A Tribute to the King of Zydeco is a tribute compilation album by various artists, released on June 27, 2025, via Valcour Records and Sony Music Publishing. The "King of Zydeco" celebrated in the album title is Clifton Chenier, using a frequent nickname for the musician. The album was recorded primarily at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana in January 2024, although many contributions, especially vocals, were recorded in studios in other cities across the world.[1][2] The album was produced by Joel Savoy and Steve Berlin, with C. C. Adcock producing "Zydeco Sont Pas Salé" and "Release Me."[2]
The album's release occurred two days after what would have been Clifton Chenier's 100th birthday and as part of a broader "Year of Chenier" celebrating the artist.[3][4] Related events celebrating Chenier's centennial included a performance by the album's Dockside Allstars at the 2025 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a party at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, events throughout South Louisiana and in Washington, D.C., and a box-set compilation album of Chenier recordings released by Smithsonian Folkways and Arhoolie Records titled Clifton Chenier: King of Louisiana Blues and Zydeco.[5]
The album cover features a photograph of Chenier taken by Richard "Dickie" Landry at Jay's Lounge & Cockpit near Cankton, Louisiana in 1972. Landry is also a saxophonist who played with Chenier and appears on the album.[4]
On June 25, 2025—the one hundredth anniversary of Chenier's birth—Valcour co-released with Smithsonian Folkways and Arhoolie Records a vinyl and digital single of the album's first track, "Zydeco Sont Pas Salé." The B side featured Chenier's original 1965 recording of the song.[2]
Ljubinko Zivkovic of Spill Magazine wrote, "Not only has [Valcour Records] gathered an absolutely stellar cast here... no frills, a lot of thrills without any experimental excursions, after all, Chenier’s music was a combination of so many things that it was experimental in all the right ways itself."[7] Garth Cartwright of The Guardian noted, "['Zydeco Sont Pas Salé'] might just be the loosest, rawest [Rolling] Stones recording since Exile on Main St," but also that "the cream of Louisiana’s zydeco and Cajun musicians accompany the famous guests."[8] Likewise, John Wirt of OffBeat Magazine noted, "Louisiana musicians form the tribute album’s backbone, blending Bayou State flavors with the national acts' interpretations of Chenier's repertoire."[2] Writing for SPIN magazine, Steve Hochman opined, "Played by the Stones, ['Zydeco Sont Pas Salé' is] a red-hot rocker, arguably as smoking as anything the band has done in years. Maybe more so. It makes for a bracing opener to the album, setting the tone for a largely fierce, raw set of blues. Even the several ballads are raw and rough in the best ways.... From there [the album is] a fiery run through blues, swamp-boogie, and jump-jive, with a handful of ballads for changes of pace. It manages to stay true to the honoree, without anyone imitating him."[9]
David Browne of Rolling Stone connected the album's release with a broader cultural moment: "Interest in Americana [music] is on the rise, and the soundtrack for Sinners, the hit horror film set in the blues-drenched Mississippi of the Thirties, blends in blues and old-timey songs alongside modern hip-hop."[3]
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