| Bayou Ruler | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys |
| Cover: | Bayou Ruler.jpg |
| Released: | 1998 |
| Genre: | Cajun |
| Label: | Rounder[1] |
| Producer: | C.C. Adcock, Tarka Cordell |
| Prev Title: | Friday at Last |
| Prev Year: | 1997 |
| Next Title: | Happytown |
| Next Year: | 2001 |
Bayou Ruler is an album by the American band Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, released in 1998.[2] [3] A couple of its English-language songs were regional hits, although they proved controversial to some Cajun traditionalists.[4] [5] The band supported the album with a North American tour.[6] "Let Me Know" was promoted to radio stations all over the United States, a rarity for a Cajun single.[7]
The album was produced by C.C. Adcock and Tarka Cordell. The band continued to incorporate into their sound rock and blues styles; in their spare time the band listened more to rock than Louisiana music.[8] [9] "Mama Told Papa" is a cover of the Clifton Chenier song.[10] "My True Love (Voyage d'amour)" is a cover of the Dewey Balfa tune; "je suis pas un couillon" is a cover of the Belton Richard song.[11] Jimmy Domengeaux played guitar on the album, his last with the band; he died in a motorcycle accident in January 1999.[12]
The Los Angeles Times called Bayou Ruler "a scattered-sounding, misdirected album that Riley describes as 'swamp pop'... Its layers of brass, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, Hammond B3 organ and other pop-friendly devices are murky indeed."[13] The Star Tribune opined that "'Tough Get Going' is a particularly anemic rocker, and the swamp pop stuff just needs to be greasier."[14]
The Washington Post praised the "convincing" Cajun-rock fusion, writing that "one has to go back to the swamp-pop glory days of Tommy McClain and Cleveland Crochet to find such a convincing hybrid."[15] The Province determined that the title track possessed a "Foreigner-goes-Cajun sound."[16] The Albuquerque Journal noted that the album "expands the group's horizons with a mixture of rock 'n' roll, R&B, and zydeco."[17]
AllMusic wrote that the band, "purveyors of traditional Cajun music, range far out of the bayous to incorporate most all the musical styles of Southern Louisiana."