Louisiana has always had a huge presence in country music, with a rich history that includes everyone from Faron Young and Floyd Cramer to modern stars such as Tim McGraw. Through the years, performers have starred in every venue from regional dance halls to radio and TV, where the Louisiana Hayride trailed only the Grand Ole Opry in influence.
A large part of that musical history comes from South Louisiana, and a new collection from Jin Records does a good job of providing a wide spectrum of the area's music from several eras. Swamp Gold Country - Volume 2, which follows 2006's Volume 1, furnishes more of the same — an outstanding mix of the best bayou-tinged country music around.
Not surprisingly, some of the same singers and pickers show up again, including talented vocalists Don Rich and Johnny Webb, along with currently popular supergroup Moe-D. In fact, Moe-D leads off the album with one of my favorites, an irreverent tune called "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More."
The group's Cajun-flavored music is typical of the music of the area, and there are several songs by some of the artists here that have that unmistakable bayou sound. A good example is Belton Richard's "I Can't Stop Loving You," which is sung partially in French and certainly gives us something different than Ray Charles' classic version or even the original by Don Gibson.
But although the Cajun sound is inevitably embedded in most of the music, these are still just good old honky-tonk tunes, Southern style. In fact, it's a good bet that if you'd visited some clubs in the area through the years, you'd have heard a lot of the same songs — either from live bands or on the jukebox. Every decade is represented, with Johnny Webb's "Blue Yesterday" from 1959 the earliest.
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