Various Artists, "The stuff that dreams are made of"

This two disc compilation features rare collectibles in cajun, country, blues and pre-bluegrass, vinyl now made available on cd.

Lately, I've grown to appreciate old American folk tremendously. Sure, I like a lot of modern stuff too, but theese old records from the 20's and 30's have a quality to them like movies from that age shares as well. Just as laurel and Hardy still make you chuckle in a sense Adam Sandler won't in just ten years, theese skilled musicians (among them my fave, Dock Boggs) knock out quality tunes that makes you want to put on your dancing shoes.

There's a lot of blues on this compilation and I for one ain't all that keen on blues, sure, I can listen to it and enjoy it, it's just that I don't enjoy it as much as other genres of American folk.

There's a few instrumental tunes on the discs, as well as quite a few with singing to them and they all have that old record feel to them, none of the tunes have been processed with equaliser, the background, old vinyl, dust sound is all there.

Musically, the tunes are well more diverse than today's format. You get piano and trumpets on some tunes, instruments that are not too common on today's folk recordings.

Lyrically, you get a lot of innocense too. Country had, back in those days, often a humorous side to it that more modern country tunes (with perhaps the exception of Johnny Cash's Boy named Sue) lack. Wilmer Watts and the lonely eagles has a very funny tune on this one, that is Fightin' in the war with Spain.

The only things that I hold against this record is that there's not enough Cajun tunes, there's too much blues and that one of the tunes, Chicken don't roost too high, by The Georgia Pot Lickers, could be interpreted as a racist tune, which might have been acceptable in the 20's, but not now and even if it is a collectible, it shouldn't have been included on a record with musicians what own that much to African American traditions.

This means that this compilation is, in other words, not perfect, but pretty close. I give it 95,8% in level of satisfaction.

Cajun Peppar, "S/T"

I don't know where to start. This demo-cdr is an act of musical brilliance, it puts together all things I love, American music and Skåne (the region of Sweden where I live) pride.

I bought this record at the band's concert at the Eslöv Blues Festival last weekend and for those of you who missed them, Cajun Peppar plays Cajun-influenced music spiced up with blues, country, a bit of Steve Riley-ish pop-Cajun and Skånsk "dansband", dansband being what some people call Scandinavian country, but which is a genre with it's roots in domestic dancing music, as well as in 50's rock and roll and country.

The band is, in other words, rooted in Cajun, but being influenced by many genres. There is, however, accordion in each tune, but no fiddle.

They are also influenced by many languages, you get a wee bit of Creol French, loads of English and, of course, some Skånska. They mix languages in some songs and only one is in all Skånska, Kvinna eller Man?, a perhaps politically incorrect tune about transgendered people. It's funny, though.

What I like with this band is the mix of Skånsk and Cajun culture. I've said it before, us from Skåne, the deep south of Sweden, suffer the same prejuidices as people from the south of the USA and to translate "Cajun land" to "Skåneland" and "Cajun guy" to "Skånepåg" in the beautiful song Colinda!, that's just brilliant!

I would recommend this record to all fans of Cajun and Skånsk music, I think it appeals as much to both audiences. Wouldn't it be cool if more bands started mixing Skånsk and Cajun music? We already have Skånsk blues, hip hop and reggae, which the northerners listen to as well. They might not understand much, but us Skåningar have rythm in our blood.

I will see this band live again and again if I can, cos they're not just good on record, I know for a fact that they're brilliant live as well. Let's pray they get a record deal as well!

A brilliant and innovative demo with loads of potential like this naturally gets 100% in rate of satisfaction!

The Eslöv blues festival, day two

I didn't stay for all bands, because the last artist I saw, Slidin' Slim, was so good there was no reason for staying for the others. This gig, the Slidin' Slim gig was, in my book, the second best gig I've ever attended (for those who wonder, The Warriors in Oslo was the best). To stay to hear the headliners, whom the morning papers will all cover anyway, would simply be to be disapointed and bring down the total experience.

Slidin' Slim plays neotraditional blues on a steel guitar, which I'm always a sucker for. He's got the guitar sound, of course, but he has also got a bassy, deep voice perfect for singing the blues. Dunno whether he smokes or drinks, but his voice sounds like it has had a copule of shots of Bourrbon in his days.

