Music
Preston Frank & The Frank Family Band: Seventy-Five (Soulwood Records)
As time marches on, Preston Frank’s stock continues to rise as an icon of old-time Creole and Zydeco music. The septuagenarian accordionist and vocalist, a fourth-generation musician, is one of the last living links to traditional Creole music, where Creole and Cajun once broke communion together but have diverged in quantum leaps since then. Preston still performs regularly with his family band consisting of progeny Keith, guitar; Jennifer, bass; and Brad, drums; whom he mentored as kids decades ago when assembling the crew.
Has Beans: Cookin (Independent)
What do you get when you take alumni from an assortment of Lafayette bands like Red Beans and Rice Revue, Filé, Lucky Playboys, Hadley J. Castille’s Sharecroppers, Basin Brothers, Coteau, The Traiteurs, HardHeads, Native Sons, Tortue, and countless more? You get the Has Beans, a veteran group with a quarter of a millennium’s worth of experience, give or take a month.
Smoky Greenwell: Blues For Democracy (Greenwell Records)
Give props to Greenwell for his socially conscious “Homeless Christmas” (from Smokin’ Christmas) for an ugly subject that’s easy to look the other way.
Johnny Angel and Helldorado: Long Days, Short Pay (Independent)
When Johnny Angel gets into something, he immerses himself so deeply he might as well be a Luddite off the grid.
Ghalia Volt: Shout Sister Shout (Ruf Records)
Look at Ghalia Volt’s feet; you won’t see any grass growing underneath them since she constantly evolves her musical landscape. Since the Belgian blues guitarist’s arrival in the Crescent City in 2016, she’s already cut several albums.
The Groove Krewe featuring Jonathon Boogie Long: Blues From the Bayou (EP) (Sound Business Services)
To understand Blues from the Bayou featuring Jonathon Boogie Long and its predecessor recording, Run to Daylight featuring Nick Daniels III, is to understand the Groove Krewe. The Groove Krewe is not the typical performing group with the same perennial frontman but a triumvirate of music industry veterans Rex Pearce, Nelson Blanchard, and Dale Murray.
Corey Ledet Zydeco: Médikamen (Nouveau Electric Records)
If you haven’t noticed by now, Corey Ledet is on a mission to burrow deeper and deeper into his Creole culture. On his 2021 album Corey Ledet Zydeco, the zydeco accordionist revealed his passion for Kouri-Vini, a French lexified Creole language and the native tongue of his father CJ and other family members. On that pivotal 2021 recording, Ledet sang five songs in the language and vowed every song would be in Kouri-Vini from then on. With Médikamen, he holds true to that promise. All songs were recorded in his cultural idiom.
Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind: Behind the Veil (Gulf Coast Records)
o matter what lofty accomplishments and accolades Jason Ricci has reaped over his illustrious career, he’s become a product of his Crescent City environs, his home for over a decade. The preeminent harp howler has collaborated and performed with many of the city’s best: Papa Mali, The Iguanas, Eric Johanson, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Anders Osborne, Johnny Sansone, Dean Zucchero, and others. In 2021, Ricci and pianist, organist Joe Krown released one of the year’s hippest albums in City Country City.
Parchman Prison Prayer: Some Mississippi Sunday Morning (Glitterbeat Records)
Since 2009, music producer Ian Brennan has focused on recording underrepresented regions of the world, including prisons, like Malawi’s overcrowded maximum-security Zomba prison. Brennan believes inmates are typically the most silenced and ignored segment anywhere, regardless of country.
Buckwheat Zydeco, Jr. & The Legendary Ils Sont Partis Band: New Beginnings… (Bloodline Music)
It’s almost a curse being the son of a famous musician, especially when yo’ big daddy is the legendary Buckwheat Zydeco, who elevated Zydeco to worldwide prominence. If you don’t measure up, there will be plenty happy to cut you down to size. Sir Reginald Dural understands that but embraced the challenge anyway by assuming the stage name of Buckwheat Zydeco, Jr.
