Don Rich - Bayou Soul (CD)

All Music Guide

Not to be confused with the late Don Rich who was the fiddle star of Buck Owens and his Buckaroos, this Don Rich is a secondgeneration guitar player from southern Louisiana. Over the course of six previous albums, Rich has mostly stayed within the swamppop lines, but Bayou Soul is a stylistic side trip. The majority of the album consists of vintage soul and RB covers done with very little Cajun influence, such as Otis Redding's "Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Songs)," William Bell's "You Don't Miss Your Water" and Larry Williams' "Boney Maronie." The last of these songs is a particular disappointment, because the New Orleansbased Williams' song seems like it would lend itself nicely to an accordionled recasting, but Rich's anonymous, hornbased arrangement sounds more like the work of a competent but not particularly inspired hotel cover band. The album closes with a set of Rich originals culminating in by far the album's best work, a bilingual torch ballad for organ and voice called "Hey Mom," dedic...ated to Rich's late mother. Sung with more conviction and deeper soul than the merelyadequate performances that came before, "Hey Mom" is a timely reminder of Rich's talents that unfortunately comes at the end of a record that tends to hide them. - Stewart Mason, All Music Guide Read more Less