Sonny Landreth Levee Town ­ Sugar Hill Records SUG-3925 by William Michael Smith

I worked around Lafayette, Louisiana occasionally in the '70's when the oil patch was booming and Lafayette's claim to fame was "the 3rd highest per capita alcohol consumption" in the U.S. Being a West Texas flatlander who knew nothing about swamps, gumbo, etouffe, or more importantly, zydeco, I was lucky enough to have a running buddy from Lafayette to show me the ropes. And the first rope he showed me was a little Lafayette Tuesday night tradition: drinking beer and listening to The Red Beans & Rice Revue. I don't remember the name of the club, but it was situated in a dilapidated white clapboard house. We parked in a shallow mud hole that passes for a parking lot in South Louisiana and walked up to pay our money to the man. The joint was a-jumpin' and some skinny, completely unassuming swamp-hippie kid was just blasting that little room with the hottest guitar licks I'd ever seen. A few years later, my wife was traveling with me on a sales trip and we overnighted in Lafayette. Checking the local paper, we saw that Clifton Cheniere and His Red Hot Louisiana Band were playing in Abbeville and as we had never seen the legendary King of Zydeco, we headed down that way. Another club in a white clapboard house, red checker plastic tablecloths, Dixie beer signs and a lot of Cajuns passing a bon ton. Up on the little stage, Clifton (with that Imperial Margarine crown that he sometimes wore for effect) and his band were rocking the zydeco the way only the King of Zydeco could -- and there was that hippie kid from a few years back. When Clifton introduced the band, I found out the kid was one Sonny Landreth. It's been over five years since Landreth released the critically acclaimed but under-bought "South of I-10" on the left-side-of-Nashville label Zoo/Praxis. Now on the Sugar Hill label, Landreth's new release, "Levee Town," continues almost seamlessly where he left off five years ago. No doubt "Levee Town" will receive heaps of critical acclaim too because, like Landreth's previous releases, the album showcases Landreth's unique guitar stylings. Yet the guitar playing is not all that is notable. Landreth has always been an insightful songwriter who dredges South Louisiana's environment and traditions to produce honest, sincere, and sensitive lyrics. He's such a monster of a guitar player, however, that his songwriting often gets short shrift. The opener, 'Levee Town,' is a vintage Landreth song -- no little three minute ditty but an epic poem tune about a (what else in South Louisiana?) flood. Landreth's former boss and songwriting mentor, John Hiatt, pitches in with soulful backup vocals. It helps to have been down in the Atchafalaya Basin along the levee roads, through the cypress swamps and muddy backwaters so you can fully visualize Landreth's verbal images about the inevitable flood coming. The Cajuns have always been a jaunty, humorous folk, and Landreth portrays that spirit well as he sings about evacuating the basin: I heard old Moses was hired to go By the Corps of Engineers to run this show Out of the Basin, two by two Just ask Noah, he knows what to do Landreth's songwriting often takes a spiritual or philosophical bent. Throughout Landreth's solo recording career, he's always been respectful of the ones who've come before him. He often writes about the underlying spirituality he finds in the symbols so common to South Louisiana. Certainly Landreth is not the only writer to use the river as a symbol for what is eternal, but in 'This River' he finds new ways to address that symbol: So take your deepest breath and ask Will we last and why Truth is, the answer runs right through our town And the rest of our lives On 'The U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile,' Landreth takes us to Clifton Land and does his mentor proud. Produced by Nashville roots rock master R.S. Field (Webb Wilder, Roots Rock Action Figures), this one "Frenches the boogie" as Cheniere used to say. As an arranger, Landreth has always been able to emulate that dark, thick, somewhat citified zydeco sound that Cheniere invented and mastered. Zydeco Joe Mouton contributes a rich, hard accordion sound and doubles on rubboard, giving the song added Louisiana roadhouse authenticity. The album artwork features a black and white photo of an Olds Cutlass 442 with a front license plate that reads "ZYDECO." It took me a few listens before I understood that this is Landreth's car and that in this tune he pays homage to the music as he recalls the joys