Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band - It's Party Time! (1999)

►The album

Chubby's swamp funk

If your feet stay still while "Bernadette" is playing, you're irremediably beyond musical redemption ! This album is a highly enjoyable and dancing one, even if Chubby and his boys have evidently cast off the moorings with roots rural Zydeco to expand to a new swamp funk more urban sound, incorporating deadly bass lines and drum beat, and a very active trumpet-sax section which gives the music its clear rhythm'n'blues color, sometimes even a bit jazzy. Chubby has made his, the "adapt or disappear" biological evolution principle.

Yet he was born in July 1967, in a Creole family from Pointe-à-l'Église (Church Point, about 30 km north-west of Lafayette) deeply linked to Zydeco : his grandfather Warren Carrier, his father Roy Carrier, and his cousins Bebe and Calvin Carrier, were all renowned Zydeco musicians. So Joseph R. Carrier Jr., soon nicknamed Chubby by his grandma for his fat round cheeks, fell into Zydeco from the cradle and even before in his mother's womb. He often confessed that in his early teens he wanted to be a drummer.

So at 12 he started to play drums in his father's band, then after he learned to play it with his dad, accordion at 14, replacing him when his oil rig work prevented him to lead the band. In 1986, at just 19, he joined the Terrance Simien band, the Mallet Playboys, again as drummer and toured all over the world with them for two years and a half. In 1989, he decided to start his own band with his brothers Troy "Dikki Du" Carrier and Kevin Carrier, definitely adopting the accordion : Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band entered the Zydeco scene and soon put out their first album, "Go Zydeco Go". Twenty odd years later, their 2010 album "Zydeco Junkie" was awarded a Grammy.

Chubby Carrier is also devoted to social causes : children and education, and the fight for a smoke-free environment, which specially touches him because in May 2010, his father Roy Carrier died from lung cancer. On the educational side, he and his wife set up the "Zydeco A-Z" project, in cooperation with the Acadiana Symphony & Conservatory of Music, aimed at allowing children to learn about Zydeco origins and culture, and if possible encourage them to play an instrument (1). A similar project was launched by his former band leader Terrance Simien (2).

Zydeco is a dance music, no doubt about it, we've said it many times here. The title of the album is clear : it's party time ! A very funky party in fact. The hot feet stomping two-step "Bernadette" sets the funky rhythm'n'blues tone of the album, confirmed by the following  tracks. The horns riffs are systematic, almost taking over Chubby's accordion, the bass is throbbing hard, the drums and washboard are hammering down a tempered steel beat. If it wouldn't be for the accordion… the album could almost be filed next to James Brown in record shops !

Amede Ardoin (center)

Songs like "Funky BSB", "Zydeco All Night" or "Where Is My Woman" would well fit in this category. "I Don't Want To Leave You", sung by drummer Charles "Red" LeMark, is a pure piece of soul, and the last track, also sung by LeMark, "Keeping Me Out Of The Storm", by some musical and vocal aspects reminded me of another band, Jamaican this one : Third World, which always put a lot of R'n'B in its reggae.

Yes of course we're far from old traditional Zydeco, far from Amede Ardoin or Clifton Chenier, but wasn't Buckwheat Zydeco almost as far ? ■

(1) Zydeco A-Z : recognizing that kids today don’t have the same musical opportunities that he had, Chubby set out to find a way to educate children on Zydeco music. After a few brainstorming sessions with his wife, he started the Zydeco A-Z educational project. “I want to teach them everything about Zydeco music from A to Z. The instruments involved in Zydeco music, where Zydeco music came from, how Zydeco music got started, and give them a chance to interact with me. And then I’ll invite them to play the accordion, the washboard, the drums..." : https://youtu.be/0bLI-pJwqSg
→ A "Zydeco A-Z" workshop in 2018 : https://youtu.be/g7nfO4PnN7Q

(2) https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/04/terrance-simien-tribute-sessions-2001.html

