Johnny Paycheck: “Take This Job And Shove It: The Definitive Collection” (2016) CD Review

“Take This Job And Shove It” is one of those songs I think I knew before I ever actually heard it. It was just a part of the world of my childhood. People referred to it a lot. I would sing its chorus long before I ever had my first job. It was a number one hit on the country chart, but had plenty of mainstream appeal. It was written by David Allen Coe, but it was Johnny Paycheck who first recorded it and had a hit with it. The song was so popular that a film was later named after it (with both Johnny Paycheck and David Allen Coe having small parts). Johnny Paycheck (whose real name was Donald Eugene Lytle) had several other hits during his career, and many of them are included on the new two-disc compilation, Take This Job And Shove It: The Definitive Collection, which covers his years with Epic Records, from 1971 to 1982. Sure, a few of these tunes are a bit on the cheesy side, like “Somebody Loves Me” and “Mr. Lovemaker,” but overall these songs are such a delight, and some are even kind of beautiful, such as “My Part Of Forever.” This compilation includes liner notes by Chris Morris.

Johnny Paycheck recorded a lot of love songs early in his career at Epic. In fact, seven of the first thirteen tracks have some form of the word “love” in the title (compared to only one of the remaining twenty-seven tracks). Several of these were written by Jerry Foster and Bill Rice. The CD opens, however, with “She’s All I Got,” a song written by Jerry Williams Jr. and Gary U.S. Bonds. Freddie North was the first to record this song, but this version by Johnny Paycheck reached #2 on the country chart. In this song, Johnny begs his friend, “Please don’t take her love away from me,” adding, “She’s all I got.” (By the way, this song was recently covered by The Bo-Keys on Heartaches By The Number.) It’s followed by one of the Foster/Rice numbers, “Someone To Give My Love To,” a good song that reached #4 on the country chart in 1972. “I will follow you to the ends of the earth/For my place will be with you/I have taken you for better or worse/Someone to give my love to.”

“It’s Only A Matter Of Wine” is one of those glorious sad country songs about trying to forget a woman, when of course the very act of singing it keeps her in mind. Johnny introduces it by saying, “Here’s one for the boys.” “While inside I’m washing her memory away/’Cause it’s only a matter of wine.” And yes, I love the song’s playful title. This was written by Larry Kingston and Frank Dycus, and is one of my favorite tracks. Johnny then turns to gospel for “Let’s All Go Down To The River,” a track that becomes a rousing number.

“Song And Dance Man” is kind of goofy, but is also fun. It’s about singing for money and alcohol, and has some playful lyrics, like these lines: “Just name your pleasure, then dig down in your jeans/My body needs a beverage and my guitar needs some strings.” “Song And Dance Man” was written by Jerry Foster and Bill Rice, and reached #8 on the country chart. Another fun tune is Johnny Paycheck’s rendition of Paul Simon’s “Gone At Last.” This is a song that Paul Simon included on his Still Crazy After All These Years album, and also released as a single, having a hit with it in 1975. Johnny Paycheck released his version as a single in 1976, and had a minor hit. This song has a bit of a “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” vibe, and this version features some nice work on harmonica, as well as some great vocals by Charnissa. “I’ve had a long streak of bad luck/But I pray it’s gone at last.”

Fun in its own way is “All-American Man,” a song that is very much of its time, a reaction to the Women’s Liberation movement, with lines like “American woman, why can’t you agree/God made man for himself, and he made you for me/American woman, why can’t you understand/That all you’ve got to do is love your all-American man” and “Well, I’ve tried my best to understand/Why you want to replace man/And give up all the luxuries we give you/We work our fingers to the bone/And all we want is you at home/And you’re gonna go too far to forgive you.” Wow.

Johnny Paycheck dips into the blues with “11 Months And 29 Days,” a song about being in jail and looking forward to his release. “Keep your hands off my woman/I ain’t gonna be gone that long.” It’s a very cool tune, and I love the way it mixes blues and country. This one was written by Johnny Paycheck and Billy Sherrill. Another song I like a whole lot is “Slide Off Your Satin Sheets,” in which he sings, “Slide off of your satin sheets/Slip into your long, soft mink.” Oh yes!

