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Beau Soleil
L’Amour Ou La Folie (Rhino) (star) (star) (star)
Two decades old and still bubbling like a cauldron of gumbo, this six-man Louisiana outfit pays homage to time-tested Acadian rhythms (on the eerily archival sound of “Valse J’Aime”), New Orleans jazz (the scorching “Le Blues de la Prison”) and Afro-Caribbean (“Danse Caribe”) motifs. Fiddling crooner Michael Doucet, who leads the best Cajun band around, artfully mixes zydeco and rhumba. British indie rocker/folkie Richard Thompson trades guitar licks on the title track and “Charivari,” but Beau Soleil shines on its own, ladling out foot-stomping reels, swamp boogie and two-step.