Interviews & Documents

● A series of 12 very short videos of Chubby on different subjects (youth, nickname, family, music, band, food…) : https://www.lafayettetravel.com/explore/music/chubby-carrier/
● About his love of Zydeco music and how he was inspired to make it his musical career, 2019 : https://youtu.be/7iXOxuLegBU
● Backstage at the Baton Rouge Blues Fest. in 2015 : https://youtu.be/cNU0zOVFWkQ
● With host Linda Boudreaux on the "Extra Mile Show" :
→ around 2014 : https://youtu.be/QDicfJEWgLs
→ around 2012 : https://youtu.be/o29TkIfIjWg
● On McTVLive in 2022 : https://youtu.be/OTMDhDjhqTI
● During the Blast Furnace Blues Fest., Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), in 2011 : https://youtu.be/vbebIIY1Kec

Zydeco versus Cajun

● Chubby about the difference between Cajun and Zydeco music (audio) : https://soundcloud.com/wxpnfm/chubby-carrier
● "Zydeco Is Not Cajun Music !" : https://youtu.be/QnyZMirkZ2c
● See also our recent post about Nathan Williams : https://onurblues.blogspot.com/2022/04/nathan-zydeco-cha-chas-feat-michael.html

Movies
● Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band also participated in two documentary movies :
→ “Zydeco Breakfast", the story of zydeco music and the culture of French Louisiana : https://www.zydecobreakfastfilm.com

→ “Hurricane on the Bayou", a 2006 42-mn detailed account of the damage hurricane Katrina caused to coastal Louisiana wetlands and New Orleans in 2005 : https://youtu.be/61ugfR-5W9M
- Infos about the film : http://hurricaneonthebayou.com/html/index.htm
- Interview with Chubby : http://hurricaneonthebayou.com/html/music.htm#chubby

The Grammy album
● "Zydeco Junkie" (2010) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mV1eF0BLMI6s7UU_0Dog7cnwtsCM6knnw

Live videos

● At the Zydeco and Crawfish Fest. at Waterway Village, Gulf Shores (Alabama), 2022 : https://youtu.be/fUH4uexJRgg
● At the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Center, July 2021 : https://youtu.be/ha86vC1MLP4
● At The New Orleans Jazz Museum, 2021 : https://youtu.be/pCXdyheFdyI
● Live at the Focal Point in Maplewood (Missouri), for the KDHX TV program "River City Acoustic", 2020 : https://youtu.be/DIdLcPGhigc

Lenny "Fuzzy" Rankins (left)

● At the Riverhawk Music Fest. in Brooksville (Florida), 2020 : https://youtu.be/RYtXAu5gwu0 & https://youtu.be/pUKE5iuf24o
● With special guest Lenny "Fuzzy" Rankins at the San Diego Annual "Gator By The Bay" Fest., 2019 : https://youtu.be/8ccSBPzgUmg - https://youtu.be/aToivV1aBtk - https://youtu.be/wQQcCfGvGUQ
● On Lafayette (Louisiana) KADN TV, 2019 :  https://youtu.be/1vgIUZvuyVE & https://youtu.be/1JxF4jK-mHM
● At the Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City (Missouri) :
→ March 2019 : https://youtu.be/fs63PhpnIt8  | → July 2018 : https://youtu.be/8gABLHEU1As
→ July 2017 : - Set 1 : https://youtu.be/8HALDQvivaM  | - Set 2 : https://youtu.be/9KVrbM2fIBA
→ June 2017 : https://youtu.be/jb55BriaF_E

Tab Benoit (left) & Chubby

● With Tab Benoit at the Rhythms on the River Fest., Lafayette, 2018 : https://youtu.be/uCmMXsBvEy0
● With Leroy Thomas at the Feed and Seed Fest., Davenport (Iowa), 2017 : https://youtu.be/8WX7D6jaX0U
● At the Waterfront Blues Fest., Portland (Oregon), 2017 : https://youtu.be/aWj5DHzA_KY
● On "Le Rendez-vous des Cajuns" TV program, Eunice (Louisiana), 2016 : https://youtu.be/pmg2Zm6vYh8

