Delta Bound

‘In New Orleans,’ Holly Devon’s liner notes suggest, ‘memories linger in the humid air.’ Under the aegis of guitarist and producer Romain Beauxis, this assembly of poets, writers, activists and musicians explores the long history of violence underlying Louisiana’s rich musical heritage – and the entire American experience.

Two extracts from a 16th-century Spanish expedition’s brutal encounters with the Indigenous populace contextualise Sister Helen Prejean’s moving insights on the death penalty and Ben Myers’ recitation of Frank Stanford’s poem about the chilling casual murder by a drunken redneck of a lone accordionist (whose instrument ‘rotted in the ditch like an armadillo’). The music itself is equally memorable: a mix of original numbers like the scene-setting title-track and reinterpretations by some of the area’s crack musicians of old jazz and zydeco classics by the likes of Jelly Roll Morton and Clifton Chenier. On the lovely lazy ‘Sweet Lorna’, they even manage to sound like a reunion of Skatalites alumni. Yes, somehow the album manages equally to capture the ‘Joie de Vivre’ of Zachary Richard’s infectious meditation on his grandparents’ pre-Americanised Francophone culture. It’s an ambitious mix – but it works a treat. Tune into this remarkable album and its memory will linger long.