CAJUN
Beausoleil Alligator Purse
Yep Roc
ESSENTIAL "Rouler et Tourner"
The beauty of playing traditional music is it never gets old, because it always was, and that's the point. The remarkable thing about Cajun revivalists BeauSoleil is that on "Alligator Purse," the band's 29th album, they're still inviting us to ask what's new. BeauSoleil isn't neo-anything. This ensemble finds freshness not by infusing vintage styles with contemporary sonics but with vibrant, thoughtful fusions. Pardon the obvious analogy, but gumbo is the best way to describe a French language reworking of Bob Dylan's cover of Muddy Waters's "Rollin' and Tumblin' " ("Rouler et Tourner"), thick with fiddles and saucy accordions. A quietly propulsive take on J.J. Cale's "The Problem" leads band leader and singer Michael Doucet into darker-than-usual political territory, while a smart selection of guests color Cajun romps in varietal shades: Natalie Merchant lends an emphatic hand to Julie Miller's "Little Darlin'," Garth Hudson looses his organ all over "I Spent All My Money Loving You," and John Sebastian's harmonica is the quivering trigger that sets waltzing "Valse a BeauSoleil" into a mournful downward spiral. More than three decades in, BeauSoleil plumbs its cultural history in signature fashion. (Out Jan. 20) JOAN ANDERMAN