● At the Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Music Festival, Simi Valley (California), 2016 : https://youtu.be/oW6VslwL2-M
● At the "Acadiens Et Creole" Fest., Lafayette, 2015 : https://youtu.be/0ks_1bbSSXA
● With "Shane the Washboard Man", Washboard Neil and the Washboard Brigade, 2015 : https://youtu.be/6u4NBsnJwRw
At the Paola Roots Fest., Paola (Kansas), 2015 :
→ Pt 1 : https://youtu.be/-OYwxF9sRwc
→ Pt 2 : https://youtu.be/zrPzAUyeIX0

● At the Louisiana Music Factory Fest., 2013 : https://youtu.be/iXbQW4jf93Y
● At the Gumbo CookOff Fest., New Iberia (Louisiana), 2012 : https://youtu.be/Iuzf3Qeywno
● At the Breaux Bridge (Louisiana) Crawfish Fest., 2016 : https://youtu.be/1eJMElazaIc & https://youtu.be/9OWbxd2plss

● On the Opelousas (Louisiana) based Acadian KDCG TV "Swamp'n'Roll" program, 2013 : https://youtu.be/pOXg6Sa6qtE
● At the Grammy Afterparty in downtown Lafayette, 2011 : https://youtu.be/cfYvqwCfqKM
● At the Creole Heritage Zydeco & Crawfish Festival, Baytown (Texas), 2012 : https://youtu.be/ucTbmjTT-go & https://youtu.be/T38jyUY626o
● At the "Festival International de Louisiane", 2011 : https://youtu.be/M5hR3bEXRR0

Tab Benoit (left) & Chubby

● With Cajun bluesman and wetlands environmental preservation activist Tab Benoit (both appear in the "Hurricane on the Bayou" film), in Houma (Louisiana), 2009 : https://youtu.be/jxiZyClk3fI
● In March 2009 : https://youtu.be/PCHvak-lqGA
● On the Legendary Rhythm and Blues Cruise, 2005 :
→ Part 1/4 : https://youtu.be/jR9MWf3utGc
→ Part 2/4 : https://youtu.be/z6rWnBj7vsk
→ Part 3/4 : https://youtu.be/bBMQKmY91tg
→ Part 4/4 : https://youtu.be/DTWOOwiZXec
● At the Girard (Illinois) Sesquicentennial celebration, 2005 : https://youtu.be/sMHF8BmKIWA

_________________________________________________________________

V.A. - Country Blues Obscurities (1999)

► The album

Let the obscure come to light

We already knew "rarities" compilations, then appeared a new concept : the "obscurities" collection ! Except for a few of them, the bluesmen featured on this album are indeed most likely unknown to you as they were to me, unless you're a highly specialized blues connoisseur and historian.
They're apparently also quite obscure to the RootsAndRhythm.com guys who signed the presentation above and most likely didn't listen to the album with much attention… if they listened to it at all ! Not only are they unable to write some of the songs titles properly, but they mix up some artists . For example they wrote : "Eddie Burns echoes Sonny Boy #1 on his Hello Jessie Lee." The problem is that the song precise title is "Hello Miss Jessie Lee". This could pass for a simple careless omission but they mix up Sonny Boy Williams with Sonny Boy Williamson I although they are two different musicians, which is more disturbing !

But enough, let's talk about the album. The "obscurity" is the exciting thing about this rare compilation which unveil some "obscure" but worth listening blues musicians from the 1950s and early 1960s. From Little Joe, John Lee or Henry Smith to Buddy Lewis, Bud Harper or Clifford King, from Texas and Mississippi to Alabama and Georgia, from Chicago and Memphis to New York and Detroit, specially well represented in this collection, we travel from track to track across the country of the blues, visiting obscure low-down juke-joints, clubs and street corners in rural areas or industrial cities, through the releases of small labels (some not existing anymore), discovering a few surprises along the way.

