by Herman Fuselier
On his new song, 'Blue Jeans,' Curley Taylor of Sunset asks
his Zydeco Trouble band to “mix breed this record up,
just to bring it over the top.” As he urges the band to take it from southwest Louisiana
to south Florida, Latin
percussion and keyboard emerge.
As Taylor tells
the band to take it back to southwest Louisiana,
his piano accordion and a zydeco beat take over.
Later, Taylor and drummer Eric Minix are rapping sexy
lyrics with the accordion.
That Lafayette
meets Miami by way of New
York mix is just the zydeco
gumbo Taylor wants to serve
worldwide.
“I want people to say, ‘What kind of music is that?’” said Taylor,
35. “We hear some Latin stuff, but then this accordion is going on and there’s
some rap over it. So we need to check into it a little further and see who is this band.
“When you listen to the music and the band, you’ll say,
‘Hey, he comes from a different place.’ My dad was with the blues and old soul
music. That’s what comes out in my music.”
Taylor continues
to play zydeco from a different place on his
sophomore effort, Free Your Mind, a two-CD set recently released on his own
label, Louisiana Soul Records. The disc follows Country Boy, his debut disc of
nearly three years ago.
On Country Boy, Taylor
won fans from New Orleans to The
Netherlands with a seldom-seen approach to zydeco.
Instead of the usual Boozoo Chavis
or Clifton Chenier covers or one-liners and chants
about goats, chickens, dogs and donkeys, Taylor
dished out original songs with fresh lyrics and a contemporary rhythm and blues
feel.
'Free Your Mind' brings more of the same with 12 original
songs that include dance grooves, like 'Country Girl' and 'Baby Girl,' a
pop-flavored ballad, Just You, and old school soul, 'Kiss Me Like You Miss Me.'
Carencro resident and Island Def Jam recording artist Marc Broussard appears on
'It’s Alright.' (Last year, Taylor
played rubboard in Broussard’s “Home” video.)
“I branched out on certain songs,” said Taylor.
“Some songs, it still felt like it was a Louisiana
song. Other songs, it wanted to make it seem this band is ready to have a song
that can be national.
“I think playing home, if I sound like everybody else, it’s
going to be hard for me to branch out. I can, at least, fit in where they’re
at. They’re still here and that’s not the goal. If I make my music sound like
everybody else, I’ll fit in the circle. But how big is the circle?
“I don’t want to be where they’re at. They’ve been there 12
years and still in the circle.”
Taylor is bound
to raise eyebrows in and out of the circle with the second CD of the set,
'Close to Midnight.' The mellow
R&B CD contains four songs of steamy, sexy lyrics. While not explicit, the
tunes leave little to the imagination.
In 'Sexual Fantasy,' Taylor
sings, “Your body’s dripping wet, let’s not waste no time, ‘cause it’s on my
mind, I want to taste your body wine.” 'Lick It, Stick It' is even more
suggestive.
Taylor calls the
sultry songs “grown folks music.”
“People were saying ‘You don’t h,to do it. Your image is clean cut.’ That’s true, but
that’s what sells. It’s easier for some people to do it than it is for others.
“People might say, ‘That boy is singing about some nasty
stuff.’ But if you listen to Boozoo singing about
Deacon Jones, he’s telling you what’s going on. I guess because he was old and
senile, people would just say he’s crazy.
“If I do it, people will say ‘Now why would you say that.’
It’s not like it’s never been said before.”
2/17/06
Source: theadvertiser.com
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