The laid back, loose and easy Blue Moon  Guest House and Saloon in downtown Lafayette quickly begins to shake and shimmy when the small wooden back porch dance floor overflows with two-stepping Cajuns there to have a stomping good time to the rockin' roots music of the Lost Bayou Ramblers. That excitement has been captured on Live à la Blue Moon, recorded in January 2007 and released later that year by Swallow Records.  The CD has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the new Zydeco-Cajun category. 

With Louis Michot on fiddle and vocals and his brother André on accordion and lap steel, the band takes standards like "J'étais au bal" and makes them pulsate with new energy punctuated by a thumping drum-upright bass-guitar beat, joined by dancers smacking the floor with primal intensity. Chris Courville is on drums, Alan LaFleur on bass, and Cavan Carruth on guitar and vocals.

Louis Michot, who has taken over the early Sunday morning slot from his uncle Rick on KRVS public radio with a program featuring early recordings of Cajun music, and André Michot certainly know how to root their music in tradition while the band injects songs like "Chere Tout Tout," "Bosco Stomp," and "Lacassine Special" with their own raucous, beautiful, unadulterated grit.

One of the many pleasures offered on the CD is the vibrant sound of André's lap steel on swing numbers like Harry Choates' "Austin Special," on the French and English "Macaque" ("You Can't Put a Monkey on My Back"), and on several Cajun standards.

Other cuts include Cyp Lanreneau's "Talle d'éronce," the Rodney LeJeune number "Dans les misères," John Fontenot's "Tasse café pour me réveiller," both "Alida Waltz" and "Alida Two Step" from Aldus Roger, and Lawrence Walker's "Valse de malchanceux."

The CD was recorded Jan. 12-13, 2007, when the New Orleans Saints were in post-season playoffs (they won against the Eagles Jan. 13 and then lost to the Bears), so on one cut the band switches from Cajun to Irish Channel to play "Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Beat Dem Saints?"

The CD also features live versions of Louis Michot’s “Blues de la Frontier," David Michot's "Moi j'connais pas," both originally recorded on the Pilette Breakdown CD, and the title song from the Bayou Perdu CD plus "Mexico One-Step," and, as part of the final cut on the live CD, "Blue Moon Special." The band's song celebrating drinking and dancing at the Blue Moon segues into "Step It Fast" ("T'en as eu, t'en n'auras plus") and Marc Savoy's “Sam's Big Rooster," ending the evening with more stomp down rhythm and cut loose vocals.

You can't duplicate the experience of a Louisiana weekend without actually being there jostling with the dancers to a pounding beat strong enough to levitate everyone into another dimension, but listening to this CD comes close.