Boozoo Chavis of Lake Charles, Louisiana, was one of the pioneers and living masters of zydeco music. He died in May 2001 at the age of 70, only weeks after laying down the tracks for Down Home on Dog Hill.
Zydeco music, like its birthplace Louisiana, is a blend of numerous styles and traditions. The cousin of Cajun music, zydeco combines old Caribbean Creole music with soul, r&b, blues and Acadian styles into a funky stew that prominently features the accordion. Its most famous practitioner, the late Clifton Chenier, played a piano accordion, but Wilson Anthony “Boozoo” Chavis favored a single-row button model of the type that gives Cajun music its famous “chanky-chank” sound.
Chavis plays an infectious mix of all the elements of zydeco on Dog Hill. This disc is brimming with life and spicy as a pot of gumbo. His house band, the Magic Sounds, made up of his sons Charles and Rellis on rub-board and drums, respectively, and Classie Ballou Jr., on bass, are joined by the hot young Louisiana slide guitarist Sonny Landreth, fiddler David Greely, and producer extraordinaire Scott Billington on harmonica.
“Tell Me What You Want,” the opening track, sets the pace for the record, with Chavis’s bouncy accordion and inimitable vocals laid over the solid foundation provided by Rellis’s locomotive shuffle and Ballou’s chugging bass.
Chavis composed nine of the 13 tracks, and chose some excellent cover material, including Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “Rock Me Mama,” Hank Ballard’s “The Twist,” and Eddie Shuler’s “Sugar Bee” and “Broke and Hungry.” Every track is a winner, but standouts include the smouldering slow blues of “Rock Me Mama,” the rocking “‘Tite Fille” and the rollicking zydeco of “The Hen Won’t Lay,” which features knockout fiddling, supernatural bass lines and Landreth’s chicken-scratch picking. And don’t miss the final track, the traditional Cajun-style “Henry Martin Two Step,” with just Chavis on accordion and Greely on fiddle.
Billington’s production of the recordings, made at Chavis’s home studio, puts lots of air into the arrangements, so the proceedings never seem crowded even when they’re packed solid with players.
It’s truly a shame that we’ve lost Boozoo Chavis. But he’s left a fine recorded legacy including Down Home on Dog Hill, which I’m nominating as the backyard barbecue party record of the year.
(Rounder, 2001)
