Search - Chris Ardoin, Double Clutchin :: Best Kept Secret

A sensation!

Dante Van | Boston, MA | 08/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Strolling through the 2000 Lowell Folk festival with some friends, I was in search of this year's new find as far as music was concerned. I had been to the 2000 Montreal Jazz Festival a month earlier and had seen and heard groups that were completely new and fresh to me. Being an avid music fan, I can sum up my consumption of music like this. One stumbles or finds a genre of music and grasps on to that genre for as long as it holds your attention. The key to that genre of music is an artist of extraordinary skill or magnatism that consumes your thoughts and your CD player until you have exhausted your senses due playing their music over and over again. In the past years, performers that were the keys to musical gateways were Khalid (Rai Music), The Gipsy Kings (Flamenco Pop), Les Negresses Vertes, (French Alternative Music), Intilli Imani (Chilean/Andean Music), etc... so forth and so on. So there I was, with friends strolling along the downtown streets of Lowell expecting to find no more than folk musicians and ethnics concerts I had generally heard and seen before when I heard and saw a dance party going on. I heard a seductive and raucous sound eminating from the stage that just hypnotised me. The song, as I would later find out, was "Get Going", #11, off of Best Kept Secret. From that point on, I knew that the gates had opened once again. Adoins silky, gravely, seductive voice is haunting and striking all at the same time. Not to mention his stellar playing of the accordion. As I stood there and listened to his band play, I could not help but stand there motionless as I was drawn to the songs of the Deep South and the cross cultural sounds of this man and band. As they announced that their CD was on sale at a nearby booth, I stammered my way through the crowds and rushed to the booth where I slapped down my fifteen bucks and eagerly tore off the cellophane plastic with that strip and the top of the CD cover that takes you about 15 minutes to peel off. I motioned to my posse to start heading to the car partly because it was raining, but mostly so I could put the new CD in the player. The car ride home was the quickest in recent momory as this music off of this CD was outstanding. The tracks that kept being played were #1, #11, #2 and #7.It looks like it will be a zydeco fall as I have once again found the keys to gates of a new style of music. Thanks to Chris Ardoin and Double Clutchin'."

Hard Chargin' Zydeco

01/05/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Chris Ardoin is an outstanding accordion player. He has excelent technique with an R&B feel; although he plays hard. He along with Rosie Ledet are examples of the next new breed of zydeco muscians that could greatly expand the audience. For those of you who like your zydeco more traditional, you would be better served by Geno Delefose or the more known Buckwheat Zydeco. Check out "If it makes you happy" and "Get Gone"."

TIGHT

Stephanie | 03/20/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is filled with New Creative ZYDECO music, not Cajun, because that's not what it is. Chris Ardoin has created new catchy songs such as "If it makes you happy", "Holding on" and "what's in that bayou." He is definitely creative and a great accordionist. THat is why he deserves a 5."