The Deslondes Map Musical DNA From Honky Tonks To The Bayou On ‘Don’t Let It Die Vol. 1’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Cover albums tend to fall into a few familiar categories: stopgap releases made between proper studio albums, cynical nostalgia plays aimed at Record Store Day collectors, or genuinely inspired reinterpretations that breathe new life into existing songs. Thankfully, on Don’t Let It Die Vol. 1, New Orleans outfit The Deslondes deliver the latter.

On Don’t Let It Die Vol. 1, the band runs a slew of different genres through their country by way of the bayou filter, completely reinventing many of these songs. The album is an inspired mix of their takes on musical heroes like Johnny Cash, Shelby Lynne, and Swamp Dogg, and on many of their own friends, like Pat Reedy and Nick Woods.

The album opens with “The World Beyond,” off Swamp Dogg’s 1970 debut. Beginning the track with pristine harmonies, The Deslondes keep enough of the song’s stunning soul influences intact while clearly putting their own color on the dreamy, post-apocalyptic number. The track goes a long way toward explaining the existence of this record, showing how they can take someone else’s song and make it completely their own while still honoring the original’s intent. It’s followed by Cash’s late-’50s novelty song “The Ballad of Boot Hill.” The band manages to wring as much fun as they can out of a mediocre Cash tune before quickly pivoting to a more contemporary number in Drunken Prayer’s “Cordelia,” with its gospel-tinged Americana shuffle. That song alone justifies this album’s existence. The sweet blend of soul and Americana on their slow-burning take of The Kernel’s “Try Again” is equally impressive.

Elsewhere, on Clifton Chenier’s “I’m Coming Home,” they take a sweet zydeco ode to loneliness and make it even more affecting by swapping out the accordion for a standup bass and slowing the pace even further. By the time the haunting vocals come in, a full minute later, the solitude is even more amplified. The record closes with the title track, a five-decade-old song that The Deslondes improve upon considerably, imbuing it with a subdued reverence the original lacked.

What makes Don’t Let It Die Vol. 1 stand apart from so many other cover albums is that it never feels like an exercise in crate-digging nostalgia or an ironic reworking of forgotten songs. Instead, it serves as a map of The Deslondes’ musical DNA, blending interpretations of songs by longtime touchstones alongside tracks from their contemporaries and friends. They approach each cut with the care of musicians who understand exactly what makes these songs worth revisiting in the first place. In doing so, the band has made that rare covers album that not only deepens appreciation for the originals but also stands confidently as its own artistic statement. It’s a rich, lived-in record that grows more rewarding with each listen, uncovering new emotional nuances with each listen.