New Pick of the Week : Various artists “Cajun Music and Zydeco”, <i> Rounder</i>

Created as an audio companion to a new coffee table photography book with the same name, this new compilation just may be the single best introduction one can get to the uniquely joyful indigenous music of Southwestern Louisiana. Represented are such seminal names as fiddlers Dennis McGee, Canray Fontenot and Dewey Balfa, tradition-minded Cajun accordionists Marc Savoy and Steve Riley, zydeco kingpins Clifton Chenier and Boozoo Chavis and modern-day innovators Beausoleil and Zachary Richard. Wisely, even though Rounder has many of the top names in Cajun and zydeco on its roster or in its archives, the compilers of this volume--photographer Philip Gould and historian-folklorist Barry Jean Ancelet--looked beyond the Rounder files when they needed to.

As a result, this 17-song disc is not just a plug for Rounder but a genuinely comprehensive sampling of traditional and contemporary Cajun, Creole and zydeco as they have been played over the past 20 years. For anyone who wants to delve further into the Cajun music side of the equation, Rounder also has released “Cajun Dance Hall Special,” a new volume of exclusively Rounder acts.