Tia Gouttebel is on the move, from Romagnat, France, to Southern Louisiana Her latest album Sevenexplodes with the energy of newfound places and musicians with whom she performs with her band Muddy Gurdy. She bridges old and new worlds as she blends her roots in rural French music with Cajun and Zydeco music, and the combination delivers a stunning new sound.
Along her journey, Gouttebel chose to record in intimate locations with local performers. She opens with a powerful rendition of Hank Williams’s “Jambalaya” which features fiddler Bobby Michot, one of “Les Freres Michot”, a family of musicians from Lafayette, Louisiana, and Chabenat’s signature sound of the hurdy gurdy anchors the music. As she sings, “Son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou,” the album begins with a recording made in the garden of Frozard, a plantation house near Arnaudville, Louisiana.
With each song, we move from place to place, from local musician to local musician, and the consistent sounds that anchor the album are Gouttebel’s powerful guitar and her clear, deeply felt voice, Fabrice Bony’s hard-driving drum accompaniment, and Gilles Chabenat’s haunting, ever-present hurdy gurdy. Like a freight train, they roll through Louisiana and carry us from Jeffery and Millie Broussard’s living room in Opelousas, to BJ’s Lounge in New Orleans, to a small boat on Lake Martin in Breaux Bridge.
The dramatic opening selection of “Jambalaya” is beautifully matched by the two closing selections “Laisser Mon Coeur” and “Plain Gold Ring” sung by Tia Gouttebel. Floating among ancient cypress trees on Lake Martin in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, we first hear water lap against the side of the boat and frogs sing, then the hurdy gurdy and drums open “Plain Gold Ring”, and Gouttebel sings, “Nighttime comes. My heart will never be free. Plain Gold ring on his finger he wore.”
As the song ends, we again hear the water and a motor. The music is anchored in both the heart of the singer and the place where she sings. Tia Gouttebel lost her beloved partner Marc Glomeau, and her song is dedicated to him. She worked on this album with a team of 6 people and titled it Sevenbecause Glomeau’s spirit was with them, at every moment of their journey.
William Ferris (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)