The outstanding ones are the humorous "Drunk Driver's Coming" by the Richard Brothers, two Georgians who relocated in Detroit, "She Fool Me" by Harvey Hill Jr., and "Bring Another Half A Pint" by Sonny Boy Williamson I. Let's not forget Leroy Dallas' "Jump Little Children, Jump", L.C. Green's "The Sun Was Shining", Harmonica "Blues King" Harris' Caribbean sound on "Blues King Mango", the vibrating slide guitars of the mysterious duo Albert & Charles on "Weird", or the "Guitar Boogie" style of John Lee's "Alabama Boogie"…

Rather than going any further in writing a usual review, I thought it would be more useful to try to know a little bit better these "obscure" bluesmen. Sorry ladies, there's no blueswoman on this compilation ! After hours of difficult research on the Web, precisely due to the "obscure" character of most of these artists, and to the fact that many bluesmen used different names depending on the label they recorded for, I still managed to gather some information which I believe are accurate. Here they are, in the same order of appearance as on the album.

→ Little Joe would be Joe T. Horton, Jr. Some information also indicates that it might be one of the recording names used by Lester Hill aka Joe Hill Louis...

→ Leroy Dallas, a blues singer and guitarist born in 1920 in Mobile (Alabama), traveled the south in the 1930s-40s, teaming up for some time with Frank Edwards and Brownie McGhee, sang in the Chicago streets for a while before moving to Brooklyn (New York) in 1943, making his first recordings for the "Sittin' In With…" label in New York in 1948-1949. He did some recordings again for Pete Welding in 1962, two of these being released on Storyville and Milestone anthologies. One doesn't know what happened to him afterwards.

→ Little Sam Davis, a singer and harmonica player, was born in 1928 in Winona (Mississippi). He's known to have played in The Levon Helm Band (LH being an ex-member of The Band). He died in 2018 in Middletown, New York. "Going Back Down to New Orleans" was originally recorded in 1953 with Earl Hooker.

→ L.C. Green, born Greene in Minter City (Mississippi) in 1921, was a guitarist and singer. His amplified guitar playing is clearly derived from the Delta blues style, influenced by Sonny Boy Williamson I and later by Detroit famous bluesman John Lee Hooker. He moved and lived most of his life in Detroit where he recorded in the 1950's for both Dot and Von Battle Records. "The Sun Was Shining" was recorded with his cousin, harmonicist Walter Mitchell, with whom he was often teaming, in 1952, in Gallatin (Tennessee). His guitar playing was renowned to equal that of John Lee Hooker. He died in August 1985 at age 63 and is buried in Pontiac (Michigan).

→ Freddy King, better known as Freddie King, is a famous Texas bluesman. Born Freddie Christian in 1934 in Gilmer (Texas), he moved to Chicago in 1949, cutting his first record as a leader in 1956. The rest is history. He died in 1976 in Dallas.

Hooker & Harris

→ Harmonica "Blues King" Harris whose real name was Alfred Harris was, as his stage name indicates, a harmonica player probably from Chicago. A few photos show him on stage with John Lee Hooker.

→ Henry Smith, blues singer and guitarist, first recorded for Fortune Records in Detroit (Michigan) in 1954, as Henry Smith and His Blue Flames. "Good Rocking Mama" features Henry Smith on vocal & guitar, Eddie Burns on harmonica, Calvin Frazer on guitar and Washboard Willie on… washboard. This song also appears on the "Detroit, The Post War Blues Volume 5" compilation issued in Great Britain in 1968. Sessions followed during the 1950s for JVB, Dot and Chess (though the latter was never released). Not to be mistaken for the British country & western singer-songwriter of the same name. ;-)

→ J&J Deuces : these two Js are strictly unknown...

→ Eddie Burns is well know to many blues aficionados. Born in 1928 in Belzoni (Mississippi), he was one of the few Detroit bluesmen to step to the forefront. In 1948, he teamed up and played for a long time with John Lee Hooker. In 1951, John Lee Hooker and John T. Smith supported Burn’s on a series of originals recorded for the Von Battle label. Their success brought Burns a steady, better-paying gig at the Tavern Lounge, which he celebrated in 1953’s “Tavern Lounge Boogie.” He used to work as a mechanic during the day and as a musician at night playing harmonica and guitar. His younger brother is electric soul blues musician Jimmy Burns. Eddie died in 2012.

→ Buddy Lewis real name was Ernest Lewis. A country blues artist, he made a handful of records between 1949 and 1953. Was he Californian ? No certainty but two of his songs (among which this album's "You've Got Good Business") are featured on the compilation "Down Home Blues - California & The West Coast 1948-1954 CD1".

