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From its humble beginnings in 1970 as a free concert for a few hundred locals, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has grown into one of the world's largest music gatherings, each spring drawing hundreds of thousands from all over the world. Jazzfest, as it's known locally, has both stimulated and reflected out-of-state interest in Louisiana music. It was once a rarity for Cajun, zydeco and second-line R&B acts to ever leave the state; now dozens of them make the circuit of baby-boomer, roots-music dance clubs. Most of that exponential growth has occurred in the last 10 years, and Rounder Records, which made a major commitment to Louisiana music in the mid-'80s, has reaped the benefit of the scene's growing popularity.Here the Boston indie label celebrates its own prescience with a two-CD anthology. Despite the title, most of the tracks were recorded within the last 10 years, but they cover a lot of ground--from the old-fashioned brothel piano of Tuts Washington to the funky brass arrangements of the Rebirth Brass Band, from the ancient Cajun song styles of David Doucet to the hip-hop-influenced zydeco of L'il Brian and the Zydeco Travelers. The first CD or "City Disc" focuses on 14 New Orleans artists, ranging from such late piano masters as Champion Jack Dupree and James Booker to such smooth soul crooners as Dalton Reed and Chuck Carbo. The second CD or "Country Disc" presents 18 Cajun and zydeco acts from French Louisiana, including such well known names as D.L. Menard and Buckwheat Zydeco as well as such emerging talents as Geno Delafose and Bruce Daigrepont. Holding the set together is the slippery sense of syncopation most Louisianans seem to be born with. Whether that pelvic pulse is dictated by fiddle or tuba, button accordion or upright piano, the infectious rhythms could only have come from that particular stretch of the Gulf Coast.--Geoffrey Himes ... Read more

Reviews (1)

One of the best deals you will find
While label compilations often come across as self-serving and/or limited, this nifty collection avoids that pitfall. By including both a New Orleans blues collection and a Zydeco/Cajun collection, "Louisiana Spice" manages to give an adequate picture of the various modern Blues and Cajun styles that you will find throughout Louisiana. In fact, if you are looking at the full equation of variety + quality in Louisiana music, you're not going to find many better collections out there. Better ones definitely exist, but factor in price and it becomes apparent that this is one of the best deals on any type music you will ever find.

"Louisian Spice" is very professionally put together. Most 2-CD-for-the-price-of-1-real-cheap-CD deals (such as those you find in the budget bins of Musiclands and Camelots) will usually give you a *very* inadequate picture of that artist's or genre's music, but it is excusable because the price is right. With "Louisiana Spice," the price is right and so is the quality--a priceless combination in budget packages.

The main reason I picked up this CD was because of Marcia Ball's "That's Enough of that Stuff" and the Rebirth & Wild Magnolia duet performance of "Shoo-Fly"--two of the most energetic performances ever put on record. I've always wanted to get both of the original albums those numbers appear on just for those songs alone, but when I saw them together on the same album, plus an excellent array of classic Louisiana artists such as James Booker, Tuts Washington, and Johnny Adams, the decision of whether or not to buy became very easy. I consider "That's Enough. . ." and "Shoo-fly" to be two of the major peaks in the modern era of New Orleans music (as do many other fans). Thus, as they say, "no music collection is complete without them."

While I've always enjoyed Cajun and Zydeco music, I do not enjoy it enough to buy CDs from either genre (at least no song or album has caught my ear enough *yet*). However, as a huge fan of Louisiana music and everything that has come out of it and into it, I recognized that this left a huge hole in my collection. This album presented the perfect opportunity to fill that hole, all the while buying the album principly for other reasons. In other words, the second album serves as an excellent bonus for my musical tastes. Perhaps there are many others out there who can relate to this idea.

Both newcomers to Louisiana music and long-time connoisseurs alike should be more than satisfied with this CD. As it did with me, it offers the opportunity to fill many holes in your own collections, as well as those that you did not even know you were missing. Word of caution: while this double CD will only cost you around 10 bucks, the paths to which it leads you will undoubtedly cost you more money in the future. That, in the end, is the litmus test for all music compilations. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Lil Armstrong's r&b years and Camille Howard's best sides
camille Howard, as Scott Yanow put it, should have been born 20 years earlier, for she would have made a great classic blues shouter like Bessie Smith, in the 1920's. However Howard's time was the early 50's, and she sparkes singing in the barrelhouse r&b tradition of Ruth Brown on tehse exciting jump blues sides, backed by great horn players and tight rhythm sections. She prooves herself to be a great r&b singer, with loads of energy. However it is Lil Hardin's sides that really shine, for here in her 3rd career(1st as composer/pianist with Louis Armstrong, 2nd as swing band leader) as a r&b jump blues singer. She really shines in this genere, as Helen Humes did, she even squeels like Ruth Brown in an earthy gritty tone, sounding sweet and salty at the same time! Hardin armstrong really digs into her boogie driven pounding piano playing, and this band is really driven hard, and swings like mad. A great party cd, essential for fans of Ruth Brown type 50's r&b. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Thrilling Musical Tour of the Balkans on 2 CDs
This thrilling 2 CD set of Balkan music spans the entire region: Greece, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Macedonia and Roma. Network did a fine job of a difficult task, selecting thoroughly enjoyable music representative of the area. My favorites are Greek, Albanian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Roma (gypsy).

