I can give you the big spiel for C.C. Adcock --- and I will --- or you can take a shortcut.
The shortcut: Click here . Go to "Lafayette Marquis." In the music samples, click on the first song: "Y'all'd Think She'd Be Good 2 Me." TURN YOUR SPEAKERS ALL THE WAY UP! Press PLAY. Listen to 30 seconds of the song. Then buy the CD.
Or you can read the spiel first. Same result: If you're among the living, you're going to want this CD --- even though it's by a guy you've never heard of and it's released by an unknown label (Yep Roc) and it's currently ranked 8,805 on Amazon.com.
Why Butler's enthusiasm? Because this CD smokes. It's got a lewd, ass-shaking boogie-beat, atmosphere thicker than Louisiana fog, production that emphasizes the beat, molasses-thick lyrics that don't aspire to profundity --- yeah, "Lafayette Marquis" is the good times music you've been looking for. The late-night alternative to Bryan Ferry or Barry White. The worthy successor to Dr. John, Z.Z. Top and John Fogarty.
C.C. Adcock hails --- that's the word for guys like this --- from Lafayette, Louisiana. That's Cajun country, west of Baton Rouge. Average rainfall: 61 inches a year. On rainy days in his childhood, little Charlie Adcock learned to play guitar. By 14, he had a band --- B oogie Chillun' --- that he remembers as "a rhythm and blues Menudo. He played with Bo Diddley and toured with Buckwheat Zydeco. Good connections got him a record deal, and a much-praised first CD.
A decade passed, and now we have "Lafayette Marquis." Well, he is a nobleman --- at least in his clothes. He likes custom-made suits and expensive shoes (the reptilian pattern on the CD cover is from his boots). But when he talks about his songs, he's no gent. One song, for him, is "a score to a cock-fighting scene --- it's about a couple of oilfield, renegade, ruffneck podnuhs of mine."
How fun a guy is C.C. Adcock? Listen to him talk about his home town: "O n any given night, you can start out in the country with some food, drop in to a Cajun dance hall and watch the old folks glidin' round the floor, then put the top down and jump back into town and rock around to the new sounds of some up-and-coming-cats. Then, you can cross the tracks and bump at a Zydeco disco, have a few Crown & Sevens and at the end of the night head south to another Parish where they stay open all night, and you can boogie til daybreak in front of a classic swamp-pop jukebox and still make it home in time for Mass. And that's not even a fairy tale night."
This CD is like the souvenir of such a night. A monster of a car --- an old Mercury with a sleek V-8 under the hood. A VFW hall you almost can't see through the foggy night. Women in cotton dresses, men in jeans. Beer in bottles. And on stage, a powerhouse band, playing tight songs about loose females. A crazy fiddler gives the boogie some Cajun twang. The drum sounds hollow as a barrel. The bass player drives the beat like a steam engine. And above it, C.C. sings lyrics that are family-friendly only because they're too slurred to hear.
This is the sort of music Head Butler was built for: fantastic quality produced by an unknown musician, served up to people who care more about a satisfying experience than about marketing. So...click already. And get the party started.
--- by Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com (with thanks to Holly Gleason)
To buy "Lafayette Marquis" from Amazon.com, click here .
