Boco: Running The Mardi Gras / Smile Vinyl 7″ Boco

Highly coveted southern soul gem repressed! Boco’s “Running The Mardi Gras” is a cult classic among diggers in the soul scene, fetching upwards of $1K when it pops up on the second hand market (ratio game crazy on the ‘cogs). Factoring prices and scarcity, it’s damn near impossible to get your hands on this 45, but thankfully Big Crown has stepped in with this legit reissue so we can all get a piece of this Cajun psych soul masterpiece. David Haffner of Magnetic Recordings describes it best, “This record is a family affair. It started one morning when one Mr. Latour, the father of the group, was shaving in the mirror and a song struck him. It was to be about Mardi Gras, not the beaded revelry of New Orleans familiar to most, but the traditions of rural Louisiana, where one would “run the Mardi Gras,” going house to house getting home cooking from the neighbors.  He would sing the song every day in the car and the children of the family soaked up the spirit of the song. Playing and performing was just part of life for the family. Mr. Latour had bought studio equipment for his children to record on, which he kept in their house. Growing up in the shadow of New Orleans, the Latour children listened to the sounds of Funk and R&B that came in on the radio, which was the biggest influence on the family projects’ sound. Together the four Latour children, with the eponymous Boco Latour on lead vocals, and a couple of local musicians recorded “Running the Mardi Gras” in the Latour home. Feeling that they really had something, the makeshift band decided to record a b-side. The guitarist had a song he had been working on and they recorded what would become “Smile” as well.” Take a listen to the sound samples, the music should speak directly to your soul (as all good music should). Comes in a full pic sleeve, just like the OG.

• music label: Big Crown Records 2016

reviewed by troglodyte 08/2016