Clifton Chenier - 'Black Snake Blues'

 

One day back in 1967, I was in my Topology (a.k.a. "Rubber-Sheet Geometry") class, when my pretentious Caltech Professor belched and mispronounced the French word Croissant as "cruss-AUNT", saying the croissant he had for breakfast caused him to belch.  Being a person who loves to take pretentious people down a few pegs I shouted "It's pronounced krwa-san, not cruss-AUNT".  A girl on the other side of the classroom laughed loudly, causing the professor to become slightly agitated (my intention), and said "Excuse me, Miss Marie Antoinette!", causing the class to laugh.

So what in the wide, wide world o' sports does this have to do with Clifton Chenier, you ask?

Well, after class the girl on the other side of the room, who laughed, introduced herself to me.  Her name was Seraphine, and she was from New Iberia, Louisiana.  She asked me if I was French, and I told her, Corsican on my Mother's side, and Seraphine told me she was Cajun.  After that, whenever we met, our conversations were in French.  We had some interesting and funny conversations about the different French dialects that my Mother and her parents spoke.

One weekend Seraphine threw a party.  During the party, she told me had an album her brother sent her she wanted to play, but she didn't think anyone would like it, and she showed me a copy of Clifton Chenier's recently released album, 'Black Snake Blues'.  The cover piqued my interest, and I told her, "Put in on, if they don't like it, well that's just too bad." This would be my introduction to Clifton Chenier, and Zydeco for that matter.

The 1967 SoCal partygoers were bemused by Clifton.  Seraphine was surprised a Brooklyn girl knew the lyrics to "Black Snake Blues", and "Walking To Louisiana".

Seraphine went on to a long career in academia, at Duke University and MIT.  She's retired now and lives in New Orleans' Garden District. Were still in contact.

When Clifton Chenier’s third album, Black Snake Blues, came out in 1967, the zydeco legend had already started reaching people from all over, not just Louisiana and the Texas Gulf Coast.  This was his first album recorded in California, and he teamed up with producer and Arhoolie founder Chris Strachwitz again.

'Black Snake Blues' marked the debut of the band’s main lineup: Clifton on accordion and vocals, his brother Cleveland playing frottoir (rubboard), Robert St. Judy on drums, and Joe Morris on bass.  Plus, Felix James Benoit, a regular collaborator, joined them on guitar for the song "I Got A Little Girl".

Songs like "Black Snake Blues", which gets its spark from the themes that Victoria Spivey and Blind Lemon Jefferson made famous, and "Walking to Louisiana", which playfully nods to a Fats Domino tune, really show how Chenier can breathe new life into old blues and classic R&B, making them feel fresh and exciting.

Today's freeload is a 2025 24-bit/96 kHz digital release from Arhoolie Records, and is a reissue of the 1986 reissue that introduced new tracks "Key to the Highway" and "Pepper in My Shoe" to the original 1967 release.

For the freeload tell us about an artist or group, you've recently became aware of.