When Tina Pilione turned a collection of old tapes into Maurice Barzas with the Original Mamou Playboys: Live at Snook’s, Volume I and II, she confessed its production values were not stellar. Some of the tapes Pilione made on her Sony Walkman during the 1980s, others came from recordings by drummer Vorance Barzas in the 1960s. 

After the 1985 passing of Maurice Berzas, the band dissolved. His son Vorance Barzas (who spells the name differently because of Cajun language oppression in the 20th Century) later performed with Dewey Balfa, the fiddle great and Cajun ambassador. With Balfa, Vorance shared the stage with then budding accordionist Steve Riley. When it came time for Riley to start his own band, he took the Mamou Playboys mantle. As long as the new band, which included Vorance’s son Kevin on guitar, continued to honor and respect the music as the originals did, Vorance gave his blessing.

“When I think of Vorance and Kevin, they’re just intense people and they play with a lot of passion,” says Riley. “They instilled that in us.”During the peak of their nearly 40-year career, the Playboys performed seven times a week, gigging three times on Saturdays. In Ville Platte, the band held the Saturday night slot at Snook’s for 35 years. Though the recordings are what you would expect from a Walkman, they reveal why the band was so successful. The set is a laundry list of tightly performed traditional tunes (some still favorites, some forgotten) and songs by Lawrence Walker, the Balfa Brothers and Iry Lejeune. The record provides both a look at their career and Cajun music’s past, performed in its dancehall element.