→ Albert & Charles : no info is available about this mysterious duo except that they would be two brothers or cousins , Charles & Albert Bedeaux, and recorded the song featured on this album with Gus Jenkins and his Orchestra for Pioneer Records. Their French sounding name might indicate they were from Louisiana, but it's just conjecture...

→ Joe Williams, born Joseph Lee Williams in 1903 in Crawford (Mississippi) and better known as "Big" Joe Williams, was a famous Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. A contemporary of Charley Patton, Son House and Robert Johnson, he performed over four decades, recording such famous songs as "Baby Please Don't Go", "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Peach Orchard Mama" for a variety of record labels including Bluebird, Delmark, Okeh, Prestige and Vocalion. He died in 1982 in Macon (Mississippi).

→ Sonny Boy Williams : all we know for certain is that he is not Sonny Boy Willamson I or II !

→ Harvey Hill Jr. and His String Band were probably active in Detroit. His song "She Fool Me" is also featured in two collections : "Down Home Blues Classics, Chicago & Detroit 1948-1953 - High & Lonesome" and Vol. 2 of "Down Home Blues - Detroit Special".

→ Joe Hill Louis, born Lester (or Leslie) Hill in 1921 in Raines (Tennessee), recorded numerous songs as one-man band in Memphis, and developed a primitive yet powerful style on the harmonica. In the late 1940s, his one-man performance was a popular attraction in Handy Park and on the Memphis radio station WDIA, where he hosted a 15-minute program billed as "The Pepticon Boy". Also known as "the Be-Bop Boy", he made his recording debut in 1949 for Columbia, but the remainder of his recordings were issued on R&B independent labels. He died in 1957 in Memphis at only 35.

→ Bud Harper was a soul singer-songwriter from Texas. But contrary to what's indicated, he is not Jesse (or Jessie) Belvin, though both were linked to San Antonio (Texas) and both recorded the song "Going Away Baby". A simple listen to the Belvin version (available on YT) is enough to realized that it's very different from Bud Harper's own on this album.
Bud Harper, sometimes nicknamed "Big" Bud Harper, was a San Antonio mainstay in the late 1950s and 1960s, appearing locally with groups like Mike and the Bel-Airs, band leader saxophonist Vernon "Spot" Barnett and even Doug Sahm. He recorded a handful of 45s in the Bobby Bland's style for local labels backed by some excellent musicians and guitarists. (thanks to Gérard Herzhaft for these infos)
As for Jesse Lorenzo Belvin, born in 1932 in San Antonio, and relocated at age 5 in Los Angeles, he was a singer, pianist and songwriter popular in the 1950s until his success was cut short by his death in a car crash in 1960 in Arkansas at the age of 27 (another victim of the 27-year-old malediction).

→ The Sonny Boy Williamson featured here is John Lee Curtis Williamson, a blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, known as Sonny Boy Williamson I. His popular songs, original or adapted, include "Good Morning, School Girl", "Sugar Mama", "Early in the Morning", "Stop Breaking Down"... Born in 1914 in Jackson (Tennessee), he died in 1948 in Chicago after a street mugging in the notorious South Side.
He must not be confused with Aleck "Rice" Miller aka Sonny Boy Williamson II, born in Mississippi between 1894 and 1904 and dead in 1965, who always affirmed being the first to use the name Sonny Boy Williamson though it was most likely a "commercial" trick.

→ Juke Boy Barner is of course another recording identity of the more renowned Texas bluesman Juke Boy Bonner. Born Weldon H. Philip Bonner in 1932 in Bellville (Texas), he played guitar in the juke-joints and bars of Houston as a one-man band using a harmonica rack. Much of his output was recorded in the Texas blues style and has a distinct down home flavor similar to that of Lightnin' Hopkins. In 1956 he went to Oakland (California) and recorded his first single for the Irma label with Lafayette "Thing" Thomas on lead guitar. It is the A-side of this single, "Rock with Me Baby", which is on this album. In 1960, Bonner recorded for Goldband Records in Lake Charles (Louisiana) with Katie Webster on piano. By the end of the 1960s, he recorded in a one-man guitar-harmonica configuration for Arhoolie Records, singing personal tales of his rough life in Houston. After a few European tours that didn't make him any richer, he spent the end of his life working in a chicken processing plant to make ends meet. He died of liver cirrhosis in 1978 in Houston. (thanks to Bill Dahl from allmusic.com for some of the infos)

→ Clifford King was a rhythm & blues performer, which we would have easily guessed, but no further information seems to be available.

