Louisiana Blues & Zydeco

Right in the beginning of his career as the "King of ", recorded an album for an upstart . At the time, the genre was just starting to spread outside of the bayou proper, and the album is one of the landmarks both for and for the industry and genre. Unfortunately, the recording quality was never particularly good. Some of the parts were recorded only weakly, there was some scratchiness -- the usual. Thirty or forty years in, however, has remastered the old classics and re-released them in stereo. The compositions themselves are largely the same as previously, but they sound vastly better. Perhaps the bigger treat here though is the clump of unreleased material that comes along for the ride. There are a pair of alternate takes from the originals added in, and four items that were never included in any form. Admittedly, unreleased tracks were often excluded because they weren't as good as those that were selected in general. Nonetheless, it's an additional lump of fine music from one of the true masters of the genre. If you've already got the old version, you can still give this one a listen for the increased quality. If you don't, though, this one's a definite first stop on any exploration of 's work. ~ Adam Greenberg