One reason that this Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie album is better than the last Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie album, 1996’s That’s What I’m Talkin’ About!, is that this time French Rockin’ Boogie really rocks and boogies instead of merely going through the motions. When Delafose urges them to “Work it now!” on “Bernadette,” for instance, they really work it (especially the rubboardist Steve Nash), and when he urges them to “Whip it now!” on “Bayou Pon Pon,” they really whip it!

Another reason is that this time, as the title suggests (The Lost Song in English), Delafose is following his French-Creole roots deeper than ever into their musical soil, uncovering long-neglected nooks and crannies along the way. “Bernadette” and “Quo faire/Jolie Bassette” come by way of his late father John, “Bayou Pon Pon” by way of Iry LeJeune, and others by way of Amede Ardoin, the Balfa Brothers, Lawrence Walker, and Bois Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot. And with Scott Billington’s lean production emphasizing the percussive aspect of Joseph Chavis’s acoustic guitar and with Steve Riley’s, Christine Balfa’s, and Dirk Powell’s understated contributions putting the French in the boogie, Delafose is free to sing and play his accordion with a freedom and warmth that’s two-thirds respect for his forebears and one-third the enthusiasm of youth.

What makes this album more than an journey into a narrow corner of the past is Delafose’s refreshingly eccentric idea of the culture at large. The swaying, swamp-poppy “Une autre soir ennuyante (Another Night Without You)” comes courtesy of Neil Sedaka, the shuffling, Swan-poppy “I Want It All” courtesy of Billy Swan. Most revealing is Delafose’s version of “Save the Last Dance for Me.” Whereas everyone from the Drifters to the DiFranco Family has performed it as if the object of the singer’s affections really will go home with him, Delafose — by slowing the tempo and singing a lower harmony in the chorus — reveals what the singer can’t bring himself to admit: if she’s dancing with other guys all night, there’s no way she’ll go home with him! At least not voluntarily. And somehow Delafose-the-Finder-of-Lost-Songs doesn’t seem like the coercive type.