Acadie by Daniel Lanois

As I was flipping thru the stacks sorting stuff, I saw this record in there. I had not heard it for a while, so I grabbed it, and flipped it on.

If you are not familiar with this guy, he is mostly known for being a producer of some really big records in the late 80s…I knew him then because of work with Brian Eno and U2, and doing stuff with Peter Gabriel on the aurally stunning So. He had great ears – that much was clear to me…and he had cool friends for sure.

This record, his first solo effort, came out when I was managing a record store in 1989. I went bezerker on it – I played the HELL out of it. It sounded great, first of all – it was a lot of analog machines recorded digitally so it was super warm, unlike a lot of the shit that was coming out then (all pure digital stuff of the late 80s was shitty). I liked the songwriting on it too.

The feel, overall, is one of southern Cajun, to me – it felt mostly like a Louisiana record, which wasn’t bad for some Canadian dude to pull off. Of course he did write and record it in New Orleans, and it shows. The playing on it is all good too – and the instrumentation choices keep it feeling both intimate and ethereal – which is a nice place to bridge.

My favorite song was probably the pretty well-known The Maker – it was used a few years later in Billy Bob’s movie Sling Blade, along with other Lanois music. This song has multiple fretless bass parts on it – they more or less create the tension. The drum track was a Willie Green Neville Brothers take that wasn’t yet used – it is insane if you pay close attention to it…just brilliantly playing all around the beat. Aaron Neville makes a guest vocal spot in here too, which is never bad for the ratings, or the increased notoriety at the time (he was a HUGE name in 1989).

Another song on here that always makes me smile and feel good, is Jolie Louise – it is a simple little song, Cajun feel and arrangement with actually a really sad story inside it…but such is the beauty of music, in that the song is so warm and lovely as a recording, the sadness of the song’s story is almost something to celebrate. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the rhythm section here is that of U2 – Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. make wonderfully understated guest spots on this album here as the gentle propulsion of this song.

As long as I mentioned the other two, the third single Lanois released from this in ’89 was Still Water, which is a much more Eno-esque, spacey kind of thing, with a beautifully haunting production quality. None of the singles did anything, and I can’t remember even selling too many copies of the album, though I played it at least once a day to try.

I am a little sorry that my copy of this one is the same one I have had since it came out – it has been played a LOT, so it is a little mushy in the grooves now (cheap-ass 80s vinyl!). I may end up having to get another one, because I will always love a chance to spin this fine little record…and it is worth having one clean and pristine, to fully appreciate the depth of talent Daniel Lanois had as an artist on both sides of the microphone.