→ Jesse (or Jessie) Pipkin And Band : all we know is that this rhythm & blues band recorded two titles for Noble Records in Los Angeles in 1958, one of them being this album's "Work With It".

→ Emright would be Emright Holman, from the duo Emright & Mattie, but we didn't manage to learn more about him/them, except that the B-side of "One Of These Days" is a song titled "That Minute There With You " and credited to Emright & Mattie. The same "One Of These Days" is also featured on the 4-CD Collection "Down Home Blues: New York, Cincinnati & The North Eastern States : Tough Enough".

→ The Richard Brothers, Robert and Howard, were both blues guitarists from Georgia. Robert, born in Cartersville in 1924, learned the guitar and the harmonica with his uncle, a quite famous bootlegger who had troubles with the Chicago Mafia ! Like a lot of other southerners, the two brothers moved up north to Detroit to work in the automobile industry in 1942. Robert and Howard, himself a good singer and guitarist, quickly became a steady performing duo in the Detroit's Hastings Street clubs. Robert acquired a strong reputation with his powerful harmonica style largely derived from Sonny Boy Williamson I. He worked with Walter Mitchell (L. C. Green's cousin), pianist Boogie Woogie Red and as a permanent member of the Bobo Jenkins band. After blues started to lose interest from the Afro-American public in the 1960's and the Hastings Street clubs were deserted, Robert gave up music. He was rediscovered by George Paulus who recorded him in 1975 and 1977 for an excellent all acoustic LP. But this album sold badly and the Richard brothers drifted into definite in obscurity. Their 1959 version of "Drunk Driver's Coming" was originally released by the Detroit label Strate 8, a Fortune Records subsidiary, and also appears on the second volume of the Koko Mojo Records 4-CD Collection "Motorvatin'".

→ John Lee, born John Arthur Lee in 1915 in Mt. Willing (Alabama), learned his distinctive knife slide guitar style from his uncle, Ellie Lee, and spent the 1930s playing juke-joints and house parties before settling in Montgomery (Alabama) in 1945. There he recorded five songs for Federal Records in July 1951, of which two are on this album ("Baby Please Don't Go" and "Down at the Depot") as well as on "Eastern and Gulf Coast States–Post War Blues Vol.3" released in 1966. In 1973-1974, he cut an album for Rounder Records (unissued on CD). He died in Montgomery in October 1977.  ■

Acknowledgments
● Gérard Herzhaft : https://jukegh.blogspot.com & https://grardherzhaft.wordpress.com
● Bill Dahl from AllMusic : https://www.allmusic.com
● Steve Leggett, from Rovi.

Audio
● For comparison, "Come Back Baby" by Jesse Belvin : https://youtu.be/ZkM6hchdYvk

Freddie King

Videos
● Freddie King in 1966 : https://youtu.be/buS-IdZzmwg
● Big Joe Williams, "She Left Me A Mule To Ride", 1966 : https://youtu.be/WM-ebiCuVpo
● Big Joe Williams at Puistoblues, Finland, 1980 : https://youtu.be/NJycar0jigc

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Nathan & The Zydeco Cha-Chas (feat. Michael Doucet) - Creole Crossroads (1995)

> The album

"Zydeco is not Cajun !"

The opening track "Zydeco Hog" is a real killing two-step that makes you jump up and dance from the first seconds. Fortunately for those affected by a heart condition things slow down a beat on the next track "Black Gal". But not for long !

