Mary Chapin

John Elefante born March 18, 1958 in Levittown, New York, and his family soon moved to Long Beach, California. Growing up, he sang and performed drums for his family band, The Brotherhood. As an artist, his credits include writing and singing lead vocals on three multi-platinum albums; as producer, his albums have earned numerous Dove Awards, 4 Grammy Awards (most recently in 2000) and 10 Grammy nominations. He has maintained a close working relationship with his brother, Dino, throughout his career.

Those who define everything in strict, unflexible color terms consider all black South Louisiana sounds zydeco and all white sounds from that region Cajun. However, Beausoleil, an obviously white group, open this release with a signature zydeco tune, Clarence Garlow's "Bon Temps Roulet." While they sometimes ventured a bit afield, as with the concluding "Island Zydeco," much of Beausoleil's fare artfully crossed genres and successfully combined divergent influences and material. This disc should satisfy audiences regardless of idiomatic preference.

Damn, that's some unequal album. First of all, almost every artist here is way past his prime time. Eddie Vedder is exception, and maybe Young, with his recent "Ragged Glory" fame. Many of these versions are horrible, … but, I gotta say, black artists here come up really good, especially O'Jays, and Wonder is cool too. …