Despite the personnel changes over its eight-year existence, the Lafayette Rhythm Devils still manage to find new grooves to mount its formidable dancehall attack. As evidenced on its first disc in five years, credit newest member Blake Miller for part of the spark. Besides his loose, innovative attitude in the studio, the talented accordionist never lacked for that creative lick that only helped fuel the Devils’ fire. Miller aside, it’s still a veteran band that cruises like a well-oiled machine. Fiddler Chris Segura burns many an impressive solo with deep, gorgeous tones while Yvette Landry anchors the low frequencies with her fat, propulsive bass lines. The Devils’ sonic demeanor still revolves around guitarist Randy Vidrine, one of the most distinct vocalists in Cajun music. His pipes are not the weepy, plaintive variety of generations ago, nor are they the oft-heard pleasant-sounding, modern type. Instead, there’s a certain swagger about Vidrine’s high crooning, an uncanny ability to stretch notes to their fullest and crescendo them with power.

The song selection is also very much Vidrine with tenderly rendered selections from Shirley Bergeron and Adam Hebert as well as ripping songs from past bands Charivari and Mouton Noir. New originals would have been nice, but with all the covers that proliferate in Cajun music, it only makes sense to reprise your own material, especially when it holds up well against the test of time. Yet, nothing is more touching than the story behind “John Stoute’s Medley,” an inspired pair of Dennis McGee fiddle tunes that were favorites of Stoute, an avid fan stricken with cancer. Before any of this was officially a project, the band recorded the medley and presented it to Stoute days before he passed, hence giving credence to the notion that sometimes Devils can be angels.