Mel Melton & The Wicked Mojos, Papa Mojo's Roadhouse

Tracks & Durations

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Review

Roy "Mel" Melton knows how to cook onstage and off. Nicknamed "The Zydeco Chef" by former bandmate and friend C.J. Chenier and "Cookie Boy" by Sonny Landreth, another old band partner, Mel has been enjoying the success of two careers for three decades: one as a musician and the other as a professional chef and culinary consultant. According to Melton, "The food and music of Acadiana have always been inseparable for me."

Mel moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, in the 1970s and began playing in a band he co-founded with Sonny Landreth, the Lafayette slide guitar-playing superstar. He recorded on Sonny's first record, Blues Attack, in 1978, featuring C.J. Chenier on saxophone and Buckwheat Zydeco on the Hammond organ. Over the next fifteen years, he honed his musical and cooking skills, eventually becoming a well-known Cajun chef. At the same time, he was becoming known as a singer and a harmonica player who created a Zydeco style of playing that has earned him the reputation as the world's number one Zydeco harmonica player. In addition to playing with Sonny, he was frequently on stage with the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, and spent a year touring with the internationally known "Cajun Rocker," Zachary Richard.

In 1982, Sonny and Mel formed the band Bayou Rhythm, and eventually added C.J. Chenier to the lineup. The band recorded Way Down in Louisiana in 1985. A song on that record, "Congo Square," was co-written by Sonny and Mel and has since been recorded by the Neville Brothers, John Mayall, Tom Principato and several other artists. Bayou Rhythm toured heavily and headlined national shows and also opened for legendary musicians including Ray Charles, B.B. King, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dave Edmunds, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

In 1986, Melton left the band to pursue a full time chef career in Chicago. In the first month there, as chef at Capers, he won the prestigious Grand Prize at the Rolls Royce/Krug Champagne Invitational Chef Competition. The restaurant was named one of the top ten new Chicago restaurants of 1987. He frequently did cooking demonstrations and appeared on various Chicago radio and television programs. He was also a featured chef at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the American Cancer Society Christmas Gala, and Mardi Gras at the Limelight Club.

In 1990, Melton moved back home to North Carolina, where he continued showcasing his cooking skills at numerous events and cooking schools and by opening several restaurants. In 1995, he formed his current band, Mel Melton & the Wicked Mojos, and in 1998 recorded his first CD, Swampslinger, for New Moon Music, a Chapel Hill-based blues label. The CD was named one of the top ten blues CD of the year by the Washington Post. He followed that up with Mojo Dream in 2000, on the Nashville-based Nightfly label, and it was awarded Zydeco Record of the Year by Real Blues magazine. He also authored his first cookbook, Cookie Boy, the Authentic Cajun Recipes of Mel Melton, published by Kartobi Press of Farmington, New Mexico.

And now he has released Papa Mojo's Roadhouse, his third CD with his band, featuring guest appearances by Sonny Landreth and Trisha Yearwood's excellent guitarist Johnny Garcia, on Louisiana Red Hot Records. The CD covers the scale of Louisiana dance hall music, with rowdy Zydeco and Cajun tunes, swamp bop, juke joint blues and New Orleans funk. There's even a special "Lagniappe" at the end from Mel and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Laurel. Esteemed music journalist Philip Van Vleck (Billboard, Dirty Linen, Metro), said in Triangle Live: "It's the best record he's ever released because he just keeps getting better instead of older. His vocal work has never been more forceful, or polished, and his harmonica playing is simply unfailingly brilliant."

Mel describes the band's sound and his songs as "Mojo Music." "It's like the food. Down in Louisiana everyone cooks, and they like to stir it up their own way." As far as cooking, Mel's working on a new cookbook and doing as many cooking events as his schedule allows. As he states, "When people leave one of our shows I want them to feel like they've been down in the swamp at a big party and they've had a great time. That's what it's all about."

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