Personnel: Michael Doucet (vocals, percussion); Michael Doucet (guitar, violin, fiddle); David Doucet (vocals, acoustic guitar); Natalie Merchant (vocals); Jim Weider (electric guitar, dobro); Bill Keith (banjo); Mitchell Reed (fiddle, acoustic bass, electric bass); John Sebastian (harmonica); Jimmy Breaux (accordion); Paul Antonell (recorder); Andy Stein (baritone saxophone); Roswell Rudd (trombone, background vocals); Garth Hudson (Hammond b-3 organ); Tommy Alesi (drum); Billy Ware (percussion); The Hudson Valley Boys, Happy & Artie Traum (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Paul Antonell.

Louisiana fiddler Michael Doucet has been championing the cause of traditional Cajun and Zydeco music as the leader of Beausoleil since the 1980s, and while he's sometimes led New Orleans music into new frontiers by mixing it with other styles, ALLIGATOR PURSE, the band's first album for the Yep Roc label, teems with pure Crescent City sounds. Traditional tunes like "Bosco Stomp" and "Rouler et Tourner" overflow with fulsome fiddling and pumping accordion. The furthest the band gets from its roots is a bluesy tune by J.J. Cale, and even when Natalie Merchant shows up for a guest vocal on "Little Darlin'," she doesn't disrupt the Big Easy feel.

Beausoleil may be as synonymous with Cajun culture as Tasso ham, gumbo fil‚, and mudbugs, but the veteran shape-shifting Zydeco act is as adept at creating fusion food as it is traditional fare. Bandleader Michael Doucet's evenhanded fiddling and expressive, amiable voice lead the charge on Alligator Purse, the band's first for the Yep Roc label. Beausoleil flex their Cajun backbone on opener "Reel Cajun/452 North St. Joseph St.," one of a handful of straight-up bayou barnburners ("CarriŠre Zydeco," "Bosco Stomp") that are as timeless as they are electrifying, but it's the band's penchant for seamless genre-hopping that solidifies its well-deserved reputation as an American institution. Doucet and his small but formidable army's tasteful renderings of the blues ("Rouler et Tourner"), jazz ("Marie"), and old-timey country ("Little Darlin'") -- the latter featuring some high and lonesome crooning from Natalie Merchant -- always keep true to regional ingredients like accordion, Dixieland horns, and a steady Cajun backbeat, resulting in the kind of all-day street party that welcomes both purists and tourists with open arms, cold beer, and steaming plates of Louisiana cooking. ~ James Christopher Monger

Dirty Linen (pp.44-45) - "[T]he innovational approach, coupled with superb musicianship, are the elements that allow BeauSoleil to keep on enriching the repertoire, and the genre in general, even after 34 years in the business."