Smoky Mountain News
May 28, 2003
By Jay Hardwig

Red Stick Ramblers
Friday, May 30, Jack of the Wood

When Offbeat Magazine declared the Red Stick Ramblers 2002’s “Best Emerging Cajun Band,” they got it at least half right. They’re a heckuva band, “emerging” seems appropriate, and there’s a lot of Cajun running around in there. But the Red Stick Ramblers — named after their home base of Baton Rouge — are far from a straight Cajun band. Instead, they’re knee-deep in an elaborate game of connect-the-musical-dots: their repertoire includes a heavy helping of Western swing and hot club jazz, and they’re not above mixing in a bit of Dixieland and bluegrass as well. Anything, it seems with a fiddle and a melody and a little bit of jump. Their self-titled debut album directs record store clerks to file the disc under “authentic Cajun gypsy swing.” Whatever you call it, it’s lively stuff: most of the tunes on the debut disc come off at more of a gallop than a ramble. The sound is built from a few of our favorite strings, including Chaz Justus’ nimble guitar, Josh Caffery’s spirited mandolin, and the twin-fiddle sound of Joel Savoy and Linzay Young. (Time for a Cajun name-check: yup, Savoy is a product of the ever-fruitful Marc and Ann Savoy union; Young, meanwhile, is known as the “coon-ass Connick.”) Highlights from the disc include the traditional reel “Danse Caree,” the laconic shuffle “I’ve Been Alone Before,” and the hotfoot happytime number “Alabama Jubilee.” Another standout is the opening track, a jive-swing staple by the name of “Nagasaki,” which predates the A-bomb and celebrates life “back in Nagasaki where the brothers chew tobackky and the women wicked wacky woo,” or something like that. The only disappointment is that the song “Grand Tasso” is not about the Cajun ham but about the Louisiana town of the same name. (We need more songs about Cajun ham!) Bayou impresario and Beausoleil founder Michael Doucet calls the Ramblers “refreshing,” noting that “they perform tunes from the 1920s repertoire of Grappelli and Django as well as Dennis McGee and Sady Courville.” If you know any two of those four names, chances are you’ll dig the Ramblers. (For those of you scoring at home: Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt were the gypsy-jazz founders of the Hot Club of France; McGee and Courville are Cajun fiddle legends.) Of course, you don’t have to know anybody’s name to enjoy this music: if your toes can tap, you’ll do fine. Hot off six performances at Merlefest, the Red Stick sextet is back in the mountains and ready to ramble. Cover is “minimal” and the music starts “around 9:30.” Call 252.5445 for more info.