Lost Bayou Ramblers

Boogie-woogie isn't a French term, but try telling the Lost Bayou Ramblers that. The five young Cajun ass-kickers from Lafayette, Louisiana, put the bow to the fiddle and the pedal to the guitar metal — as well as the rhythm to a section of American music that's more important to the roots of rock & roll and R&B than usually remembered. The Ramblers may rock the bayou, but they're not punks. Fiddler Louis Michot is a world-class player, and brother Andre pumps the accordion with finesse and frenzy. Their minds are as open as their tunings, so you'll hear honky-tonk, surf, rockabilly and twisted spaghetti-Westernisms in their sound. Its music isn't a finely prepared gumbo; it's a vast, murky, muddy swamp teeming with life.