Ramble on

In the days after Hurricane Katrina drowned most of New Orleans in Gulf Stream muck and unbearable lawlessness, Eric Frey and Chas Justus of the Red Stick Ramblers welcomed a few evacuees into their Breaux Bridge home. There was little to do but jam during those long, dark nights, but as heartbreak turned into healing Frey plucked out a new tune on his trusty banjo. He called it “Katrina.”

Sounding like a lost hoedown from Bob Dylan and The Band’s Basement Tapes, the defiant, stomping track found its way onto the Rambler’s recent CD release, Made in the Shade, a jumping set of tunes that sees the band’s fiddle twins attack Cajun, swing and country & western styles and takes no prisoners in the process.

Just as Frey and Justus sheltered friends from the storm, so too has their Baton Rouge-based band harbored an old-world style of music, keeping it vibrant and relevant for a new generation. The Cajun quintet’s confidence throughout Made in the Shade only helps the cause. Though styles shift from track to track, it is lead vocalist Linzay Young’s whiskey-in-hand and wink-in-his-eye delivery on the empty bar shuffle “Don’t Cry, Baby” as well as the Chuck Berry-influenced title track that stitches this vivid patchwork together.

The Red Stick Ramblers return to Baton Rouge on March 29 to headline the Zapp’s Beerfest at 8 p.m. at the LSU Rural Life Museum.

For details on the festival as they are announced, visit rurallife.lsu.edu or call 765-2437. redstickramblers.com