Van Broussard - Legendary Bayou Boogie (CD)

All Music Guide

Southern Louisiana's Van Broussard is the king of swamp pop, a genre as difficult to define as the wind. While swamp pop seems to be a form of R B with a trademark slowed down/hurry up rhythm and a hazy 1950s rock roll feel, it is probably easiest to say what swamp pop isn't: It isn't Cajun or zydeco, but it issues forth from the same bayous, and it works toward the same end of getting people to dance. When all is said and done, swamp pop is whatever its artists say it is, and in Broussard's case, that would include Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me To Do," Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill," and Larry Williams' "Bony Maronie," versions of which appear on this remarkably cohesive collection drawn from recordings Broussard did with the Bayou Boogie label in the late 1970s. Also included here is Broussard's (and swamp pop's) signature song, "Mathilda."

- Steve Leggett, All Music Guide