The Rolling Stones’ reverence for blues and country is as well-established as Keith Richards’ penchant for scarves. But you may not immediately associate the band with zydeco, the French-sung, syncopated folk-dance music of Louisiana. Yet, according to Richards, they’re fans of that genre too. “We never just listened to the blues,” Richards tells Rolling Stone. “Zydeco has been a part of what we always listen to, the Mississippi blues, and it’s not a long way from there to Louisiana. We were always listening to stuff from down there. You listen to American music wherever it came from, even if it was in French.”
And the proof of that fascination lies in the first studio recording the band has released since 2023’s Hackneyed Diamonds: their rendition of the late zydeco master Clifton Chenier‘s “Zydeco Sont Pas Salés.”
On the heels of tracks by Lucinda Williams and Taj Mahal, the Stones’ recording is the latest preview of A Tribute to the King of Zydeco, a Chenier covers album that salutes the singer and accordion player who inserted blues, R&B, and even washboard into zydeco. To be released this Friday, the album also includes veterans (David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, John Hiatt, Steve Earle) and newcomers (Charley Crockett, Molly Tuttle), all collaborating with Louisiana musicians on renditions of Chenier tunes.
As RS reported, the Stones’ version of “Zydeco Sont Pas Salés” (translated as “the snap beans aren’t salty”) began with producer C.C. Adcock asking Mick Jagger if he wanted to contribute to the record. Sent a fairly stripped-down version of the song featuring accordionist Steve Riley, Jagger added harmonica and sang the tune in French Creole; since the version Jagger heard had only two verses, he poked around for other versions of the song to stretch out the lyrics. “I looked around for other verses and took some from different older versions of the song,” he tells Rolling Stone.
Afterwards, Richards and Ron Wood overdubbed guitar parts separately, though Richards admits that when he first heard the semi-finished track, “I had no idea Ronnie and Mick were on it. I was the last one. It all happened sort of independently. I was listening to the track, and I said, ‘I know that harp player.’”
Even with their love of zydeco, the Stones found it challenging to cover the song. Richards had to adjust to zydeco rhythms, as did Jagger. “The difficult thing is the bar length,” he says. “It’s a little tricky, because it’s not a straight 12-bar, but that’s the charm of it.”
Given the blend of Louisiana players and the Stones, the upshot is an electric-socket version of “Zydeco Sont Pas Salés” that, in its way, honors Chenier’s blending of genres and literally amplifies zydeco. “It was really quite old-fashioned and folkie when I did it,” Jagger says of the basic track he heard. “It didn’t sound like it does now. I quite like the original one as well, but they’re both of interest. It’s fun to do these things. Sometimes, they work out, and sometimes they don’t and sound like rubbish. But this sounds kind of different and interesting.” (Note to album producers: Can we hear that other version someday?)
The Stones, meanwhile, appear to be working away on a reported new album in London, with producer Andrew Watt again at the boards following their collaboration on Hackneyed Diamonds. As Richards tells RS, “We’re just putting some stuff together and seeing what happens. We cut all the time, you know, so whenever we can gather together, we’ll cut.”