I love Niki Traka(female vocalist) on the rembetika song, "Heis Allon Sti Kardia". The "Cafe Aman" beat of Asia Minor (Turkey)always sends a chill down my spine. When Psarantonis from Crete plays the lyra, he creates a hypnotic trance that is enhanced by his heart-felt vocals. The Romanian selections are all very noteworthy - fantastic cimbalom improvisations, melismatic vocals, along with breath-taking violin ornamentation. The Roma musicians and vocalists are of the highest caliber, the brass band music of Kocani Orkestar and Ferus Mustafov are outstanding. There is a wide variety of Bulgarian styles - music with unusual dissonance and texture, intense rhythms, unique melodies, a female choir, and dance music in the rachenitsa (7/8) rhythm. Ensemble Tirana (Albania) presents a beautiful polyphonic example, with drone, unusual ornamentation through vocal dissonance - human voices that sound like an orchestra!

"Balkan Blues" is one of the best compilations of music from this region. Anyone wanting to experience a wide range of traditional music from the Balkans, played on authentic folk instruments, or modern versions of the older style, should buy this set of CDs. One feels the intense, raw energy of the region expressed through music and song. A magnificent musical tour!
Erika Borsos (erikab93)

an excellent introduction to Balkan Music
This 2-CD compendium is very well recorded and contains excellent performances by some very good and important folk musicians. The Romanian material is especially good, and Romanian material is difficult to find. This is not "world Music" (i.e. pop/soft rock in a language you don't know) ; this is the real thing, albeit in nice studio performances. One might quibble about some of the choices, e.g. Psarantonis is not the best way to get into music from Crete, but these musicians are all known in their respective countries and represent real traditions. Any anthology covering a country, let alone the Balkans as a whole in a 2-CD set, is a futile endeavor, but this is good music, and makes a great gift to any of your friends who don't have a pile of old LPs or CDs of this stuff. I give it 4 stars, taking off only one star for lack of depth. _John Uhlemann, KDHX, St. Louis ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Blues Smorgasbord
In just under an hour this disc takes you on a brief history tour of the blues. Some of these songs are classics, like Blind Willie Johnson's plaintive "Motherless Children" and Robert Johnson's haunting "Cross Road Blues." Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie's original 1929 "When the Levee Breaks" gives you a chance to hear what the song sounded like before Led Zeppelin rewrote it forty years later. Muddy Water's powerful reworking of his "The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll" is from his Johnny Winter-produced album Hard Again. Winter's supercharged live version of "Johnny B. Goode" is a smoking take on the Chuck Berry classic--but when was this considered blues? This is immediately followed by Blind Willie McTell's 1931 acoustic blues "Southern Can Is Mine." And it's sequencing like this that emphasizes the scattershot approach of this album. One minute you're listening to the powerful singing of Bessie Smith, next it's Brownie McGhee's country blues "Key to the Highway," followed by the horn-driven Electric Flag's take on Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" with some excellent guitar playing by Michael Bloomfield. Even Tony Russell's brief liner notes fail to make any real direct connection between all of these songs other than some vague concept that everyone at some point has the blues. The album comes full circle with Keb Mo's wonderful Robert Johnson-influenced "Am I Wrong." Most serious blues fans will already have much of this music in their collection. If you're a novice fan, it's hard to argue with the quality of the songs contained on this disc. (Just don't base your entire blues library on this one disc!) ... Read more

Reviews (2)

"An SRV Tribute Album that Lives Up to It's Name"
This 11-track tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan is a great collection which includes awesome cover versions of songs from his four studio albums: Texas Flood (1983), Couldn't Stand the Weather (1984), Soul to Soul (1985), and In Step (1989).
The standouts include blazing renditions of "Couldn't Stand the Weather", "Pride & Joy", "Tightrope", and the Hendrix-like instrumental "Say What!" Any fan of Stevie Ray's music will surely enjoy this unique tribute to the late guitarist.

great tribute
LIKE ANY TRIBUTE CD THERE IS ALWAYS SOME KIND OF ANTICIPATION OF THE QUALITY OF THE SONGS AND ARTISTS WHO ARE PLAYING ON THIS CD,WELL THERE IS PLENTY OF BOTH. THE GREAT SONGS ARE "SAT WHAT" BY WALTER TROUT AND "RIVERIA PARADISE" BY STANLEY JORDAN. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

****½ - excellent sampler
The only thing wrong with this tremendous collection of 50s and early 60s blues singles is that it clocks it at just over 32 minutes, and that's just not enough, even considering that it was originally issued in the LP age (1963).

But there is no arguing with what is here. The first of six "The Blues" volumes from MCA/Chess is probably the best of the series, drawing from the vast Chess catalogues of men like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson (II), Buddy Guy, and John Lee Hooker. And these are not throwaways...Wolf is represented by "Spoonful" and the eerie and powerful "Smokestack Lightnin'", Sonny Boy Williamson by the superb "Don't Start Me To Talkin'", Muddy Waters by "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "I Just Want To Make Love To You" (which is called by its original title, "Just Make Love To Me", on the cover). Harmonica ace Little Walter Jacobs' first hit, the instrumental "Juke" is here as well, as is his excellent recording of Willie Dixon's "My Babe", and soulful bluesman Jimmy Witherspoon's best song, "When The Lights Go Out", is another of the highlights.

The annotation is mediocre, and this album has long since been supplanted by other (longer) compilations, but it remains a great introduction to classic Chicago blues. If you're new to the blues, this will convince you of its merit. And if it doesn't, well then nothing will.

A Very Good Place to Start
You can't argue with the choices here for excellent postwar Chicago blues. All classics. If it weren't for the longer and more varied "Blues Masters Volume 2: Postwar Chicago Blues", I would've voted this 5 stars. Rock and roll was birthed here, baby! ... Read more