Includes liner notes by Chris Strachwith and Michael Goodwin.

This album's self-explanatory title, 60 MINUTES WITH THE KING OF ZYDECO, is precisely what listeners get. In the 1950s, Clifton Chenier put together a high-octane mixture of Arcadian two-step and R&B that defined the genre with which he would always be associated, and that earned him the well-deserved "King of Zydeco" moniker.

60 MINUTES collects some of the best work Chenier put out on Arhoolie (and there has been quite a bit of it). All of it bears the hallmarks of Chenier's style, a soulful, high-energy party music that boogies as fiercely as any New Orleans R&B, yet flaunts its regional, Creole-centric hallmarks via clattering washboards, pumping accordion, and French-language singing. Since 60 MINUTES covers a large chunk of Chenier's recording career, it serves as an excellent retrospective of the zydeco legend.