Feufollet are a young five piece band hailing from Southwest Louisiana. Fronted by vocalists Chris Stafford on accordion and guitars and Kelli Jones-Savoy on fiddle and acoustic guitar, they play a lively gumbo of Cajun, honky-tonk, classic country, rock and pop, singing in both English and, on four numbers, French.
It’s a lively affair that kicks off with Jones-Savoy taking twangy lead on the uptempo country bounce of Tired Of Your Tears before changing stylistic course on the organ backed Know What’s Next with Stafford stepping up to the mic on a 60sish poppy number that has more in common with ELO than anything Americana.
But then it’s back to swinging fiddle for the honky tong swing of Hole In My Heart with Jones-Savoy in Gallic mode, switching to Stafford’s accordion-backed slow-sway title cut with its old time country-folk colours and then straight into the second of the French tunes with the zyedeco pop of Cette Fois only to change tack again for the slow waltz fiddle accompanied torch country ballad When You Said Goodbye.
Half way through and you’ve got a pretty good idea of the band’s intent on not being hung on any one particular peg, the rest of the album following the same divers pathways, ranging from the sassy southern honky tonk of One Foot In My Door with its jazzy rhythms and fuzzing guitar to the organ-led swamp pop Pris Dan Le Vie Farouche (Stafford taking the bilingual role here) and the dreamy carnival sway of Early Dawn that sounds like it’s been lifted from the soundtrack to some 60s Maurice Chevalier movie.
It really needs to be experienced in the flesh and as they’ve recently played dates in France they will hopefully be playing some more European dates in the near future. This album will certainly be a persuasive argument for buying a ticket.
Review by: Mike Davies
Out Now via Feufollet Records
Order via Amazon