Levee Town (Expanded Edition)

This is slide guitar wizard Sonny Landreth's most ambitious work, and true to form it comes with no glossy fanfare (even the packaging is sepia tinted), just straight-ahead, well-crafted songs played with his usual intelligent, heartfelt playing. Like the photos that are easily passed over due to the quiet subtly of the sepia tones, the intricacy of his guitar work can easily be overshadowed by the flash that is inherent in the slide guitar. He takes the time here to do a number of acoustic songs and shows that there is more to him than a loud flash. Give a listen to "Love and Glory," in which he is helped out by Jennifer Warnes and Herb Pedersen doing background vocals, Errol Verret on accordion, and some stunning fiddle work by Michael Doucet. He wrote all the songs except "Angeline," which he co-wrote with Will Jennings, and his sophistication as a storyteller is becoming more fully developed. This is a disc that shows his true maturity as a songwriter. He has a tight band working with him, and he employs his friends, who help him out to his best advantage. There is plenty of straight-ahead high voltage Zydeco here, and there is also the quieter more introspective song. A well realized and balanced piece of work that truly reflects Landreth's Zydeco/Louisiana roots. [Landfall issued a bonus track-laden, two-CD edition in 2009.]