Although there are a number of collections that serve as worthy introductions to zydeco, none have ever presented the down-home side and its Creole cultural legacy as comprehensively as this. Music From the Zydeco Kingdom is the companion disc to Michael Tisserand’s laudable The Kingdom of Zydeco. Like that intriguing set of pages, the selection of tracks is well thought out and meticulously executed.

The 19-track extravaganza begins with ‘20s-‘30s seminal figure Amédé Ardoin, the cornerstone of French music, and proceedes to exemplary tracks from first generation stalwarts like zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier, John Delafose, Rockin’ Dopsie, Sr. and Boozoo Chavis. Traditional throwbacks C.J. Chenier and Nathan Williams show how they’re keeping the vintage sound alive while the nouveau aspect is represented with Keith Frank, Beau Jocque, Rosie Ledet, Chris Ardoin and the innovative, now defunct Zydeco Force.

Yet its real beauty is that it is not another introduction of past and present stars. Rather it succeeds objectively by presenting fringe performers like the mysterious Little Latour (“C-Key Blues”), the lonesome sounds of Ambrose Sam as well as Les Frères Carrières who featured one of zydeco’s few fiddlers in Bébé Carrière. The wildly wheezy “Zydeco à Carrière” is interesting in that it symbolically bridges Creole la-la music and its zydeco successor. In a related vein, there’s the bluesy “Hack a ‘tit Moreau” from Canray Fontenot and longtime pal “Bois Sec” Ardoin who were the ambassadors of old-time Creole music. As educational as it may seem with its insightful liner notes, there’s never any lack of party-time intensity as every track’s a reveler. Kingdom should be everyone’s first zydeco album but if it’s not, there’s enough fodder here to discover and rediscover many times over. As with any kingdom, there’s always a lot of territory to cover the first time through.