This album is very properly titled : it's really a mix of Zydeco and traditional Cajun music, both styles being different though they share much in common. In 2014, one of the best Louisiana historians of Zydeco music, Herman Fuselier, put things straight : "<i>Zydeco is not Cajun music. Cajun music is the waltzes and two-steps played by the white descendants of the Acadians, who were exiled from Nova Scotia in the 1700s. Zydeco is the R&B-based accordion grooves of black Creoles, who are descendants of slaves, free colored and mixed-race people of this region</i>" (1).

Sid Williams (left) & Stanley Dural

And precisely Nathan is a Creole not a Cajun. He was born in 1963 in St. Martinville, in the heart of the bayou country, in a French speaking Creole poor family In his teens, he became a great admirer of legendary Zydeco icon Clifton Chenier whom he probably saw as a paternal figure after his own father died when he was just 7. So he learned to play accordion, first by himself practicing in the bathroom so nobody could hear him play, then with the help of a friend of his elder brother Sid, none other than the legendary Stanley Dural aka Buckwheat Zydeco, who offered him his first accordion.

In 1985 Nathan formed his own band, The Zydeco Cha-Chas (the name was borrowed from a Chenier's song), largely a family affair featuring two of his brothers : excellent jazzy guitarist Dennis Paul Williams, eternally wearing his French style beret, who is also a famous painter, and accordionist Sidney "El Sid O" Williams, a Lafayette legendary character (2) and successful businessman, owner of the popular zydeco nightclub El Sid O’s Zydeco & Blues Club, of the independent record label El Sid O and of Sid’s One Stop, a grocery and convenience store. As for washboard player Mark Anthony Williams aka "Chukka", he is their first cousin.

Nathan threw all his ammunition in this album : in addition to the classic zydeco outfit (the bass-drum-washboard holy trinity + guitar + accordion ― in fact two of them for good measure ― that gives Zydeco its so unique color), Allen Roy “Cat Boy” Broussard's saxophone (alto or tenor) riffs bring a soul color to some tracks, and above all, Cajun excellent fiddler Michael Louis Doucet, founder of the BeauSoleil band, offers an outstanding special sound to each track. The album was in fact officially presented as Nathan & The Zydeco Cha-Chas featuring Michael Doucet, and indeed the uniqueness of this album comes from the marriage and constant dialog between the accordion(s) and the fiddle.

These honorable gentlemen take us for a grooving ride through the bayous of Louisiana with a few irresistible two-steps  like the hot-as-a-BBQ "Zydeco Hog" or the outstanding "I Wanna Be Your Chauffeur".

Clifton Chenier

Nathan renders unto Caesar aka the emperor and ambassador of Zydeco Clifton Chenier, with three numbers : the blues "Black Gal", the slow soul complaint "Hard To Love Someone" underlined by Doucet sliding on his fiddle, and the melancholic classic "Black Snake Blues"/"I Can't Go Home No More", plus the waltzing "La Nuit de Clifton Chenier" (Clifton Chenier's night), a Micheal Doucet homage to the master.

Nathan shows his attachment to his native culture by singing his own original material in Creole French (that even French people like your humble servant have a hard time decoding, but that's the charm of it) : the Louisiana style country "Hey Yie Yie"; "Ma Femme Nancy", another typical Creole sorrowful ballad; "Festival Zydeco", a two-step cosigned with his brother Sid and one Gerald Foreman; and the jumpy "Alligator". He and brother Sid also arranged the sorrowful traditional "Jolie Noir" which closes the album, into a deeply moving waltz.

Halfway through the album, he also chose to pay tribute to Otis Redding with a cover of Z.Z. Hill's soul classic "Everybody Got To Cry" sounding much like the great Otis.

Zydeco is not just using an accordion, it expresses the historical resistance of the people of Louisiana to keep in a vast Anglo-Saxon dominated country their cultural and linguistic identity, both inherited from the French possession of the then "Louisiana Territory" until Napoleon sold it to the young US. In this Nathan & his Zydeco Cha-Chas are not only talented musicians but also militants. ■

Documents

Herman Fuselier

(1) Herman Fuselier's article in Zydeco Crossroads : http://zydecocrossroads.org/2014/11/zydeco-versus-cajun/
→ Herman Fuselier, Louisianian of the Year 2020 : https://youtu.be/SOvBFMxhn8c
(2) The hard life of black Louisiana Creoles in the 1950s-60s - Sid Williams incredible story : https://kreolmagazine.com/culture/features/sydney-williams-a-story-of-mr-el-sid-o/

