The title of
A Bit of Two Worlds refers to the fact that, for the first time in their long and storied career as one of the most successful bands in traditional Cajun music, singer/songwriter Ivy Dugas, accordionist Jackie Caillier, and their band, the Cajun Cousins, have added English lyrics to their music. This is not a blatant crossover attempt of the style that
Beausoleil have occasionally attempted: only four of the album's 14 songs are in English, and almost as a preemptive strike against accusations of sellout, "She Changed Her Mind" and a strutting cover of
Don Rich's "Bébé (You'll Be Too Late)" are among the most stripped-down and old-fashioned songs on the album, making plain the connections between traditional Cajun music and old-school country & western. The rest of the album is traditional French-language Cajun music in the Dugas and Callier style, with Callier's squeezebox jousting with Tony Thibodeaux and Benny Mueller's fiddles on a series of waltzes and two-steps. Conservative-minded fans worried that the bandmembers are planning on forsaking their musical and cultural roots needn't worry. ~ Stewart Mason