The second disc has lots of drinking songs, more tunes fitting that famous outlaw personality of his. And it opens with his most famous recording, “Take This Job And Shove It.” This song still works so well, and it’s hard to keep from singing along with it, regardless of how you feel about your current employment. “I’d give the shirt right off of my back/If I had the guts to say/Take this job and shove it/I ain’t working here no more/My woman done left and took all the reasons/I was working for.” This tune reached #1 on the chart. It’s followed by “Me And The I.R.S.,” a great tune about how working folks get screwed over by the government. “You know, the I.R.S./Ain’t gonna rest/’Til they think they’ve got it all.” And addressing the I.R.S. directly, he tells them to take his name off their list. I love these lines: “Well, it’s hard to keep my hands on my woman with Uncle Sam’s hand in my pants/And if I can’t afford the music, how the hell am I going to dance?”

Like “It’s Only A Matter Of Wine,” “The Spirits Of St. Louis” has a nice, playful title. And like that other song, it’s about drinking to get a woman off of his mind. “Drank every bar dry in this city/But all the spirits of St. Louis can’t get you off of my mind.” It’s followed by another drinking song, “Colorado Cool-Aid,” which tells a story that is delivered as spoken word. This is actually a drinking-and-fighting song, and includes someone cutting off another guy’s ear. But there is an odd sense of humor to this song, as Johnny says, “But he was a gentleman about it/Bent over, and with a halfway grin/Picked it up and handed it back to him.”

“You Can Have Her” is fun and delightful, with great groove and some wonderful backing vocals. Here the man is looking for a real love, but finds a woman who is just looking to play. “Drinkin’ And Drivin’” is another song about drinking a woman off of his mind, but this one adds driving to the mix. “Five dollars’ worth of regular/Three dollars’ worth of wine/Just hand me a road map/Show me the state line.” “(Stay Away From) The Cocaine Train” is another of the second disc’s highlights. “Lord, it’s hard to get off the old white train.”

Johnny Paycheck covers three Merle Haggard songs on the second disc. He opens the first one, “Someone Told My Story,” by saying, “You know, for fifteen years I’ve been listening to songs that Merle Haggard wrote. They’ve helped me make it through many a night.” In 1981, Johnny Paycheck released an album of Merle Haggard’s material titled Mr. Hag Told My Story. The second song is “I Can’t Hold Myself In Line,” and features Merle Haggard on vocals. It was released as a single, reaching #41 on the country chart. The third is “Yesterday’s News (Just Hit Home Today),” and it includes a spoken word introduction.

“In Memory Of A Memory” is a really wonderful and emotionally engaging song, and one of my favorites. “Oh sure, you think I’m crazy/And hell, I just might be/But as for tonight/I’m here in memory of a memory.”

CD Track List

Disc One

1. She’s All I Got
2. Someone To Give My Love To
3. It’s Only A Matter Of Wine
4. Let’s All Go Down To The River
5. Love Is A Good Thing
6. Somebody Loves Me
7. Something About You I Love
8. Mr. Lovemaker
9. Song And Dance Man
10. For A Minute There
11. My Part Of Forever
12. Loving You Beats All I Ever Seen
13. Keep On Lovin’ Me
14. Gone At Last
15. All-American Man
16. 11 Months And 29 Days
17. I’m The Only Hell (Mama Ever Raised)
18. Slide Off Your Satin Sheets
19. Hank (You Tried To Tell Me)
20. The Man From Bowling Green

Disc Two

1. Take This Job And Shove It
2. Me And The I.R.S.
3. Georgia In A Jug
4. The Spirits Of St. Louis
5. Colorado Cool-Aid
6. Proud Mary
7. Friend, Lover, Wife
8. Thanks To The Cathouse (I’m In The Doghouse With You)
9. Look What The Dog Drug In
10. You Can Have Her
11. Drinkin’ And Drivin’
12. Fifteen Beers
13. (Stay Away From) The Cocaine Train
14. You Better Move On
15. Someone Told My Story
16. I Can’t Hold Myself In Line
17. Yesterday’s News (Just Hit Home Today)
18. D.O.A. (Drunk On Arrival)
19. In Memory Of A Memory
20. The Outlaw’s Prayer

Take This Job And Shove It: The Definitive Collection was released on May 6, 2016 through Real Gone Music.