and good times of touring with the deceased King of Zydeco. Double clutchin' on the backseat I hear you, yeah, with your main squeeze Playing triple row accordion fills In the U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile. Port of Call Opelousas Port of Call Lawtell Port of Call Frilot Cove In the U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile 'Love and Glory' is a fine poem set to music. Landreth layers the music skillfully. What begins as an acoustic singer-songwriter number progresses into a bouncy mid-tempo Cajun country rocker. Former Landreth band mate and Louisiana musical historian Michael Doucet of Beausoleil on fiddle and Errol Verret on accordion give 'Love and Glory' a lilt that is unmistakably French Cajun in origin. Jennifer Warnes and former Desert Rose Band member Herb Pederson add heavenly backing vocals. No serious guitar player can have come out of the South Louisiana music scene and not be familiar with the Delta blues, and Landreth gets a Mississippi Fred McDowell feel on 'Broken Hearted Road.' Master of many guitar stylings and techniques, Landreth plays a traditional style Delta blues on National steel, then overdubs a white-hot Hound Dog Taylor style electric slide solo. The effect is much the same as when one takes an ordinary bowl of red beans and rice and slops on the Tabasco sauce. Innovative power instrumentals have long been a Landreth forte, and he doesn't disappoint on 'Spider-Gris' or 'Z Rider.' Landreth gives a tour-de-force instrumental blues performance that showcases all his skills and demonstrates why he is Mark Knopfler's (Dire Straits) favorite American contemporary guitarist and regular touring partner. Both instrumentals feature outstanding performances from longtime Landreth sidemen bassist David Ranson and drummer Michael Organ, who give Landreth a driving base from which to soar. Landreth calls in more heavyweights to augment the love song 'Soul Salvation': Bonnie Raitt on backing vocals and Austin guitar wizard Stephen Bruton. Bruton lays in a thick, fuzzy Leslie rhythm track while Landreth plays slide sparingly. The production is straight Louisiana midtempo R&B, reminiscent of Fats Domino or Allen Toussaint. 'Angeline' is a bouncy blues-rocker with a jazzy New Orleans horn track that really swings. The interplay between slide guitar, vocals and horns gives this track a classic feel from the days when New Orleans was a major hit factory. The final cut, 'Deep South,' sees Landreth doing what he has done on at least one cut on each of his previous records -- getting way down and dirty with the hoodoo voodoo ju-ju. Just as he did with his signature piece, 'Congo Square,' Landreth has penned a tune that draws on the history and superstitions peculiar to South Louisiana. Caught wind of the legend when were kids on the banks of the Gulf Coast About the pirate gold left hidden here way back ago Then in a rage, Hurricane Aubrey, she blew down the secret of the sheltering oak They found Captain Lafitte's buried treasure, yeah, anything goes In the Deep South Another Allen Toussaint-inspired horn track works in tense counterpoint with Landreth's soloing to create spooky atmospherics. On 'Deep South,' Landreth displays all his patented techniques, which Mary-Anne Courtenaye described in her 1996 interview with Landreth in Blues Access Magazine. "It's the nimble, almost spidery finger work that first grabs you. The left hand frets three-finger chords above a bottleneck-sheathed little finger; the right hand combines finger picking, four-finger pats, feather-light brushes over the strings and two-finger flutters. Add liberal dashes of guitar harmonics (that eerily hypnotic ringing) and sustains (notes fading out like a faraway radio signal) and the result is a shimmering slide sound indelibly stamped with the Sonny Landreth imprint." "Levee Town" is a hard album to categorize musically, the kind of record that will drive a Best Buy store clerk insane as he tries to determine which of their inane marketing categories to put the cd in for maximum sales. It's not a blues record, it's not a zydeco record, it's not a Cajun country record, it's not an R&B record, it's not a rock record, it's not a folk record -- it is all of these and more. So have sympathy in your hearts for that poor clerk at Best Buy when you go in to buy "Levee Town." He may have a hard time locating it. Tell him to look in the "Americana" section. That ought to really make his day. Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

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