Denis Paul Willams, musician & painter

A painting from Dennis P. Williams

● Web site : https://dennispaulwilliams.com
● International Magazine Kreol article on DPW : https://kreolmagazine.com/culture/art/dennis-paul-williams-unleashing-spirituality-and-energy-through-works-of-art/
● At DPW book signing : https://youtu.be/YSRBRRAYjjY

Interviews with Nathan Williams

● Audio itw in 2014 : https://youtu.be/DKVWcZTL26Q
● Audio itw on The Paul Leslie Hour : https://youtu.be/9PP5Z2uUVNE
● Intimate backporch performance & itw, Lafayette : https://youtu.be/Pqk83w7GaJA
● Itw & perf at the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Fest., New Orleans, 2015 : https://youtu.be/gfydtZ6w2RI
● Itw with Nathan & Denis, Zydeco Music Fest., 2013 : https://youtu.be/SqE6JufGZT0

Live concert videos (from most recent to older)
● At Venice West, Los Angeles, February 2022 : https://youtu.be/APKFzPMi4oA
● At the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Fest., New Orleans, 2021 : https://youtu.be/26s1jZKtZ8w or https://youtu.be/A-_ushAC7mw

● "Feed The Needy, Not The Greedy" with Colombian Afro band Tribu Baharu at the Bal Masque, New Orleans, 2020 : https://youtu.be/zjymnB6SWNo
● At the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, February 2019 : https://youtu.be/qpn_--xa6Oc
● At the Rock'n'Bowl, Lafayette, 2018 : https://youtu.be/wKfOylmWZM0
● At the Salisbury University, Maryland, 2016 : https://youtu.be/bp64uYZBRT8

Dennis P. Willliams

● When DPW breaks a guitar string at the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Fest., 2016 : https://youtu.be/NjAksi1OK8U
● At the Rhythm & Roots Fest., Charlestown, Rhode Island, 2016 : https://youtu.be/vBjIF8M7qqY
● "I Got a Woman"  at Hamilton Live, 2016 : https://youtu.be/A6DtjSXPzJo
● At Johnny D's, Somerville, Massachusetts, February 2016 : https://youtu.be/QkM2ADVKFUU & https://youtu.be/jZcI6L4Ded0
● At The Common, Buchanan, Michigan, 2015 : https://youtu.be/i-QRlSiPWFY
● With the Zydeco Big Timers at the Simi Valley Cajun & Blues Music Fest., California
→ 2014 : https://youtu.be/LRqmuCMe2ZU
→ 2012 : https://youtu.be/QFF_qdFn0Vw

● At the Louisiana Music Factory, 2014 : https://youtu.be/zPLmR99X5xY
● At the "Acadiens et Creoles" Fest., 2013 : https://youtu.be/_myR9XQsQJ0
● At the Richmond Folk Life Fest., 2013 : https://youtu.be/Rg0S419p1f4
● At the Newton Theater, Newton, New Jersey, February 2013 : https://youtu.be/Dj7ts_ktFNE
● "Zydeco Cha Cha", 2010 : https://youtu.be/ex9zZwtNKq4
● In Netherlands, March 2012 : https://youtu.be/w88Y68-pGZ0 & https://youtu.be/roG8Gsj0bno

● At the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, October 2012 : https://youtu.be/UPuO3yM6VT0
● At the Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Fest., Plaisance, Louisiana, 2011 : https://youtu.be/GGn7gI-OyFc
● "Let The Good Time Roll" at the Jazzwoche Fest., Burghausen, Germany, 2010 : https://youtu.be/0A89Yu2yI60
● Outdoor perf, date unknown : https://youtu.be/U196RMm07IM
● "Live at the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville : https://youtu.be/nlm1Y68fFkw
● "Bon Ton Roule" & "Taunte Rosa" : https://youtu.be/omWYvMvkW2w
● At the Venue Bar and Grill, Freeport, Maine : https://youtu.be/gw1x1qJWwcA

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