Personnel: Wayne Toups (vocals, accordion); Wade Richard (electric guitar, background vocals); Jim Horn, Michael Haynes, Jack D. Hale, Sr. (horns); Rick Lagneaux (piano, organ, background vocals); Mark Miller (bass) Troy Gaspard (drums).
Recorded at Master Trak Enterprises, Crowley, Louisiana and Digital Recorders, Nashville, Tennessee.
Wayne Toups aspires to a sound that combines the two traditions of Louisiana French music, as is indicated by the name of his band. And indeed, it is a fusion of the more tradional Cajun style and the more African-American, rhythm & blues-oriented zydeco sound. The band uses a Hammond B3 organ in addition to the accordion (like Buckwheat Zydeco and the Ils Sont Partis band.) The songs are mostly sung in English, with a smattering of French to keep the disc authentic. But Wayne Toups is definitely reaching out to a broader audience than most zydeco or Cajun artists. Toups attempts a couple of covers--a version of "Tell It Like It Is," and Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey." He gives these a new spin, and they are quite successful versions. A fun "Johnny Ne Peut Pas Danser"--or, more familiarly, "Johnny Can't Dance," written by Wayne Toups and Michael Doucet, gives an example of this band's unique sound.
