Archive Files of Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco Musicians
Posted between 1999 and 2008

The Red Stick Ramblers release
 Made in the Shade & 2007 EP

 The photos in this section of the page were taken at a CD release party at Grant Street Dance Hall in Lafayette, Oct. 12, 2007; at the second annual Black Pot Festival Nov. 3, 2007, at Acadian Village in Lafayette; and, for the photo of drummer Glenn Fields, at Festivals Acadiens in Lafayette Oct. 13, 2007. The photos in this column show Linzay Young, Chas Justus and Kevin Wimmer, and, immediately above, Eric Frey. The bottom thumbnail at right includes Blake Miller on accordion.

Check out the video of "Made in the Shade" on the Ramblers' Official Web Site. The video was shot by Tom Krueger, whose credits include videos for  Bruce Springsteen, U2, Bob Dylan, David Bowie and Stevie Wonder, plus award-winning feature films and documentaries.

Go to Sugar Hill Records or to the Red Stick Ramblers' Official Site for more on the releases.

The Red Stick Ramblers have signed on with Sugar Hill Records, Nashville’s top independent label. The long list of other artists who have Sugar Hill releases include Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Doc Watson, Sonny Landreth, Rodney Crowell, Tim O’Brien, among many others.  In the 2007, the Ramblers released a new CD, Made in the Shade, plus an EP with four cuts.

In his original song that is the title cut on The Red Stick Ramblers’ 2007 CD, Linzay Young tells us about an Opelousas moonshiner whose shady product is literally “Made in the Shade.” It’s a phrase that, matched by Young’s appealing kick-back vocal style, invites us to toss aside our inhibitions and just enjoy life with a joie de vivre that has always been at the center of Cajun and Creole culture in Southwest Louisiana. That’s the good-time feeling the Red Stick Ramblers channel into everything they play, from gypsy, western, or old school swing to blues to Cajun and to whatever else sounds good from any place, any time. Whether they’re pulsating in a fiddle-guitar rendition of Clifton Chenier’s zydeco hit “Hot Tamale Baby,” swinging along through the jazz-ragtime standard “Some of These Days,” or sending dancers gliding smoothly and easily across the floor to the sounds of Bob Wills’ “Don’t Cry, Baby,” the Red Stick Ramblers have a vibe that invites listeners to indulge themselves in whatever pleasures they seek. Their swing interpretation of Belton Richard’s hit “Laisse les Cajuns Danser,” with Blake Miller on accordion, rolls along flawlessly.  They pay tribute to two great Creole fiddlers in their version of Canray Fontenot’s “Tes parents ne veulent plus me voir” that segues into and blends with Bébé Carrière’s “Blue Runner.” Kevin Wimmer and Linzay Young interweave the two tunes with some tight twin-fiddling delivered with what seems like effortless ease.

 In addition to the title cut, original songs on the CD include the chillingly beautiful “Les oiseaux vont chanter,” described as “the first Cajun murder ballad,” a song that really ought to become part of the soundtrack for a movie based on a James Lee Burke detective novel; “The Cowboy Song,” a relaxed, laid-back interpretation of yet another musical genre in the band’s repertoire; “Katrina,” a defiant bluegrass response to the storm that devastated Southeast Louisiana,  featuring Eric Frey on banjo; “Unsentimental,” Chas Justus’s rejoinder to his song “Sentimental” from a previous CD; and “The Smeckled Suite,” Justus’s flamenco-gypsy-jazz tour de force composition that offers tour de force musicianship by everyone in the band.