The Festival International de Louisiane–the annual, free, week-long April event that transforms Downtown Lafayette into a multi-cultural, multi-sensual orgy–has announced that the main act for Festival ’99 will be none other than the Angelique Kidjo, the West African-born global-pop heroine whose latest album, Oremi (Island), has just been nominated for a "Best World Music" Grammy.

By landing Kidjo, the Festival guarantees not only that the noises emanating from its main stage will be joyful but also that its critics will think twice before referring to its free-admission policy as the least the Festival can do given the zero-name-recognition of many of its acts (and the steep prices charged by the booth-inhabiting local food vendors).

Oremi (translation: "My Friend"), which was originally released last summer, was recently re-released with "We Are One"–Kidjo’s contribution to the soundtrack of The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride–tacked on.

As this column hasn’t yet heard the ominously titled Disney addendum, it can’t say whether or not the new Oremi is better than the old Oremi. Of this much, however, the discriminating Afro-Euro-pop listener may be sure: Oremi is more deserving of the World-Music Grammy than at least two of its competitors–King Sunny Ade’s creditable but by-no-means-definitive Odu (translation: not "My Friend") and Robbie Robertson’s Contact from the Underworld of Redboy, an album that violates two of pop music’s most inviolable laws: never trust an album with a title that’s three times as long as the name of the performer or group unfortunate enough to have recorded it, and never trust an album credited exclusively to Robbie Robertson.

King Sunny Ade, by the way, recorded his Grammy-nominated Odu at Steve Nails’s soon-to-be-legendary-if-it’s-not-already Dockside Studios. So, if either Ade or Kidjo walks away with the other-worldly statuette, Acadiana wins out. And if Gilberto Gil or Cesaria Evora wins (for Quanta Live or Miss Perfumado respectively), at least the organizers of the Festival International will know an entire year in advance whom to start wooing in order to maintain their newly established Kidjo standard.

According to Ryan DeJean, the entrepreneurial teen who runs the Frigg A-Go-Go Fan Club when not studying for the ACT and applying to Harvard, the Friggsters’ latest attempt at slaking the insatiable thirst will be Frigg A-Go-Go Stinks Live, an album of raw-powered live performances taped at such notorious Hub City venues as Shanahan’s, Uncle Buck Nutty’s Skate Ranch ("Home of the World Famous Asbestos Stalactites!"), and USL’s Bayou Bijou theater. Throw in a cut or two from Austin’s Voodoo Lounge and the White Trash Association’s 1998 White Trash Bash, and you have the most representative Frigg A-Go-Go release to date.

According to DeJean, who also produced the album, the album will include metallic-K.O. versions of Frigg favorites ("Burn in Hell Blues," "Jenny Walker," "Piledriver," "The Sinking Ship") and a select cover or two (the Go-Go’s "We Got the Beat").

Whether Stinks Live holds the undisputed Best Frigg Album Of All Time title for very long remains to be seen. The group, fresh on the rebound from their now null-and-void contract with the now-defunct 360 Twist! Records, has just done a deal with the Sub-Pop-distributed Scooch Pooch Records, a deal that will no doubt guarantee a steady stream of high-quality Frigg releases well into the 21st century.

And, if that isn’t good Frigg news enough, Ronnie Ramada–the Friggs’ irrepressible frontman–has recently assumed managerial responsibilities at the very Lafayette Subway from which he was once fired for holding after-hours Frigg rehearsals in the kitchen. Please e-mail all condiment jokes and requests for Stinks Live to [email protected].

Before raving about I Believe in My Soul, the excellent new Gulf Coast Records album by Willie Tee (nee Trahan), this column should say a few words about some other local releases.

Pott Folse: Pott Folse’s Bayou Cajun Music (Swallow) Is Folse’s version of "Big Mamou" better than, oh, the Manuel Family’s, for instance? Depends on what you mean by "better," a term that in the case of the oft-covered "Big Mamou" has developed considerable elasticity. Better indicators of this album’s strengths are "Forty-Nine Women" and "Christmas with Broken Pipes," songs that reveal not only Folse’s sense of humor but also the extent to which his humility makes him an above-average interpreter of other people’s material. And although "Achy Breaky Heart" is a mistake, the Folse original "I Love Beans and Rice" makes amends. The verdict? Easily the best album ever by a man named Pott.

