As promised, Live from Breaux Bridge Pt. 2 (Live from Breaux Bridge was released in March, 2009) is the second installment of live recordings by Cajun supergroup High Performance. If you’re reading this review for advice on which volume to purchase first, forget it – making such a recommendation is practically impossible. This one continues where Pt.1 left off: another throttling, blood-pumping foray into the musical territory where ’60s dancehall Cajun and honky-tonk country party together. Except that here, the sextet that includes Steve Riley and screaming steel ace Richard Comeaux are warmed up and running hotter than ever.

Comeaux plays a slamming ride on Aldus Roger’s adaptation of “Allons a Lafayette,” christened here as “High Performance Lafayette Two Step’” “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down,”―possibly the best non-Hag rendition yet of the Merle Haggard classic,―features these pounding notes in the middle that are like adding gas to an already blazing fire. Girls scream on “Hick’s Wagon Wheel Special” as if they were falling out of a roller coaster. And then there’s Jimmy Bearb, a sturdy vocalist who almost falls into the contemporary country camp except, to his credit, he’s grittier and not generic enough. He pulls off the Belton Richard tunes so well that it wouldn’t be surprising if the silverhaired, former heartthrob never went back into retirement again.