Cajunization

by BeauSoleil

Product Description:

Beausoleil: Michael Doucet (vocals, fiddle); Al Tharp (tenor guitar, banjo, fiddle, bass, background vocals); David Doucet (guitar, background vocals); Jimmy Breaux (accordion); Tom Alesi (drums); Billy Ware (percussion).

Additional personnel includes: Gerry McGee (electric guitar); Sonny Landreth (slide guitar); Jerry Douglas (Hawaiian guitar, dobro); Carl Landry (soprano, alto, tenor & baritone saxophones); Danny DeVillier (vibraphone, steel drums)..

Recorded at Dockside Studio, Maurice, Louisiana in October & November 1998.

Includes song annotations by Michael & Sharon Doucet.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

CAJUNIZATION was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Fiddler Michael Doucet and his group Beausoleil have always been able to keep one foot in the traditional Cajun style while confidently expanding the genre's borders. CAJUNIZATION is no exception. All the tunes come from the pen of Doucet, but many of them, like the opening "La Terre de mon Grandpere," sound like they could have come from a bygone era of New Orleans music. Meanwhile, "Cajunization Blues" has a minor-key blues/jazz feel and features dobro master Jerry Douglas in a very non-bluegrass format. "L'Amour Poisonne" takes the jazzy influence a step further, sporting a downright Mingus-like accordion motif. Through the course of the album, musical locales from Cuba to Hawaii are represented, but the heart of Beausoleil is still the soulful fiddle work of Doucet, and there's still enough straight-ahead Cajun music here to highlight his mastery of the mode.