Best Kept Secret
The rule of the Gulf Coast's tough zydeco circuit is get groovin' or get gone. Right now, young Chris Ardoin has become its most popular artist. Like the lateBeau Jocque, Ardoin has developed a knack for infusing traditional swamp music with the hot spirit of rock & soul. Everything on this album slams the dance floor, from his bare-bones delivery of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" to his own beautiful spiritual, "Storm Don't Last Long." It helps that he sings with the rawboned honesty and determination of a Stax veteran, merging the sound of Memphis with his Louisiana muse. But it's Ardoin's skill as a bandleader that's made him a star. Even numbers with down-home roots like "What's in the Bayou" stomp hard grooves--the bass and drums putting bedrock under Ardoin's melodies and quick-witted improvisations on diatonic and triple-key accordion. Ardoin, unlike Beau Jocque, never squeezes the swing out of the music's heart, no matter how hard his group drives it. Now Chris's granddaddy,Bois Sec, who helped invent this style of music, has another innovator in his family. And maybe, just maybe, zydeco has a new king in the making.--Ted Drozdowski