Buckwheat Zydeco

You can't attack a levee with a guitar, but Buckwheat Zydeco and Sonny Landreth seem to try on "When the Levee Breaks," turning the classic dirge into an assault: angry, assertive, anything but victimized. It's a startling and potent opening to an album that goes on to subvert all expectations, covering Captain Beefheart ("Too Much Time"), rarely playing straight-forward zydeco and even giving Jimmy Cliff a nod ("Let Your Yeah Be Yeah"). There's almost too much life on this near-bursting release, proving that thirty years into the music game, Buckwheat Zydeco is still brimming with ideas.