Like everything on Memphis Slim's album Goin' Back to Tennessee or Alvin Youngblood Hart's "Tallacatcha" (a Western swing performance worthy of Bob Wills), Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown's 1975 Barclay album Down South in the Bayou Country completely transcends any and all attempts to confine this diverse artist within the artificial parameters of blues or any other preordained category. Consisting mostly of songs written by Hoyt Garrick, Jr., Charles Gressett, and David Craig with additional tunes by J. Loyd and Joe Stampley, this pretty parfait of country & western, Southern rock, cowboy hoedown, and electric Cajun soul music was recorded during February and March 1974 in Bogalusa, LA. Gatemouth, fresh from his tenure as Deputy Sheriff of San Juan County, NM, sounds particularly pleased to be active at the center of a project so completely infused with authentic Southern sensibilities. Perhaps the most satisfying track off of the original album is "Loup Garou." This hoodoo funk ritual with background vocals by Geraldine "Sister Gerry" Richard sounds as if it might have been influenced by Dr. John's "Loop Garoo," which had appeared on that artist's Atco album Remedies in 1970.
In 1972, two years after the release of Robin Kenyatta's seminal Girl from Martinique outing for ECM, he signed to Atlantic and released another seminal bit of classy jazz-funk. Gypsy Man, produced by Michael Cuscuna, has a who's-who lineup of players who would be synonymous with the newly emerging subgenre of jazz: drummer Billy Cobham (still a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra at the time), percussionist Ralph MacDonald, session drummer Rick Marotta, guitarists Keith Loving and David Spinozza, pianist Larry Willis on Fender Rhodes, bassist Stanley Clarke (who released his own classic debut Children of Forever the same year and played on two of Norman Connors now legendary dates from the period, Dance of Magic and Dark of Light), and more.