Album Review – Miss Tess – “Cher Rêve”

#510.1 (Classic Country) and #569 (Cajun-inspired Country) on the Country DDS.

As alluring, unique, and diverse as the sights, sounds, and smells that emanate from Louisiana’s entertainment districts, Miss Tess serves up a splendid sampler of sumptuous audio delights inspired by Lafayette and the greater Acadiana region. Expect Cajun, expect country, expect some swamp pop and vintage R&B. But most importantly, expect the distinct, the savory, and the unexpected from Miss Tess’s Cher Rêve.

Miss Tess might be new to you, but she’s nowhere near a newcomer to making older-sounding songs for new audiences. This isn’t some nostalgia trip or hipster trend-chasing for Miss Tess. She’s a genuine old soul who made her name through classic country and Western Swing songs with her band The Talkbacks, and by being unafraid to explore country’s big band and jazzy tones. That journey has now led her to Louisiana, which is fully embraced and venerated in this new album’s nine songs.

On Cher Rêve, you get three classic songs, three songs from the Miss Tess catalog re-recorded with Louisiana seasoning, and three new songs. This also works out to three heartbreaking classic country tunes, two upbeat Cajun-inspired country tracks, two songs sung in French, the song “Lord, I Need Somebody Bad Tonight” that gives you those great swamp pop vibes, and the opening song “Louisiana,” which is a country love song to the state.

Helping Miss Tess perfect this recipe, and making sure the sounds and textures are authentic is the one and only Joel Savoy, who engineered Cher Rêve at his studio in Eunice, Louisiana, and pulled in multiple local players for the project. The album was produced by Miss Tess’s partner Thomas Bryan Eaton, who regularly tours with her, and also did time in the superband Western Centuries.

If this all sounds a little too spicy and eclectic for your country music taste buds, perhaps start with Miss Tess’s stirring version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Nobody Wins,” or her original tune “Learning Not To Care.” But for the adventurous who just find something enlivening about the sound of a squeeze box over a steel guitar set to an up-tempo beat, get straight into “Ride That Train” and “Take It Easy,” and lose yourself in the Cajun country goodness.

It’s the gumbo of musical influences in Louisiana music that blend together so well and render it all so riveting. When you take a song like the French-sung track “La Valse D’asteur” co-written by Miss Tess herself, you might fail to understand a single word, but your feel every word as they awaken some archaic interest that only these distinct Louisiana sounds can stoke.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a revitalization of interest in appeal in Western music and other regional dialects of country. It feels like only a matter of time before the Cajun and Creole sounds of Louisiana come back into favor as well. But for those within Acadiana, they never left, and they never will. They’re elemental to life, conferring it the joy, the sorrow, and the seasons of the region’s inhabitants. This is what Miss Tess captures in Cher Rêve.

8/10

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Purchase Cher Rêve on Bandcamp