Album Notes

NEW! See and hear some of the great performers of this album on a brand new DVD untitled DEDANS LE SUD DE LA LOUISIANE. Shot in Louisiana in 1972, this film has been recently restored and is available at Film Baby, CD Baby's sister company. Just click on Film Baby at the bottom of this page.

Review published in "Flagpole", Athens, GA and written by Jim Winders, History Professor at Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.

Various Artists
Les Haricots sont pas sales: Legendary Masters of Cajun and Creole Music
Cinq Planetes

This record is simply the finest collection of traditional Cajun and Creole music you will ever hear and, if you care about the music once derided as "chanky-chank," you will bend heaven and earth to get this record. The title, Les Haricot sont pas sale means "the snap beans aren't salty;" the term "zydeco" derives from an approximation of the way the first two words sound in French. The 27 tracks within feature some of the greatest legends of Louisiana music: Nathan Abshire, The Balfa Brothers, Dennis McGee, Canray Fontenot, and Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin, among others. Most are now dead, and these recordings took place in the early 1970s, just in time to preserve the work of several of them. This was also a time when the music was thought to be in danger of disappearing altogether, a threat much on the mind of Jean-Pierre Bruneau, the producer who ventured into the Bayou country to put these sessions together.
The cover photograph features Bee Fontenot, a gruff-voiced button accordion player who died in 1973. You can't hear him anywhere else, and he is simply great. One of the high points in the album is his performance of "La porte de la prison." You also get to hear a bit of conversation between him and Dewey Balfa about the song. It's immediately followed by a similarly-themed tune, "Les barres de la prison" by Canray Fontenot. Fiddle great Dennis McGee performs two fine numbers, and there are three great ones by Nathan Abshire. And the Balfas are hard to beat.
All of the musicians seemed to give Bruneau their best, and it doesn't let up for almost 80 minutes. The exquisite packaging, notes, and photography almost make up for the way you miss those old great vinyl album covers. This is the one Cajun CD to get if you just want one.


Review published in "Cajun Times Online!" January 1998 and written by John Layton:

This CD features a mixture of classic Cajun and Creole Music recorded live in Basile and Mamou in the early seventies. The list of legendary musicians playing in the informal sessions reads like a who's who of Cajun music. There are ten or so tracks from The Balfa Brothers and Nathan Abshire and other tracks from Shirley and Alphee Bergeron, Canray Fontenot, Alphonse Ardoin, Dennis McGee and Sady Courville. Some of the best music on the record comme from Canray's cousins, the Creole accordionists, Freeman and Bee Fontenot.