When Corey Ledet sings about going back home on the freewheeling opening track, one has to wonder if this first generation/Clifton Chenier style of zydeco is indeed his home. Out of today’s current crop of players, no one does what Ledet does quite as well or as naturally. With dazzling trills and fingers flying dizzyingly across the keys, he whoops and hollers so exuberantly that it’s obvious he celebrates life through his playing.
On “My Soul,” Ledet sets up a full-bore boogie, only to get a little push from legendary blues guitarist Lil’ Buck Sinegal, who creates a resonating ringing by strumming across the strings. The vocally bouncy “Pick a Bale of Cotton” has to be the most unusual, not to mention the funkiest of the lot—one culled from the canon of Lead Belly, who ties in here nicely since the multi-instrumentalist also played an accordion.
These action-packed tracks set Ledet apart from his contemporaries, but unlike them, he hardly projects himself as the sensitive, serious artist. But if you don’t take his intoxicating throw down dance music seriously, you’ve just missed the cruise of your life.
