Rockin' Dopsie: Doin' The Zydeco, Sonet 718

I think this was Dupsie's (spell it anyway you wanna, but this is how he pronounced it) first full-length album and it's an English release. Strong stuff. Very funky, driving blues, zydeco, and rockers. A really electric sound. I never heard Dupsie play with this particular band in it's entirety, and I wish I had because these guys kicked booty. Dupsie always had a good band, and when he got his sons playing scrub board and drums, they kicked booty, too.

Who's Lovin' You Tonight is the Jimmy Rogers song, That's All Right. Solid blues. Ma Negresse is Dupsie's take on Nathan Abshire's Pine Grove Blues, and boy does it kick! (Pine Grove Blues is the perfect comeback to "white guys can't sing the blues", by the way). If you don't like hard driving rhythms where the chord changes happen when they get around to it, stay away from this. I think Chester Zeno, the rubboard player, actually got inside the mike on this one. Please Come Home is a typical South Louisiana swamp-pop two chord ballad. You know, so simple no one can play it outside of Louisiana or Texas. (Except for Les Pachas, the Haitian Compas Direct band, but that's another story.) Sweet. Jolie Blonde is one of the better versions of that song. Doin' The Zydeco closes out side one. Accordion, rubboard and drums. Now we're talkin'. Kick-butt zydeco.

Side two starts with Jump Up, which is a terrific version of Scratch My Back. Then comes Rock Me Baby. Another solid blues. One thing that really struck me when I got to Louisiana is that the blues wasn't some museum piece there, like it seemed to be in most of the country. It was real, down and dirty dance music, and Dupsie always played the blues for real. Up next is Josephine, a staple of Dupsie's and every other Zydeco band back in the 70's. Then comes Good Old Mamou, a nice cajun waltz. The LP closes out with Please Don't Leave Me, the great Fats Domino song. It does not sound like Fats. You should hear it.
Another great Dupsie album is Crowned Prince of Zydeco on Maison de Soul. On this recording Dupsie had two members of Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana Band, Paul "Little Buck" Senegal on guitar, and John Hart on sax. His sons Tiger and David were on drums and rubboard. Senegal is one of my favorite guitar players and for some reason he always reminds me of my cousin Marcello. The rhythm section is faultless as usual. Good stuff. More blues than zydeco, but who cares? Most of this album was re-released on a Maison de Soul CD called Saturday Night Zydeco, along with half of the album of the same name, but the CD doesn't have Hey, Hey, Hey. Too bad.