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BeauSoleil, the Grammy-winning Cajun band from Lafayette, recorded its 29th album at The Clubhouse recording studio in New York’s scenic Hudson Valley. The eclectic Alligator Purse includes a swamp-pop reinvention of Aldus Roger’s “Marie”; a wailing take on Julie Miller’s “Little Darlin’ ” featuring guest vocalist Natalie Merchant; a Cajunized version of blues classic “Rollin’ and Tumblin’ ”; traditional Cajun tunes; and Bobby Charles’ “I Spent All My Money Loving You” with French lyrics.

Besides former 10,000 Maniacs singer Merchant, Alligator Purse features guest stars Garth Hudson from the Band; John Sebastian from the classic ’60s group the Lovin’ Spoonful; Artie and Happy Traum; and saxophonist Andy Stein of Commander Cody and Asleep At The Wheel fame.

BeauSoleil’s road to the Hudson Valley began in 2005 when the group performed for the Build The Levee benefit concert at upstate New York’s Bard College. Two years later several of the benefit’s performers joined BeauSoleil at The Clubhouse for the recording of Alligator Purse.

Michael Pillot, a big-time music, television and film producer and former Louisiana resident, invited BeauSoleil to play the benefit at Bard College and then joined the group at The Clubhouse as Alligator Purse producer. Except for albums with the late Charles Sawtelle and Mary Chapin Carpenter collaborator John Jennings, Pillot is the only producer to work with BeauSoleil in its 34 years of existence.

“We never had a producer like Pillot,” BeauSoleil singer-fiddler Michael Doucet said recently in his nearly 200-year-old Acadian house near Lafayette. “He took charge. ‘This is what you need to do. This is how you need to do it.’ It was great.”

Having previously performed in concert with the Band, Doucet knew Garth Hudson prior to The Clubhouse sessions. Doucet and BeauSoleil drummer Tommy Alesi had also performed the songs of Sebastian and the Spoonful when they were in a pre-BeauSoleil band in the ’60s.

Recording with Sebastian, Doucet said, “it was like meeting a hero. And he doesn’t look any different from the ’60s.”

Both the harmonica-playing Sebastian and Merchant appear on “Little Darlin’.”

“Natalie is a very earthy person,” Doucet said. “She came in and she wanted to do the song and, man, I’d never heard her voice like that. I just said, ‘Wow.’ ”

Doucet also loves “Little Darlin’,” written by the Nashville-based Julie Miller.

“When I heard it, I said, ‘She’s been listening to Cajun music.’ We put it back in the Cajun mode. The song expresses almost every sentiment most Cajun songs do, in a beautiful, poetic way. And it’s just fun to play. ”

Using minimal overdubs, BeauSoleil, Pillot and guests recorded 25 songs at The Clubhouse in four days.

“I don’t mind mistakes,” Doucet said. “I’m not a perfectionist to the point where it doesn’t sound like we sound. I wanna make it sound good, but I don’t wanna make it moldy or over-processed. I like spontaneity. I have no idea what rides I’m going to play. It’s how I express myself in the moment, and then it’s down on tape forever, like a snapshot.”

Alligator Purse, to be released Jan 20, is the band’s first album with Yep Roc Records. The North Carolina label’s amazing roster includes John Doe of X, classic New York City garage-rockers the Fleshtones, the Blasters’ Dave Avin, maverick country artist Rodney Crowell and ever-adventurous roots rockers Southern Culture On The Skids.

Despite BeauSoleil’s status as the most famous Cajun band, the Grammy award it won in 1998 for L’Amour Ou La Lolie and Cajun music’s growing popularity, Doucet wasn’t optimistic about the band’s future as a recording act prior to its new deal.

“I didn’t think anybody would want to record the aging Cajuns,” he said.

But after a conversation between BeauSoleil’s booking agent, Mike Kappus, and Yep Roc co-owner, Glenn Dicker, it looked as if BeauSoleil and Yep Roc would be a good fit.

“Glenn and I talked on the phone for about a half an hour and, basically, we had a deal,” Doucet said.

Alligator Purse takes its title after a ditty Doucet and his sister sang as children. Doucet sings it a cappella for the CD. He bought the alligator purse on the CD’s cover through auction Web site Ebay for $20.

“I wanted to call the album Unemployed Samurai but nobody liked that,” he said.

Cajun Rendezvous was another possible title, but it was rejected for being mundane. Twenty-nine albums into a career, it can be difficult to think of something fresh. That goes for the music, too.

“It’s hard not to repeat yourself,” Doucet said. “But you have to, not merely be different, but really dig deeper into what you do, to look for that essence and make it fresh, for us and for people listening.”

BeauSoleil recently got its 11th Grammy nomination for Live At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Doucet’s solo album for the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, From Now On, also is nominated in the Grammys’ best Cajun or zydeco category.

Alligator Purse seems a shoo-in for a nomination next year.

“I believe in this record,” Doucet said. “I believe in the group. Every member has blossomed. It’s way beyond me now and I’m so proud of these guys. There’s nothing like a band that plays together and eats together. It feels goods. That sounds trite, but we’re not trying to be anything other than what we are. When you establish that, you can’t do anything wrong, because it’s just you,
even the mistakes.”

2theadvocate.com/entertainment/36702634.html

December 26th, 2008 by Ragin Cajun / No Comments »