Electric guitar slinger and blues vocalist Selwyn Cooper has
done much more than simply pay his dues – he has banked away the
kind of musical experience few other blues musicians can match.
Just for starters, he’s played in the back-up bands of three of
the greatest musicians to emerge from the southwest Louisiana
Gulf Coast: Zydeco King Clifton Chenier, Zydeco World Ambassador
Buckwheat Zydeco, and Zydeco Heir Apparent Rockin’ Dopsie.
In the process of
touring nationally and internationally, he’s also worn out three
passports, played on two Grammy-winning CDs, and can be heard on
a pair of movie soundtracks (The Big Easy, with Dennis Quaid and
Ellen Barkin, and Delta Heat with Mickey Rourke). He’s opened so
many shows for blues master B.B. King, he says, that he can’t
count them all.
Having previously
recorded a Zydeco-oriented CD, Cooper decided this time out to
stick strictly with the blues, but blues played with a decidedly
Louisiana flavor, hence the title Louisiana Swamp Blues.
These are blues with a
big, funky sound, played with lost of passion and plenty of
organ and harmonica wailing, hard-driving drums, soulful vocals,
and, of course, stinging guitar solos.
Playing mainly
self-composed numbers, this consummate bluesman also pays
tribute to key influences, such as Elmore James (“The Sky Is
Crying”), B.B. King (“Rock Me, Baby”), Professor Longhair
(“Mardi Gras in New Orleans,” which is played in a double-time
rhythm), and J.J. Cale (“Crazy Mama,” which is done as a rocking
boogie). The real standout here, though, is “Mathilda,” a
Louisiana swamp blues anthem played in a swaying rhythm with
gorgeous two-part-harmony vocals.
Eloquent, hard
driving, and deeply soulful, this is classic Louisiana swamp
blues played exactly the way it was meant to be heard!