Grateful Dead: “Dave’s Picks 2016 Bonus Disc” (2016) CD Review

One of the best gifts I’ve received in recent years is a subscription to the Dave’s Picks series of Grateful Dead live recordings. A yearly subscription comes with a bonus disc. And the 2016 bonus disc arrived with Dave’s Picks Volume 18 earlier this month. Volume 18 contains the complete show the Grateful Dead performed on July 17, 1976, and the third disc contains some filler from the previous show, music from the first set and the encore. The 2016 Bonus Disc contains more music from July 16, 1976, this time from the second set. And because of how closely this bonus disc is related to Dave’s Picks Volume 18, the cover artwork actually forms a complete picture with the cover of Volume 18 (reminding me of the way Skull Fuck – also  known as Skull And Roses – unfolded).

The disc opens with “Playing In The Band,” always a cause for celebration. Sure, there is a messy moment or two near the beginning, but within three minutes the band is off on a cool, mellow, trippy jam. This is an excellent jam that sort of becomes “Stronger Than Dirt” at one point before eventually moving into a cool “Cosmic Charlie,” a song I’ve always loved. (When I was a teenager I had a blue betta fish named Cosmic Charlie, and whenever I would play Grateful Dead music, he would dance, often jumping out of the water – no other music caused any reaction from him.) This is one of those smooth, slightly slower mid-1970s renditions of “Cosmic Charlie,” with Donna’s vocals blending really nicely with Jerry’s. Check out that sweet vocal ending.

This disc skips “Samson And Delilah,” and goes right to a wonderful “Spanish Jam.” I love the way this jam builds, and it leads to a drum solo, which then in turn leads into “The Wheel.” This is a song that had a different feel in the mid-1970s, with a somewhat slower feel than later versions. I like this rendition a whole lot. “The wheel is turning and you can’t slow it down/You can’t let go and you can’t hold on/You can’t go back and you can’t stand still/If the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will.” The jam is kind of pretty at times, and it leads back into “Playing In The Band.”

“Around And Around” is missing. I wish it were included, especially as “Playing In The Band” leads directly into it (so its absence requires a bit of a fade at the end of “Playing”). It could certainly fit, as this disc contains just under seventy minutes of music (either that, or “Samson And Delilah” could be included, but not both). But whatever the reason, it’s not here, and the disc goes right to a moving rendition of “High Time.” Here too Donna’s vocals have a strong presence. This disc then concludes with “Sugar Magnolia,” which concluded the second set that night. There is a bit of stage banter before the tune begins, including birthday wishes to Bill Graham. This is a really good version of “Sugar Magnolia.”

CD Track List

1. Playing In The Band >
2. Cosmic Charlie
3. Spanish Jam >
4. Drums >
5. The Wheel >
6. Playing In The Band
7. High Time
8. Sugar Magnolia

Dave’s Picks 2016 Bonus Disc was released in early May, 2016.

Robert Rex Waller, Jr.: “Fancy Free” (2016) CD Review

I See Hawks In L.A. is one of the best bands going these days, and a big part of their appeal for me is Rob Waller’s voice. Truly, his is one of my favorite voices in current music. There is something wise, experienced, perhaps even a bit hurt in his voice, and yet his voice also a friendly quality. It’s a great combination. With I See Hawks In L.A., Rob Waller sings mostly original material. On his new solo album, Fancy Free, he’s chosen to do other people’s songs, including tunes by The Kinks and Willie Nelson (a really cool and unusual rendition of “Me And Paul”). By the way, while this is a solo album, he gets some help from several of the people who have played with I See Hawks In L.A., including Paul Lacques, Shawn Nourse and Anthony Lacques (Where’s Paul Marshall?).

