When you’re an octogenarian with an illustrious, seven-decade career as a country-charting artist and a regional Cajun icon, you can pretty much do whatever you want at the twilight of your career. That’s what’s on tap here as Louisiana native son Jimmy C. Newman tackles swamp pop, having been inspired by Vin Bruce’s recent swamp pop sides produced by Wade Bernard. The Bayou Lafourche native is the common denominator here, producing and arranging these sessions as well as contributing dreamy guitar riffs and anchoring bass lines. Since a lot of early swamp pop borrowed from country (and other genres), it’s an easy transition from mid-‘50s country. Just replace the fiddles and steel guitar with perky horns. Newman’s high tenor voice is
still reasonably intact, singing his stardom launching “Cry Cry Darling” and his biggest pop hit, “A Falling Star” in the original keys. But don’t think of this as solely a trip down Memory Lane. Several fresh originals are unveiled here, including the rollicking “Let the Meatball Roll” and “Brenda Mae,” which has a polyphonic Dixieland flourish on the outro. Fun stuff and a fine addendum to an established legacy.
