Mr. H and I went to see Miss Siagon in Ft Worth last night. When we got out the streets were all misty and damp and made us miss Louisiana, so we dug around in his dad's tape box and found Clifton Chenier which we listened to all the way home (it's quite a drive). I want to add more of this kind of stuff to our music library. Besides Professor Longhair, Buckwheat, and Chenier- who else should we be looking into? I really should know this stuff, and I'm going to go ahead and invest in this. I had forgotten how good that kind of music was.

Most zydeco is outside my field of expertise, but the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music boxes have some foot-pounding early zydeco & cajun recordings (and, IIRC, the main difference between the two is that zydeco is played by blacks with an accordion in the band whereas cajun is played by whites without, right?).

Cajun music is well, cajun, and Zydeco is creole.

I think there was an article in one of the recent Da Capo Best Music Writing annuals delineating the difference in terms of race and instrumentation.

The thing is they've borrowed so much from each other and both become so English, or rather Americanized, that I don't think that's a useful distinction.

I'm sure that's why I can't tell the difference between the two.

There's certainly crossover between cajun and zydeco, but one is a broad cultural folk music (cajun) and the other is a regional dance music style (zydeco). I like Michael Doucet playing both.

Heather, if you want some red hot zydeo dance music that's not particularly traditional, I highly recommend Zydeco Brew. That's a side project by the aforementioned Mr. Doucet, with contributions from shit-hot guitarists Sonny Landreth and Richard Thompson. They a fantastic "Zyedeco Boogaloo" which I've put on innumerable mix tapes, and zydeco-ify "Wooly Bully" as well.

it occurred to me that rarely has there been a more appropriate opportunity for Mr. Manservant of Evil to engage in some of his customary Swamp Dogg pimping: "I Couldn't Pay for What I Got Last Night," "Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe," "The Love We Got Ain't Worth Two Dead Flies". One could even say that Jerry William's raison d'etre is writing twisted love songs. And twisted liner notes, but that's a different mix.

So very true. Though even the Dogg might have to take a back seat to Screamin' Jay Hawkins' pervy little love letters.

Also, still waiting to hear about the best magazine in America.

I think my favorite magazine right now is Mojo. But maybe I'm not thinking hard enough about this, and maybe that's not American enough.

There's certainly crossover between cajun and zydeco, but one is a broad cultural folk music (cajun) and the other is a regional dance music style (zydeco).

But that doesn't tell you much when listening to them and figuring out which is which- though I more often hear zydeco translated into English, so I guess that would make it the more "popular" form.