River Babys: River Babys (no label) This local garage-rock power trio has more garage than power, and the presence of their not-bad version of "When the Levee Breaks" does tend to emphasize the shortcomings of the originals–especially the original in which Michael Juan Nunez complains about women who talk back to him. But both Nunez’s voice and his guitars sound as if they have a future. Sometimes they even sound as if they have a present. (www.geocities.com/~riverbabys.) Led Kaapana and Friends: Waltz of the Wind (Dancing Cat) In which Kaapana, a Hawaiian slack-key-guitarist par excellence, demonstrates taste, chops, roots and flexibility with the likes of Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas. Acadiana residents, however, will no doubt take particular interest in "Les Flammes d’Enfer" and "Ku u Ipo Onaona," the former of which Kaapana performs like a Bo Diddley shuffle and both of which he performs with Sonny Landreth and his amazing slide guitar. Please e-mail all "getting lei’d" jokes to [email protected].

Manuel Family Cajun Band and Friends: Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler (Swallow) Is the Manuels’ version of "Big Mamou" (they call it "Grand Mamou") better than, oh, Pott Folse’s? Well, theirs has more kick. In fact, judging from their playing (which beats their singing, by the way) they sound as if they love beans and rice more than Folse does. But because many of the players and singers here also sang and played on last summer’s Moe-D album, the real comparison is with Moe-D. Well, the Moe-D album was the best Cajun album of ’98, so although Abe Manuel, Jr.’s accordion work here on "Poor Hobo" is very impressive and "Crazy Thumb Itch" is a very impressive instrumental, Moe-D’s versions of "The Back Door," "Jambalaya," and "When I Was Poor" win out. And speaking of beans and rice, would someone please tell this column what "The Ka-Ka Song" is about?

Apparently last month’s "Backtalk" interview took more out of Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural, Jr., than we thought. The zydeco superstar entered the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville on January 19 to undergo surgery to remove lesions on his vocal cords. According to Dural’s doctor, Dr. Robert Ossoff, Dural has been suffering from severe leukoplakia. The vocal therapy that Dural began after his operation is expected to have him performing again before summer.

The good news on the Dural front is that Trouble, the 1996 Buckwheat Zydeco album to which Dural recently obtained the rights, came out on schedule (January 12) on Dural’s own Tomorrow Recordings. The bad news is that the album’s title continues to aptly describe Dural’s life. Maybe he should title his next one L’chaim. Send your cards and letters c/o Buckwheat Zydeco Enterprises, P.O. Box 561, Rhinebeck NY, 12572.

Before raving about I Believe in My Soul, the excellent new Gulf Coast Records album by Willie Tee (nee Trahan), this column should say a few words about some notable upcoming local releases.

The Gin and Tonics–Lafayette’s answer to Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps–have just released their self-titled debut CD. Recorded at La Louisianne studios in Lafayette, produced by the group and the Bluerunners’ Benny Hasha, and mastered by Tony Daigle, the 10-song disc features Chris Breaux (guitar, vocals), Steve Usner (drums), and Ricky Rees (upright bass) doing their part to keep rockabilly happenin’. Rees, in fact, has promised to get this column a review copy really soon, after which time more praise will no doubt be forthcoming.

On March 2, Rounder will release Who Stole My Monkey?, the latest longplayer from the justifiably legendary Boozoo Chavis and his Magic Sounds. Rounder’s PR department assures this column that the Scott Billington-produced album will contain "high-powered two-steps, blues and a waltz." To be honest, though, what this column really can’t wait to hear are Boozoo’s X-rated versions of "Deacon Jones" and "Uncle Bud." At last, zydeco with a parental-warning sticker!

Rounder will also release the latest album by Dirk Powell in March. In his first non-Balfa Toujours project in some time, Powell joins up with the slide guitarist and banjoist Tony Furtado to deliver what Rounder describes as a "tag-team tour guide of the roots-music world." "Together they enter on a new journey which takes them from lush waltzes to Delta Blues, from Irish reels to bayou two-steps." Rounder has not, however, revealed the album’s title. This column is betting on Eponymous.

Well, it looks as if the rave-up about I Believe in My Soul, the excellent new Gulf Coast Records album by Willie Tee (nee Trahan) will have to wait until next month. Those who’d prefer not to wait should log onto http://members.aol.com/wtrahan103/index.html and follow the links. Happy surfing.