Keep It Alive After Katrina

Wednesday, November 17, 1993 - 11:00

Lafayette Marquis
C C Adcock
Yeproc Records <http://www.yeproc.com>

REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS

"Oh, yeah, it's a runaway life," wails Charles "C C" Adcock from the stage of Tipitina's Uptown one rainy New Orleans night at the start of Jazz Fest. Adcock's battered acoustic guitar, his worn straw hat, his Elvis T-shirt and the laughing Cajun fiddler labouring beside him at a single microphone all suggest the man knows his roots. And this song, which started out as a Creole narrative told in the voice of a hallucinating, doomed escaped slave, takes on the feel of an anthem, the packed Tip's audience singing along rowdily. "Runaway Life", the only acoustic number on a very electric CD, has become the hands-down hit from C C's latest CD, Lafayette Marquis.

When Hurricane Katrina blitzed New Orleans in 2005, and the floodwaters rose, those who could, fled to where they could. Some 50,000 Crescent City folks made it to Acadiana, the area around Lafayette, where C C Adcock lives in Southwest Louisiana, some 200 kilometres west of New Orleans. "Yeah, we had some interesting people stop and stay with us for a while," allows Adcock, noting that among them was one Ani DiFranco, who "played the best guitar I've heard any woman play, ever!" Adcock's hospitality became legendary, as The Iguanas and other bands and individual musicians found refuge with him and his neighbours in Acadiana. And in the months since, Adcock and his two bands, Lafayette Marquis and Lil Band of Gold (which also features Cajun accordion star Steve Reilly) joined other local musicians in many benefits in support of relief to hurricane victims.

That work continues, and this CD has become an essential part of the background music to the effort, heard on car CD decks and sound systems throughout Louisiana. It really should be heard much further afield, as Lafayette Marquis is one of the swampiest, bluesiest, most downright fun rock 'n' roll records in many a year. Featuring production work by both Adcock and the late, great Jack Nitzsche (of Rolling Stones fame), this album's blurred electric guitars, weird effects, witty lyrics and clearly-slurred Deep South vocals give it a feeling like hot gumbo and plenty of cold beer on a steaming summer bayou night. So good it hurts.

Most highly recommended.