The second band I saw today was Blue Mood, a geezer singing over a piano and a lad playing the guitar. This lad, however, is an old school pal of mine, whom I haven't seen in years, so we had a small chat before they entered the stage.

As the guitarist is a pal, it would be unfair to give them a review proper, as I can't be objective. I'll settle for describing their music.

Blue Mood plays, soft, laidback blues that pays as much homage to Muddy Waters, as it does, I think, to Nina Simone and, perhaps unintentionally, Sade. The guitarist also showed he's influenced by kids telly, cos he played the theme to Inspector Gadget in an ad-lib.

They were real crowd pleasers.

The first band I saw was a band called Cajun Peppar. As you might guess from their name, they are heavily influenced by cajun music, which I, as my faithful blog readers all know, like. Geez Louise, I thought I was the only Skånepåg who knew who Nathan Abshire and The Balfa Brothers were.

This band plays a form of cajun which is heavily influenced by blues. You really notice the African-American influence in their music and people often forgot that there is much African-American influences in cajun too. It ain't all celtic stuff.

Some tunes were all bluesy, but had a cajun accordion in it, which spiced their sound up and i didn't miss the fiddle at all, they were good, alright!

Cajun peppar mixes singing in English, Creol French and theirs and mine Skånska.

I really liked this band and I really liked the setting, Röstånga Mölla Café and the fact that there was no alcohol involved. Only bad thing I can say about them is the fact that they were a bit untight at times, but they were good enough to have this fact pardoned.

I really like the fact that there is a Skånskt cajun band and I will try to see them loads more times. Hopefully, people will dance then.

This was a great festival, the twelth in a row, unless I'm mistaken. Eslöv is a town in the deep Swedish south and not much happen here, so it's really cool that people bring blues to the town. For someone who likes American music, it's not easy to find gigs to attend, especially not in little Eslöv.

Two thumbs up for the crew!

Slidin' Slim gets 99,9% in level of satisfaction.
Cajun Peppar were also good and gets 81,3% in level of satisfaction.

The blues festival in Eslöv, my hometown

My hometown, Eslöv, hosts one of the best blues festivals in this country and this year's festival will take place on October 28th-29th.

I am particulary looking forward to seeing and hearing Cajun Peppar, a band which mixes blues with cajun and country music.

More info in English here.

Nathan Abshire - "French blues"

I have a confession to make. I absolutely adore the music of Nathan Abshire, warts and all. In fact, although I do enjoy more modern sounding acts like, as for an example, Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys or Beau Soleil, as well, it was Abshire who got me hooked on cajun music in the first place.

I still love his music as much as I did the first time I heard it. I had borrowed a compilation album of cajun music at my local lending library for what must have been close to twenty years or more ago. I liked all of the music on the disc, but Abshire's song, Les filles du Canada, just blew me away.

Abshire's style was distinctive to say the least. The music was traditional cajun and as traditional as cajun gets with his accordion squeezing out tunes to a traditional backing band in the background. Primitive? Yes! Raw? Yes! That is not the same thing as to say it's bad, quite on the contrary, it gives a certain laidback feel to his music and a devil may care attitude.

The singing is in French (of course!) and I don't know French, so please don't ask me what he was singing about, but what I can say is that his voice blended perfectly with his music. It was as raw and primitive (in a good way, keep in mind!) and between singing, he'd laugh and grunt. Utter genious!

Musically, the tunes on this record are the traditional mix of waltzes and blues tunes in the cajun vein and performed by one of it's all time masters.

Abshire's perhaps most famous tune, Pine Grove Blues is the opening track and after that, the classics keep coming out like a cat of the bag. Included is also a different version on the aforementioned track called Pine Groove Boogie and although there are no bad cuts on this disc, that song is perhaps my fave tune.

There is no bad thing to say about this album. It's sheer genious and anyone who likes old school cajun will appreciate this record enormously. If I was you and if you haven't heard cajun music before, I'd perhaps start with something lighter, like Steve Riley or Beau Soleil and progress to heavier stuff like Abshire or The Balfas later. There's loads of videos of Abshire on youtube, just so you know!

A perfect album like this naturally gets 100% in level of satisfaction!