Southern Louisiana is home to the fascinating hybrid of music known as swamp pop, which mixes ingredients from rock, country, rockabilly, blues, soul, and Cajun into its own idiosyncratic brew. It's rarely achieved much popularity outside its region; the flipside of that condition is its enduring, even eternal popularity in its own backyard, despite the increasing homogenization of American pop over the last several decades. This compiles 20 tracks (mostly from the '60s and early '70s) that illustrate the style, ranging ...
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Southern Louisiana is home to the fascinating hybrid of music known as swamp pop, which mixes ingredients from rock, country, rockabilly, blues, soul, and Cajun into its own idiosyncratic brew. It's rarely achieved much popularity outside its region; the flipside of that condition is its enduring, even eternal popularity in its own backyard, despite the increasing homogenization of American pop over the last several decades. This compiles 20 tracks (mostly from the '60s and early '70s) that illustrate the style, ranging from swamp pop-influenced straight-ahead rock to cuts that almost fall in the mainstream of Cajun music. They're quite obscure; Cookie & His Cupcakes and Tommy McLain are about the most well-known names, but still ones that are barely known unless you're deeply into the genre. The actual records chosen for the anthology are good-natured and swinging, yet this is also rather more of a document than a collection of pop/rock tunes. It's very interesting to hear, but it's more like a folkloric anthology than a set of exciting songs, as the material itself is more pleasant than compellingly memorable. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi
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