Crib Notes

Accordionist Stanley Dural never has felt shackled by the constraints of zydeco, even though he’s been acknowledged as the one who brought the genre out of the bayous of southwest Louisiana and into the mainstream. Lay Your Burden Down, which marks Buckwheat Zydeco’s 30th year on the scene, is no less innovative and is a testament to Dural’s innate, iPod-shuffle ear for other forms of roots music. Blessed with gifted guests and intriguing covers, the album almost feels like a tour de force, especially the bouncy take on Jimmy Cliff’s “Let Your Yeah Be Yeah” with Dural’s fizzy accordion riffs blending right in with the rhythm.

Fellow southwest Louisiana resident Sonny Landreth’s shredding guitar licks lend an urgency to the opener “When the Levees Break,” but listeners shouldn’t mistake the song about the 1927 Louisiana flood as a foreshadowing of Katrina angst to come. Instead, we get a bluesy groove on the JJ Grey tune “The Wrong Side,” and the gospel-blues collaboration with Warren Haynes on the title track.

In fact, Lay Your Burden Down only feels like an incidentally zydeco album, and Stanley Dural wouldn’t have it any other way. (Alligator)

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Tags: Buckwheat Zydeco, Lay Your Burden Down, Smiths-Olde-Bar.