Robert Waller opens Fancy Free with a beautiful Utah Phillips song, “Walking Through Your Town In The Snow,” a song that was included on Loafer’s Glory (where it was preceded by the spoken word “Moffit Tunnel”). Rob’s rendition is pretty and moving, mostly because of his voice, but also because of the addition of violin. This is just the kind of lyric that is perfectly suited for Rob’s voice: “I’ve got no place to go/All the trains are running slow/I’m walking through your town in the snow/It’s getting late and all the bars are closed.” Rob follows that one with a Neil Young song, “Albuquerque,” a song that was included on Young’s 1975 record Tonight’s The Night. This is another excellent choice for Rob’s voice, with lyrics about the road.

Daniel Johnston’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down Your Grievances” is an interesting choice of covers. I really love what Rob does with this song. He gives it a full-band sound, quite a bit different from the original, though Rob pronounces “grievances” the same way Daniel Johnston does on the Yip/Jump album. And the spirit of the song remains the same, of course. (By the way, if you haven’t seen the documentary The Devil And Daniel Johnston, you should check it out.)

Rob Waller does a really good cover of The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset.” The Submarines used to do a wonderful cover of this one in concert (maybe they still do; it’s been a while since I’ve seen them). Rob’s version is quite different. It has a kind of pared down sound, with piano being the main instrument accompanying the vocals. It also has a loose vibe which I love, like the recording is capturing an impromptu performance in a parlor somewhere. This disc also contains an unusual cover of “Amazing Grace,” with the lyrics delivered simply, almost as to himself, accompanied by piano and bass. This is a very short rendition, just over a minute long.

This CD’s title track, “Fancy Free,” is an Oak Ridge Boys song. Actually, The Oak Ridge Boys used it as the title track to a record too, theirs being from 1981. This might seem like a surprising choice of songs to cover, but of course I See Hawks In L.A. is a country band. What might be more surprising is what Rob Waller does with it, making it a ridiculously fun tune with something of an island sound. Some of this song’s lyrics had me laughing out loud, particularly this line: “She'd be no good to me if I held her against her will.” As surprising as this track might be, probably the most surprising choice of songs on this disc is “The Air That I Breathe,” a song that was a big hit for The Hollies. It was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, and originally recorded by Albert Hammond on his 1972 record It Never Rains In Southern California. It’s been recorded by a lot of artists over the years, including Phil Everly, Olivia Newton-John, and Barry Manilow, but for some reason it’s just not one I would have guessed Rob Waller would do. That being said, he delivers a really good rendition.

One of my favorite tracks is Rob’s take on Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me.” This version has an unexpected power. And like the Grateful Dead’s version, Rob returns to the opening verse toward the end. But it’s after that that this version gets wild. This is an excellent rendition. The CD then concludes with a very cool version of Herman Hupfield’s “Night Owl,” featuring some nice work on bass. This is absolutely delightful, and is another of the disc’s highlights.

CD Track List

1. Walking Through Your Town In The Snow
2. Albuquerque
3. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievances
4. Waterloo Sunset
5. Counting My Lucky Stars
6. Amazing Grace
7. Fancy Free
8. Don’t You Pay Them No Mind
9. Me And Paul
10. The Air That I Breathe
11. The Crystal Ship
12. She Belongs To Me
13. Night Owl 

Musicians

Musicians on this CD include Robert Rex Waller, Jr. on vocals and guitar; Marc Doten on piano, bass, organ, synthesizer, backing vocals, percussion and guitar; Paul Lacques on guitar and lap steel; Anthony Lacques on drums; Shawn Nourse on drums; Peter Burke on drums; Robert Rex Waller, Sr. on piano; Joel Guzman on accordion; Marcus Watkins on guitar; Nora Germain on violin; Jerome Edwards on harmonica; Steve Rank on backing vocals; and Katie Williams on backing vocals.

