Lost Bayou Ramblers

"Mammoth Waltz"

(Bayou Perdu)

If you play all-out improvisational music, it wouldn't hurt, for the sake of credibility as a musician, to be able to play "C Jam Blues" or a shuffle in G. If you're a young musician in Acadiana mixing Cajun music with indie-rock, you might well be in cultural hot water if you don't know classics such as "Bosco Stomp" and "Lacassine Special."

Lost Bayou Ramblers - the Michot brothers, Andre (accordion, lap steel) and Louis (fiddle, vocals), Cavan Carruth (guitar), Paul Etheredge (drums), Korey Richey (acoustic guitar, effects) and Atap (bass) - know their way around Cajun music and have a Grammy nomination to prove it for the '07 CD "Live ala Blue Moon." Raised in a traditional band, Les Frères Michot, the brothers and their cohorts, are adept at mixing and matching tradition and progression.

With "Mammoth Waltz," Lost Bayou Ramblers step off the ledge and into full-on fusion. They bring alt-/indie-rock sensibilities, effects and energy to the fore without abandoning for a second the rich traditions, or the Cajun French language, of Acadiana. They also bring along guests, including Dr. John, singer Nora Arnezeder, Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano on fiddle and actress Scarlett Johansson singing in Cajun French.

Dancers can do a fast waltz to the Michots' title track or two-step to the traditional "La Jolie Fille N'en Veut Plus de Moi." But beyond the dancing lies "Marée Noire" (Black Tide), Louis Michot's lament about the BP oil disaster, the rocking "Blues de Bernadette" and a cover of Daniel Lanois' "O Marie."

Lost Bayou Ramblers aren't the first to mix Cajun and rock, but, with "Mammoth Waltz," the band is doing it in a big, big way.