Sorry, you cannot sit this one out. Simply not possible. No way.
Because right out of the box, the flashflood hits: Bright, grabby, contagious melodies arrive in a sweeping whoosh. The undertow pulling you in is fierce. Instantly, any location—kitchen, yard, parking lot, wherever, whenever—converts into a dancefloor. Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. (pronounced Doopsie) & the Zydeco Twisters are in command of the next 40 minutes.
Adrenalized and then caffeinated on top of that, More Fun with Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters honors its title. Plus, the 12 exhilarating tracks, recorded at a studio in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans, also exert analgesic properties. For as long as the band zips and that accordion zooms, the day’s worries get erased. “Ma ’Tit Fille” packs enough lift to turn a stone into a bird.
Zydeco is not music intended for idling. Certainly not lounging. Its vibrant, vigorous do-as-I-say rhythms are designed to trigger great joy, with active movement being a major and prevalent side effect. Kind of the musical equivalent to an exclamation point. In the case of the overheated “Ooh Woo Woo,” for instance, nothing less than a crateful of exclamation points will do. Even the gentle, unbearably soft flow of Clifton Chenier’s classic “I’m Coming Home” holds major sway, literally. Rocking back and forth, the ballad begs out for a slow dance, for a waltz. See? Still no sitting.
The setlist operates on a danceable cycle: heating up, then cooling down by alternating blazing hyperventilators with catch-a-breath saunters. That way, when the highly peppered “Dopsie’s Boogie” flings dancers apart, the soulfully see-sawing “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” welds them back together. And so, the party continues, just as back before zydeco took to the dancehall bandstand. Back when la-la, as it was called in its early days, or just Creole, in its primitive days, stoked dances inside countryside houses on humid evenings in Southwest Louisiana and East Texas. Still going strong—5,000 or so Saturday nights later. Still setting happy feet on fire.
And Junior—frontman David “Rockin’ Dopsie Jr.” Rubin—learned the artform from one of the best in the land: Senior. Alton “Rockin’ Dopsie” Rubin was his accordionist father, a southpaw who played his instrument turned upside down, like a Creole Jimi Hendrix or Albert King. Played it so well, in fact, as to two-step his way into the pantheon of zydeco godheads, along with the likes of Boozoo Chavis and the aforementioned Chenier. With Sr.’s passing in 1993, Jr. inherited the family business.
So, that’s Dopsie Jr. commanding the microphone as well as the silvery, stainless-steel vest that takes a percussive rat-a-tat beating as a rubboard (frottoir, in Creole French). Brother Anthony is the one zooming accordion; brother Tiger mans the drums; brother Dwayne guests on accordion, twice. Additional thrust is gained from a muscle-bound saxophone, a souped-up electric guitar, a Hammond B-3 organ, and a harmonica, which often shoots blue streaks through each performance. To hear them slingshot “That Was Your Mother” with the infectiousness that the Dopsie Sr.-led squad used to burn their way onto the 1986 version gracing Paul Simon’s Graceland album, is to hear assurance that the Twisters have remained in the best of hot hands.
But for a band that can cook, never second-guess the Zydeco Twisters’ ability to drop down—way down—into the blues. “My Little Girl” is as slow, slinky and swampy as a drag can get. Bass and drums bond in their stroll. A raspy, metallic haze rises constantly off the rubboard. A guitar coolly cruises along the surface. Ears, however, flash to the accordion doing acrobatics every chance it gets—handstands, backflips, whirling pirouettes—which, in turn, goads the Hammond and harp into conniptions of their own. And Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. bleeds his poor, busted heart, just like how his dad did with that very song any time someone needed reminding as to a major ingredient in the original zydeco recipe.
Ready to move? Click on “Ay, Ai Ai.”
Label: ATO
Release Date: 8/30/24
Artist Website: www.rockindopsiejr.com
Reviewed by Dennis Rozanski
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