Fancy Free is scheduled to be released on July 1, 2016 through Western Seeds.

Ticketmaster Needs To Be Taken Down

I had such a great time at the Dead & Company shows in Worcester and Los Angeles last year. And after seeing some footage from the band before and after the recent Grateful Dead Meet-Up At The Movies screening, I started itching to see them in concert again. This summer they’re doing a show at Irvine Meadows, which isn’t all that far from me. But the big problem is the ticket price. My friend said that tickets in the loge section are $91.50. Now that’s already too high. At that price, a band can’t give an average show. They have to deliver an amazing show every single night. As ridiculous as that price is already, with the fees, each ticket comes to $118.55. That’s $27.05 in fees. The fees alone cost more than concert tickets used to. And what is it precisely that we’re paying for? What costs them $27.05? The printing of the ticket? Certainly not. I really want to know what they claim costs them $27.05 per ticket. What is it they’re doing? Are they fucking hand-painting each ticket? Are they going to drive over to our homes and hand-deliver them to us? Of course not. They’re doing no more than they used to, when ticket fees were a dollar or two, and in fact often they’re doing much less and not even giving us physical tickets.

So what do I do? I want to see Dead & Company again. But I don’t want to give the greedy motherfuckers at Ticketmaster a single cent. Are we powerless to stop these assholes? I don’t think so. One thing we can do is refuse to buy the tickets. If no one goes to the shows, eventually they will lower the prices. They’ll have to. Of course, in the meantime this hurts the bands, and hurts us. So the solution is for the government to step in and put an end to this monopoly. Remember when monopolies were bad? Well, they still are. So, come on, you can do this. After all, the world was able to stop the Nazis. Why can’t we stop Ticketmaster? I think perhaps if we employ some of the same weaponry against this evil force as was used against Nazi Germany, Ticketmaster will tumble in no time. And we can all go back to enjoying the music. Just please take care of this before July when Dead & Company come to town.

Grateful Dead Meet-Up At The Movies 2016, Thoughts Afterward

It was wonderful revisiting the Grateful Dead concert from July 2, 1989 at Sullivan Stadium. I watched it at the AMC Theater in Burbank, and we had a good group. The guy in front of me had been at the show too. He also worked on Dupree's Diamond News with his wife, which is wild. I still have several issues of that magazine from back in the day. The guy next to me had seen several shows on that summer 1989 tour, but not the July 2nd show. The movie theater was kind enough not to subject us to any advertisements or trailers (although, actually, there was one brief ad, but it was for a Shakespeare performance, so I was happy to see it). Instead of a lot of commercials, before the show they played some footage from a Dead & Company concert (though I'm not sure which concert).

Just before the show started, a woman came by and gave several of us Grateful Dead water bottles, with the artwork from the new Red Rocks 7/8/78 3-disc release. Very cool! I still need to order that CD; or, better yet, I need to order the July 1978 box set. And on screen there was a promotional interview with David Lemieux about that 1978 box set. And then the show started. There was no footage of the glider, by the way. I swear I remember seeing a glider overhead during "To Lay Me Down," dipping its wings in time with the music. Does anyone else recall this? Anyway, I had a great time watching the concert on screen. It was perhaps even better than I'd remembered it, especially the first half of the second set. Many people in the audience applauded after certain songs, and a few people danced off to the side. And on our way out, a guy handed out photos he had taken of the band in the late 1980s. The one he gave me is of Brent. He said he thought he'd taken it at Laguna Seca.

I hope they keep doing these screenings. And if they're looking for suggestions of shows to screen, I would love to revisit the concert from June 17, 1991 at Giants Stadium when they opened the first set with "Eyes Of The World." Ooo-wee!

