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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. I produced Zachary's first recording for Elektra Records in 1974--it was never released until recently when it was found in their vaults.
I guess you have to have a little Cajun blood in your veins to understand. He's the real deal, full of intellect and dedicated to his people's past, present, and future. 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. Mr. 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. "Silver Jubilee" is an important piece of history for today's Cajun.
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 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. It is a summary of a career that has spanned decades and continents. 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. 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. It manages to capture the sounds of the past and of progression and rolls them into one.
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.
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