Zachary Richard - Le Fou (2012)

This is yet another brilliant and beautiful piece of work by Zachary Richard, who, as always, does musical and poetic honor to his French Cajun cultural heritage. Twelve of the thirteen tracks are originals, written or co-written by Richard. (There is one traditional Cajun number.) The booklet contains complete lyrics to all the songs in clearly legible print and also includes helpful explanatory notes for five of the songs. One should be aware that everything, apart from a single verse in one song, is in French.

The title song has him identifying with the plight of the "fou de Bassan" (gannet), the seabird that migrates from Newfoundland and Québec to the Louisiana area (mirroring the migration of the early French Acadians), which unfortunately was the first bird species known to have become a casualty of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster off the Southern Louisiana coast. "Laisse le vent souffler" (Let the Wind Blow) encapsulates the Cajun attitude toward any existential threat. "Clif's Zydeco" is a lively tribute to the late King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, that you know he would have really appreciated. "La ballade de Jean Saint Malo" is about the leader of an insurgent band of runaway slaves in the 1780s during the Spanish colonial occupation of Louisiana. Other favorites (although I could mention every single Richard-penned track!) include "Orignal ou caribou" (Moose or Caribou), "La chanson des migrateurs" (Song of the Immigrants), "Crevasse Crevasse," "Lolly Lo" [pure fun, this one!], and the gorgeously poetic album closer "Les ailes des hirondelles" (Wings of the Swallows).