Search - Hackberry Ramblers :: Cajun Boogie

In the 1930s, South Louisiana music was opening up to outside influences, and one of those new sounds was Western swing from nearby Texas. In Hackberry, Louisiana, Luderin Darbone, a fiddler and Texas-swing fan, lived across the street from Edwin Duhon, a guitarist and Cajun diehard. In 1933, they combined their enthusiasms in the Hackberry Ramblers, an accordionless ensemble which lent a string band feel to Cajun music. They quickly became stars on the South Louisiana circuit, and six decades, 10 presidents, 70 bandmates, and thousands of dances later, Darbone and Duhon are still leading the Hackberry Ramblers. Cajun Boogie illustrates how raucous and exuberant the Ramblers can be, even in their Social Security years. Produced by the band's baby-boomer drummer, folklorist Ben Sandmel, the album features a guest vocal by Rodney Crowell on the infectious, double-entendre boogie-blues of "Old Pipeliner" and guest fiddle solos by Beausoleil's Michael Doucet on four tracks. Ultimately, though, the recording is dominated by the Hackberries themselves, who may no longer have the control of intonation and phrasing they once did but who still understand the "feel" of Louisiana music far better than dozens of earnest, younger Cajun revivalists. --Geoffrey Himes