Cow Island Hop

Blend traditional Cajun quite heavily with Americana and you have the concept behindFeufollet and Cow Island Hop. The CD comes with praise from a professor of Francophone Studies at the University of Louisiana — something you don't often find — for its "seamless integration of ancient and thoroughly modern sounds and styles," which seems like high praise indeed. And they certainly do have a lot of traditional Cajun music in their repertoire, seeming as much at home with it as with their own, Cajun-inflected compositions. The interesting part comes in the performance, heavy on the electric guitar, and throwing in horns, steel guitar, and even a Mellotron on one track — about as far from the tradition as they can get. While the powerhouse approach is good for two or three tracks, though, it becomes a little wearing after a while, and even a change of pace doesn't seem to bring much of a change of approach. They're definitely onto a good idea, but they need to learn not to wear it into the ground. Some pieces that hewed closer to the past would have provided more contrast, or even something that was more country. They can play, that's beyond doubt, and they're young, so they have plenty of time to explore their ideas. There's a lot in their full-tilt 2-step, but a CD audience doesn't need to be hit over the head with it every time.