Louisiana Calling with The Sonny Landreth Band and The Iguanas

Sonny Landreth The deep roots tag team of Cajun slide guitar phenom Sonny Landreth and legendary New Orleans Latin-Americana rockers the Iguanas presents a mind-blowing musical trip through the scenic soundscape of the bayou. Still wet from crawling out of the swamps, this cross-pollinated confection will be both savory and sweet. Louisiana’s calling—here’s your chance to answer. A percussive burst of acoustic resonator guitar pushes the narrator on a journey “between the life I left and the edge of next” in the title cut of guitarist, songwriter and bandleader Sonny Landreth’s 14th album. As the singer feels the wind at his back, a rising bass line intersects Landreth’s vocalizing to stretch the fingerpicked tune into Far Eastern melodicism. The south Louisiana artist’s groundbreaking work has long mixed familiarity with experimentation, and his latest 10-song collection stretches from hard-edged electric instrumentals to wistful acoustic ballads. The project’s range is the fruit of a renewed collaboration. Producer RS Field – who helmed Landreth’s trio of breakout albums – joined the six-stringer and co-producer Tony Daigle to finish the record. The Iguanas A fixture of the New Orleans music scene for over two decades, THE IGUANAS’ music is an infectious mix of America’s musical heritage – Tejano and Conjunto sounds from the Texas/Mexico border region, as best exemplified by the accordion and bajo sexto, the American South’s Blues, Jazz and New Orleans R&B, and the fiery passion of the music of the Caribbean and Mexico. Taking their cues from all of these influences and then some, The Iguanas redefine the notion of Americana, crossing cultures, styles, eras… and even languages. It’s as if Rue Bourbon, Muscle Shoals and Plaza de Mexico were all within earshot of each other and The Iguanas were the musical conduit between them. It is not surpising then that the members of The Iguanas have (collectively or individually) played or recorded with everyone from Charlie Rich, Alex Chilton, and Willy DeVille to Emylou Harris, Allen Tousaint, and Pretty Lights.