Grateful Dead: “Dave’s Picks Volume 18” (2016) CD Review

It’s always a treat when a new volume of Dave’s Picks arrives in the mail. I knew one was coming, of course, because someone in the Dead organization sends out an email when they’re about to ship them. But still, there is something so enjoyable about tearing open the envelope and seeing some Grateful Dead artwork and knowing soon I’ll be hearing some great music. Volume 18 contains the complete show the Grateful Dead did on July 17, 1976 at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, as well as some music from the previous night at the same venue. These shows were part of the band’s first run in their hometown after their break.

The first disc contains the entire first set, plus the first song of the second set. The band gets this show going with the fun Chuck Berry tune “Promised Land.” Some good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll to start the evening, and it’s not long at all before I’m feeling damn good. They follow that with the wonderful “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo,” with Jerry delivering some cool stuff on guitar, and Keith a strong presence on piano. They let a sweet and relaxed jam extend a bit before going into that last section of the song. Jerry’s vocals are very soft in the mix at the beginning of “Deal,” but that problem is soon fixed. And though this is a very short “Deal” (less than five minutes), it has some good energy. The “New Minglewood Blues” that follows it also has great energy. Bob’s song selections in this first set are all fun tunes, nothing slow, nothing introspective or deep. In fact, he ends the first set the way he began it, with a Chuck Berry song. This time it’s “Johnny B. Goode.”

In the first set, Jerry delivers a sweet “Peggy-O,” that is just as beautiful in the jams as in the vocal sections. “Sugaree” doesn’t feel all that special at first, but approximately four minutes in it gets interesting, the way Jerry comes in almost over what Keith is doing, building on it. And then the jam toward the end gets good, rising to some delicious heights, particularly Jerry’s guitar. You can hear the crowd appreciating it too at the end. The first disc concludes with the first song of the second set, “Samson And Delilah,” a song that was relatively new at the time (well, new to the Grateful Dead anyway), having been introduced only a month or so earlier.

The second disc contains the rest of the second set and the first song of the encore. As usual, the second set is where most of the magic happens. The band eases into a moving rendition of “Comes A Time.” The jam at the end is truly beautiful, one of the reasons to own this set, and it takes on a sort of “Eyes Of The World” feel. The band then takes things in a different direction with “The Other One,” teasing it a bit before going into a brief drum solo, which then leads into the song, with that great monster bass line by Phil announcing the tune. And the band is immediately off into an excellent jam. I am always excited to hear what the band will do with this song, and this time after the first verse, they go into a spacy jam (which this set actually labels as a separate track – “Space”). The jam eventually moves into “Eyes Of The World,” one of my favorites. This song always makes me so fucking happy, and this is a really good version, especially the jam between the second and third verses. For some reason the jam after the third verse is labeled as a separate track – “Jam.” I really have no idea why they did that, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a cool jam, playing on a certain groove for a while. Interestingly, toward the end it has a little “Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad” tease. It seems there is quite a bit of foreshadowing in the second set of this show. The band then returns to “The Other One” for the second verse, before quickly moving into “Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad.” The band then concludes the second set with “One More Saturday Night.” It was, after all, a Saturday night.

Did I ever mention the Grateful Dead T-shirt I was going to make? On the front was to be a close-up of Jerry’s face, smiling, with his finger over his lips, saying, “Sshhh.” And on the back it was going to say, “Don’t tell Bob it’s Saturday.” Anyway, I’d planned to make those for the fall 1995 tour. Oh well.

This is a good version of “One More Saturday Night,” with set-closing energy. The second disc then concludes with the first song of the encore, “U.S. Blues.” There’s a bit of funny stage banter with Bob before they start the song. This is a fun song, and timely too – this show was less than two weeks after the U.S. bicentennial. All in all, this second disc is fantastic.

The third disc begins with the rare second encore, “Not Fade Away,” which features an extended jam. The rest of the disc is from the Dead’s show on July 16, 1976. Back in the days of trading tapes, we’d label any extra tunes “filler.” I don’t know if anyone does that anymore, and it does sound a bit, well, dismissive. Anyway, the music here is really good. It begins approximately halfway through the first set, with “Big River,” and includes the rest of the first set, as well as the encore. This disc features another sweet rendition of “Peggy-O,” but the highlight is “The Music Never Stopped” into “Scarlet Begonias,” which ends the first set. The encore is “U.S. Blues” (yes, two nights in a row).

