Search - File :: La Vie Marron

File used to be an acoustic Cajun dance band in the style of Beausoleil and Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, but the addition of pianist/singer David Egan changed everything. Egan's boogie-woogie style, however, links File to South Louisiana's swamp-pop legacy and, by extension, to New Orleans R&B. This gives the quintet a versatility that it puts to good use on its album La Vie Marron. On Egan's composition "I Just Can't Do Right," his Professor Longhair piano licks provide a strong New Orleans flavor, but Lormand's squeezebox and D'Jalma Garnier's fiddle pull it back into the swamps. The combination is unlike anything else coming out of the Gulf Coast. --Geoffrey Himes