Boozoo Chavis is an album by the American musician Boozoo Chavis, released in 1991.[1][2] It was part of the Elektra/Nonesuch American Explorer series.[3] The album was the culmination of a comeback for Chavis that had begun in 1984.[4][5] Chavis supported the album by playing the Newport Folk Festival.[6]
Production
Boozoo Chavis was produced by Terry Adams; Adams and NRBQ had recorded a song titled "Boozoo, That's Who!"[7][8][9] The album was recorded in Louisiana over the course of four days, a long period of studio time for a Chavis album.[10] Two of Chavis's sons played on the album; Chavis's band used rubboard, bass, two guitars, and drums.[11][12] Chavis did not always enjoy recording in a professional studio setting, even though Adams took a hands-off approach.[13][14] Chavis performed a few solo numbers with just his accordion and vocals.[15]
Chavis first recorded some of the songs, such as "Tee Black", in the 1950s.[16] On "Forty One Days", he acknowledges his sometimes shaky sense of cadence: "If it's wrong, do it wrong."[17] "Bernadette" is performed as a ballad.[18] "Dog Hill" is about Chavis's neighborhood in Lake Charles, Louisiana.[19] Chavis sang some songs in a French-English dialect.[20]
Entertainment Weekly wrote that Chavis's "shuffling snare drum is a mark of an authentic (even exemplary) excursion into zydeco."[23] The Austin American-Statesman noted that the production "gives the music the benefit of modern studio clarity without diminishing the rough-hewn immediacy that makes it sizzle."[24] The Calgary Herald concluded: "This is zydeco music without any of the slickness that has affected it in recent years, but with all the infectious joy that the music brings to listeners."[22]
The New York Times stated that "the tempos shuffle and jive, the melodies swagger; it's pure and primitive, with just a hint of down-home blues."[25] The Vancouver Sun deemed the album "a must for zydeco fans," writing that "he's got a knack for hilarious song titles ... is a masterful accordion player and can whoop it up with the best of them."[26] The Fort Worth Star-Telegram opined: "The difference between Chavis and many of his contemporaries, however, is how well he works within the rather limited boundaries of zydeco; he constantly varies the tempos and instrumentation, and his accordion lines are much more interesting than the usual easygoing zydeco oom-pah."[27]
AllMusic wrote that "the call and response can get a bit overly burdensome in the slow numbers, but there's an element of the rural sounds of zydeco throughout."[21]
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