartlett