Mama Rosin with Hipbone Slim and the Kneetremblers

Mama Rosin with Hipbone Slim & the Kneetremblers
Louisiana Sun

In an ideal world people would hear this on an AM radio or through tinny speakers where there’s hardly any bass. It’s a real throwback to the raw 1950s days of rockabilly, swamp pop and outrageous Cajun music. Mix together a Swiss Cajun-punk band and some London rockabillies, don’t give them long to think about anything, and this is the result. It’s a glorious, fevered workout that time travels through the Southern states of America. There’s some early rock’n’roll – The Cat Never Sleeps and Paint The Town Red – plenty of swamp pop and Zydeco (even a rocked-out two-step), and even one track that could have come straight from the pen of Fats Domino. Add to that the title cut, which is a wild variant on California Sun (in French, naturellement) and you have one of the subversive delights of the year. When people talk about roots rock, this is what they really mean, as it doesn’t get any closer to the roots than this. You’ll need a cold beer or two just to listen to it.