May 01, 2010 Dan Wilging - OFFBEAT MAGAZINE

Chubby Carrier has spent a career perfecting his party package live shows, so it stands to reason that this would be more of the same, right?  No, not quite.  Carrier does do his best job ever reaching out to a diverse demographic with a variety of hooks.  The breezy dance rendition of Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love" will likely appeal to aging, knock-kneed rockers.  On "My Zydeco Shoes," modern country devotees will give thumbs up to Jamie Bergeron's Nashville-radio-ready vocals.  Additionally, there's guitar-cranked funk, a peppy insturmental and poignant R&B.  Carrier's singing is much more focused this time out; the background vocals are full, crisp and tight while the Ivan Klisanin-engineered sound has the bottom-end smacking hard like it's supposed to.

 

But keep in mind that while Carrier's a third-generation zydeco musician, he's not bound by his cultural music.  The album's biggest surprise arrives on "Touch Me Touch me Baby."  Keyboardist Keith Clement alternates classic New  Orleans piano fill-in with enchanting salsa melodies.  Smart move, because if zydeco is going to continue to flourish, it needs more alliances with like-minded genres.  Experimental fusion is encouraged and this is a step in the right direction.

 


June 1, 2010, Mark Uricheck - LIVING BLUES MAGAZINE

Zydeco Junkie CD Review

 Swampadellic Records

Living Blues Magazine

 

Third-generation zydeco player Chubby Carrier takes a swampy step into the future withZydeco Junkie, his return to the studio after a Tabasco-hot live record, Live at Knuckleheads, 2007.  While maintaining the boisterous party motif that makes a zydeco an eternal crowd-pleaser, Carrier shows expansive song-writing and instrumental leaning throughout.  Carrier’s not just about the dance factor of zydeco, he also concerns himself with nuances like guitar runs, subtle lyrical infections, and style-melding crossover appeal. This is zydeco for the 21st century musical palette. 

Carrier steals a page from Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book with the Clavinet vibe on Let’s Make it Funky, where the marriage of grinding ‘70’s funk and undulating zydeco produces an almost hedonistic sensory response.  Carrier goes old-school zydeco on the instrumentalSwampadellic, where his accordion oozes flawless bayou melody.  Two notable covers a re charmingly confounding – the inclusion of Movin’ On Up (the theme to TV’s The Jeffersons) and Bad Company’s Feel Like Makin’ Love.  The former is soulful zydeco, the choice itself underscoring Carrier’s entertaining attitude toward his music.  The latter boasts a mischievous rhythmic treatment, with backing vocals by Carrier’s wife Misty – classic rock tastefully twisted Cajun style.  Guests like fellow accordion aces and zydeco brethren Jamie Bergeron and Geno Delafose ensure that the record is on solid zydeco footing, as evidenced by Delafose’s inclusion of the Tex-Mex flavored Jalapeno Lena, a standard of the late Rockin’ Sidney.