Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music

1	Vagabond Special 2:56
2	La Chanson d'Une Fille de Quinze Ans (Song of a Fifteen Year Old Girl) / Ann Savoy 2:26
3	Diggy Liggy Lo / John Fogerty 3:22
4	Je Veux Plus Te Voir (I Don't Want You Anymore) / Linda Thompson 3:31
5	Pa Janvier, Laisse Moi M'En Aller (Pa Janvier, Let Me Go) / Patty Griffin 3:54
6	Les Flammes d'Enfer (The Flames of Hell) / Richard Thompson 2:35
7	Ma Mule (My Mule) / David Johansen 3:24
8	Ma Blonde Est Partie (My Blonde Left) / Maria McKee 2:35
9	Blues de Bosco (Bosco Blues) / Rodney Crowell 4:21
10	O, Ma Chère 'Tite Fille (Oh, My Dear Little Girl) / Ann Savoy 3:49
11	Valse de Balfa (Balfa Waltz) / Linda Thompson 2:56
12	Two Step de Prairie Soileau 4:03
13	Arrêtte Pas la Musique (Don't Stop the Music) / Nick Lowe 3:00
14	Tout un Beau Soir en Me Promenant (On a Beautiful Evening While ...) / Maria McKee 3:12

Barnes & Noble

With its stomping rhythms and bouncing melodies, Cajun music -- the accordion-and-fiddle-based style indigenous to southwest Louisiana -- is party music first and foremost, but it also encompasses sad waltzes, ancient ballads from the 18th century, and bluesy tales of drunkenness and heartbreak. Evangeline Made serves as both a tribute and a star-studded introduction to this wonderful roots style. As part of the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band and as a scholar and folklorist, Ann Savoy has studied and promoted Cajun music for decades. For Evangeline Made, Savoy gathered a diverse group of luminaries, including John Fogerty, Linda Ronstadt (who duets with Savoy on two tunes), Richard Thompson, Maria McKee, and Nick Lowe, to sing Cajun classics, backed by crack Cajun musicians (among them Steve Riley, Sonny Landreth, and members of the Savoy-Doucet clan). Savoy tutored the singers in French, and everyone seems to have a ball dabbling in music they love. Richard Thompson strips "Les Flammes d'Enfer (The Flames of Hell)" to its ancient folk ballad roots and displays his fleet guitar talent while he's at it. His ex-wife Linda Thompson sings two eerie waltzes, and the wonderful Maria McKee nails a pair of bruised ballads, including "Ma Blonde Est Partie (My Blonde Left)." John Fogerty gets swampy and goofy on "Diggy Liggy Lo," and Rodney Crowell throws himself into "Blues de Bosco (Bosco's Blues)." Like a good plate of crawfish étouffée, Evangeline Made is full of spicy, surprising flavors, and Cajun purists and neophytes alike will find it delicious. Steve Klinge

All Music Guide

Getting together a bunch of well-known musicians known for rock, folk, and country rather than straight ethnic music to perform on a compilation tribute album to a strand of ethnic music is usually a bad idea. Evangeline Made, refreshingly, turns out to have been a good idea. That's probably due at least in part to it being produced by a respected Cajun musician and folklorist, Ann Savoy, who also participates in the recording as well, dueting with Linda Ronstadt on two songs. The production is understated and sympathetic, as it's neither hardcore Cajun music nor Cajun music that's been bleached into pop. John Fogerty, Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson, David Johansen, Maria McKee, Nick Lowe, and Rodney Crowell are among the quite credible and respectful roster of artists who interpret a song or two, every single one of which is sung in French (even though some of the artists don't speak the language). Cajun influence has permeated Fogerty's vocals for so long that he sounds quite natural on "Diggy Liggy Lo," and the more country-oriented artists fall into natural, loping grooves. Purists might find this something of a sellout, a dilution of the real and rawer thing for ears unaccustomed to the real deal. Perhaps they have viable points, but here's a fact which might be hard for them to face: this simply has much more variety, skillful singing, and thoughtful, pleasing production than most Cajun records do, without compromising the spirit of the music. Richie Unterberger