Description
Track List
- Moi l’aime Une Petite Fille
- Marais Bouleur
- Jours Si Longs
- C’est Pas Eux-autres a dire
- Baby, Please Don’t Go
- Je Vais Jamais Fire Ca
- Faut Tu Voir
- Un Seul Regret
- Hackberry Two-Step
- Freetown Breakdown
- Personne Que Toi
- Revelation Two-Step
- Tu Parles De Trop
REVIEW FROM OFFBEAT MAGAZINE, AUG 2014
Bonsoir, Catin
Light the Stars
(Valcour Records)
As evidenced by these seven songs written/co-written by Bonsoir, Catin’s Kristi Guillory, her writing isn’t confined to any particular style but roams from exhilarating dancehall and intestinal-ripping bluesy swamp pop to arty stuff that’s more suitable for listening, like the atmospheric ballad “Je vais jamais faire ça.” A couple of songs utilize a vibraphone for an innovative hip, chill effect, while “Faut Tu Voir” is a cross between riveting zydeco and quasi-jam band rock with guest Eric Adcock’s whooshing Hammond B-3.
You wouldn’t necessarily know that there are so many Guillory originals, since four of the five ladies of Bonsoir, Catin gets a crack at singing at least one of ’em. With her belting vocals at the song’s emotive apex, Yvette Landry simply slays on “Un Seul Regret”; newest member/guitarist Maegan Beard shows she’s a rocker at heart on the novel “Faut Tu Voir” that seamlessly slips back and forth between French and English. Guillory rocks, too, as evident on “Freetown Breakdown,” where she sings of good times, pretty girls, young boys, drunks and rounders.
Christine Balfa delivers terrific vocal performances on her own, madly swinging “Tu parles de trop” and New Orleans chanteuse Natalie Mae’s bilingually adapted “Personne que Toi.” The instrumental “Revelation Two-Step” from Donna the Buffalo is the most infectious cover, bouncing between 16 measures of hard-crankin’ zydeco and eight measures of Cajun with Berard’s killer guitar solo in between. A groundbreaking effort in every sense of the word.
—Dan Willging