CD Track List

Disc 1

1. Promised Land
2. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
3. Mama Tried
4. Deal
5. New Minglewood Blues
6. Peggy-O
7. Big River
8. Sugaree
9. Johnny B. Goode
10. Samson And Delilah

Disc 2

1. Comes A Time >
2. Drums >
3. The Other One >
4. Space >
5. Eyes Of The World >
6. Jam >
7. The Other One >
8. Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad >
9. One More Saturday Night
10. U.S. Blues

Disc 3

1. Not Fade Away
2. Big River
3. Brown-Eyed Women
4. Looks Like Rain
5. Peggy-O
6. The Music Never Stopped >
7. Scarlet Begonias
8. U.S. Blues

Dave’s Picks Vol. 18 was released in early May. My copy arrived on May 4, 2016. This is a limited edition, with only 16,500 copies out there. By the way, the 2016 bonus disc shipped with this set. I plan on reviewing that disc separately.

Zydeco Crossroads: A Tale Of Two Cities Blu-ray Review

In 1994, documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge released The Kingdom Of Zydeco, a film which delved into zydeco music, focusing on two of the music’s most popular artists. Now he has returned to the music of southwest Louisiana with Zydeco Crossroads: A Tale Of Two Cities, a movie which documents the journey of a Philadelphia radio host down to Lafayette to capture the music of the Creole culture.

The film begins at WXPN, where the station’s manager and assistant manager talk about their plan and desire to expose their audience in Philadelphia to other musical genres. The resulting project is Zydeco Crossroads, with the aim of bringing that music to Philadelphia through a series of concerts. And in addition to concerts, the station is involved in dance lessons and so on, in an effort to expose the people of Philadelphia to that culture. David Dye, host and producer of the radio program “World Café” travels to Lafayette to broadcast live performances from the home and heart of zydeco, to kick off the project.

This documentary features interviews with many zydeco musicians, including C.J. Chenier, Rosie Ledet, Sean Ardoin, Andre Thierry, Louis Michot, Corey Ledet, Buckwheat Zydeco, Nathan Williams, Chubby Carrier and Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr. The interviews are conducted by David Dye. Sean Ardoin provides some interesting information on the music and its terms. And there are concert performances by C.J. Chenier And The Red Hot Louisiana Band, Rosie Ledet And The Zydeco Playboys, Creole United (they do a really sweet original song), Soul Creole, Sid Williams, Nathan And The Zydeco Cha Chas, Buckwheat Zydeco, Chubby Carrier and others. Vasti Jackson plays “Zydeco Crossroads” outside El Sid O’s, along with Chubby Carrier and Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr. (some cool footage). As in The Kingdom Of Zydeco, these songs (for the most part) are presented in full, rather than in snippets – something I really appreciate. Also, this documentary actually identifies the songs and the songwriters on screen as each number starts.

This documentary explores the family aspect of zydeco music, as well as the connection between zydeco and the blues. David Dye also interviews Michael Tisserand, author of The Kingdom Of Zydeco (a book named after the earlier documentary). Another part of that interview, by the way, is included as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray of The Kingdom Of Zydeco. Sid Williams and Buckwheat Zydeco talk about starting El Sid O’s. And there are also several old still photos of zydeco musicians. The one this film lacks is a strong ending.

Bonus Material

This Blu-ray includes Rosie In The House Tonight, which is interview footage of Rosie Ledet mixed with concert footage of Rosie Ledet And The Zydeco Playboys at the Holy Saviour Social Club in Norristown, Pennsylvania (some of which is included in Zydeco Crossroads). This bonus feature is nearly an hour long.

Zydeco Crossroads: A Tale Of Two Cities was released on Blu-ray on April 8, 2016 through MVD Visual. On that same date The Kingdom Of Zydeco was released on Blu-ray, also through MVD Visual.