Producer: Art Rupe.

Compilation producer: Barret Hansen.

Includes liner notes by Barret Hansen.

Digitally remastered by Little Walter DeVenne.

Clifton Chenier's recordings for the Los Angeles-based Specialty label in the fifties are among his earliest. What these dozen tracks make clear is that he was creating a music that has the same clarity and sense of purpose he'd have over the next thirty years. Combing his homeland Cajun music with blues, he created an alluring blend that was at once hypnotic and danceable. By the late sixties his success spilled over into the rest of the world, making him the first bona fide Cajun star. As both an instrumentalist--on his accordion--and a singer, he was never short of impassioned. This set is a bracing look at his strong beginnings. For his recordings of a decade later, try BON TON ROULET! or LOUISIANA BLUES AND ZYDECO.