Track Listing

1. Filé Gumbo
2. Bon Temps Rouler
3. Who Stole My Monkey?
4. Joe Pitre
5. Hello Josephine
6. Cap Enragé
7. Travailler, C'Est Trop Dur
8. Berçeuse Créole
9. Dans le Nord Canadien
10. Ailes des Hirondelles
11. Crawfish
12. Everytime
13. Johnny Danse
14. Flammes d'Enfer
15. Ma Louisiane
16. Sunset on Louisianne Interlude : My French Blues [Madame Sosthène]
17. Six Bullets in Satan
18. Madeleine
19. On À Beau Dit

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59776 in Music
• Released on: 2000-01-18
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Zachary Richard is arguably the missing link connecting Cajun and English-language Louisiana music. He sings and writes in both French and English, two-steps like a rocker, and is equally comfortable on accordion and guitar. He's sort of a bayou Bruce Springsteen, too: in addition to belting out dance tunes based on such traditional local topics as filé gumbo, letting the bons temps roulet, and crawfish, he's capable of heartfelt songs about emotional anguish, poverty, and the great white French-Canadian north. This CD--on which he's accompanied by such musical friends as fiddler Michael Doucet, pianist Dr. John, and slide guitarist Sonny Landreth--distills the cream of his 14-album career, including an early-'70s folk track from his previously lost first album. --Richard Gehr

Customer Reviews

C'est Bon!
"Silver Jubilee" is an important piece of history for today's Cajun. It is a summary of a career that has spanned decades and continents. It manages to capture the sounds of the past and of progression and rolls them into one. It is both fun and moving at the same time, and it's all from the blood and sweat of one man: Zachary Richard.

Richard has the unique ability to play traditional Cajun songs such as "Madeleine" in a way that makes them sound both old and new all at once. He can then take a rather commercial-sounding song like "Crawfish" or "File Gumbo" and perform them in a way that makes you realize that he's not faking anything. When many country singers these days talk about driving their beat-up Ford to pick up their redneck girl so they can take a ride on the ol' John Deere, you catch on to the fact that these guys probably have limos and city-fied girlfriends who wouldn't know John Deere from John Paul Jones. Richard, however, sings in a way that tells you that he really does know how to eat crawfish, loves gumbo and can cut loose for a good time when he wants to.

On the other hand, Richard can perform a song like "Cap Enrage" or "Ma Louisiane" that will move you in ways you've never been moved before. I can't understand French that well, but listening just to the music of "Cap Enrage" lets me know that Richard puts his heart and soul into his songs.

No matter what he plays, you can easily see that Richard is not a poser. He's the real deal, full of intellect and dedicated to his people's past, present, and future. He plays with heart, not just to pay the bills.

It's hard to come up with words to describe just how much this album's music means to me. I guess you have to have a little Cajun blood in your veins to understand. Mr. Richard's music is, to me, a message wrapped in melody and mayhem.

If you have one drop of Louisiana in you, buy this important album.

cajun
I produced Zachary's first recording for Elektra Records in 1974--it was never released until recently when it was found in their vaults. Zachary Richard has gone on to great success--some 10 plus releases and influenced other genres of musin and performing artists--I am very proud of him and his artistry.