We are very happy to announce that "Grand Isle" has been nominated for a Grammy award!  There is no longer a Cajun/Zydeco category, so we were nominated for "Best Regional Roots Music Album"!  Some of us will be making the trip to the awards show on February 12th in Los Angeles!  You can read more about the cd and hear it in it's entirety here at this link:  http://mamouplayboys.com/grand_isle/.  Hope to see you at some of our local shows in the next couple of months leading up to the Grammys.  Look for a possible local Grammy fundraiser show with special guests sometime in January!  Aww yeah!

While we were in D.C. in February, we stopped in at NPR and did a Tiny Desk Concert!  This is a small informal, acoustic show hosted by Bob Boilen that has been happening for sometime now!  You can never go wrong with an appearance on NPR!  Click here to check it out!

Grand Isle reviews and press continues to pour in from LA and throughout the US!  You can check out the latest press and reviews here.  Or visit www.rockpaperscissors.biz for more info.

"Grand Isle" was officially released nationally on February 22nd and can new be found in stores near you, here on our site and on iTunes!! We hope to see you soon at some of our shows here or on upcoming tours that will have us traveling pretty extensively through September!                                                 — Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys

The band is called Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. The guy in the middle holds a button-box that squeezes like an accordion, but shouts hallelujah like a big brass band. The fiddle cracks wise and warm, the guitar falls off the edge of the earth, and the rhythm section is purring rumble like a Coupe DeVille of shark-fin vintage. It all flows as a liquid-smooth groove, topped with three heartfelt voices harmonizing in 17th-century French from the steamy sub-tropics.

Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys began over twenty years ago with a reputation for excellence. Their stunningly clean and cohesive performance of Cajun French music from the backwaters of Southwest Louisiana propelled them into the world music limelight early on, and by their third release had garnered them a Grammy nomination in the worldwide field of traditional folk music, another in 2004, and then another in 2009.

From the day they started, they have gone from strength to strength. Never before in Cajun music has a comparable wealth of skills been brought to the same table.

As many of you know, David Greely is leaving the Mamou Playboys effective the day after Mardi Gras, because his audiologist has informed him he needs to steer clear of dancehall sound levels.  David and Steve started the Mamou Playboys 23 years ago and have made some great music and had some amazing times in those years together!  Although he will no longer be in the band, I/we look forward to our continued friendship and collaboration.

After giving David’s departure the full respect it deserves and contemplating our future without him, we needed to get down to the business of moving forward.  That meant deciding on his replacement.  There was one person at the top of our list from the very beginning.  With that being said, we are honored and very happy to welcome Kevin Wimmer to The Mamou Playboys!

Kevin is one of the finest fiddlers around.  Period.  He has been part of our extended musical family for years.  Steve and Kevin met 26 years ago on Steve’s 1^st trip out of LA with Dewey Balfa to Davis and Elkins College in Elkins West VA.  Kevin was one of Dewey’s best students and he and Steve quickly became friends.  It wasn’t long before he was in LA staying with Dewey and hanging out playing music anytime and anywhere he could.   He even played on the Playboys’ “Live” cd recorded in Eunice in the mid-90’s.  By that time he was living in LA where he’s been ever since.

Kevin is originally from New York City and comes from a great musical family.  He began his musical training at age four with his Mother, a respected violinist who is on the Juilliard School of Music faculty.  Ever since meeting Dewey Balfa 26 years ago, Cajun fiddle has been the focus of his career, though he also enjoys playing jazz, Western swing, and old-time.

Kevin has toured four continents and countless cities with Balfa Toujours, the Red Stick Ramblers, Racines, Ray Abshire, Ann Savoy and her Sleepless Nights, Danny Poullard and the California Cajun Orchestra, Preston Frank and the Frank Family Band, and more.  He's also an in-demand studio session musician and he teaches regularly at music camps here and throughout the US.

We are looking forward to getting’ down, mixin’ it up, and starting the next Playboy chapter!  Hope to see you all in south LA or somewhere out there on the road!  This year will find us very busy touring in support of “Grand Isle”, so come out and see us where you can!  We are very thankful for your love and support throughout the years!  Le voyage continue!

Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys