The new release by Roussel Maajon is nearly anonymous but thinly veiled as pianist Kyle Roussel and saxophonist and vocalist Clint Maedgen. After a few bars, if one is at all familiar with Maedgen’s distinctive voice and energetic music style, he is easily identified.
Easy enough to dial up on Spotify, Huey “Piano” Smith and the Clowns concludes on an adjacent iTunes playlist as “Sookie, Sookie” begins, somehow seamlessly complementing the previous blast from the past. Equally inane and reminiscent of the unrestrained frivolity of the carefree 1950s, Roussel’s piano solos are as refreshingly light-hearted and fun as Smith’s recordings once were. Roussel Maajon hit a home run on this one, at least for one brief shining moment of madness, sliding comfortably from the exuberance of, what is now for many, a long past youth to Sookie Sookie—a great start for this new album.
The next cut, “I Love You So,” begins with a pulsating horn section, not unlike the novel incarnation of contemporary sound adopted at Preservation Hall as Maedgen’s sassy vocal joins in, belying his deeply planted roots in rock. The horn section not unsurprisingly consists of Maedgen’s Preservation Hall bandmates, Ronnel Johnson (tuba), Brandon Lewis (trumpet) with another rising star from the renowned Andrews family on trombone, Revon.
“It’s Gonna Do What It’s Gonna Do” is an upbeat vocalist driven song. It’s toe tapping, engaging and ultimately compelling. A positive message of unswerving love, it’s “gonna do what it’s gonna do before life is through,” he’ll love his woman every day. And Clint will continue to “Smile Just a Little Bit” throughout, the title of the next track with an almost naively positive message, somehow a welcome anomaly as the reality of an ever-changing world is apparent to all but a very few.
“Rich Man Dreams” features Roussel banging away on the keyboards in a familiar New Orleans style though the melody is anything but, Roussel doubles on both piano and organ to create another toe tapping, extremely engaging composition. Their partnership with upbeat new music backing up imaginatively clever and heart felt lyrics penned by Maedgen has a fresh sound—echoing the optimism and exuberance of youth even though Clint, as the years slip by, has become increasingly aware that time waits for no one.
With a more fatalistic message and eerily pensive musical mood featured in “Carpe Diem,” Maedgen warns “nothing is promised” while keeping your worries at bay but ends the album with the unequivocally upbeat, “Living is a True Celebration”—a composition which says it all as the Maedgen, Roussel tandem looks forward to everything life has to offer. Inviting their lucky listeners to join them on a joyous trip into a future though nothing is guaranteed. Jumping on this joyous roller coaster to the stars seems like an appealing option as who would not want to experience the exhilarating music and philosophically positive perspective shared on this new release?
