Formed during 1990 in Santa Barbara, California, the Acousticats issued a pair of albums across the ensuing half-decade before calling it quits. The five-piece unit fused traditional folk elements with contemporary touches through a twin-fiddle front line supplied by Phil Salazar and Charl Ann Gastineau together with fresh material written by singer/songwriters Cyrus Clarke and Mike Mullins. Up-tempo bluegrass pieces and string-band instrumentals let the group display its technical command, while the overall sound also leaned heavily on French Canadian and Louisiana traditions.
The 1992 debut, Down at Evangelina's, featured an original Cajun number titled "Hey Hey Evangelina," a brisk reading of "Come to the Mardi Gras" drawn from the 1954 jazz recording by Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Herb Ellis, plus a lyrical take on David Mallett's French Canadian fiddle piece "The Ballad of St. Anne's Reel." Follow-up release Cat's Meow confined itself solely to Clarke and Mullins originals.
After the group dissolved, Salazar stayed busy on fiddle, collaborating in performance and on record with John McEuen while maintaining ongoing California ties to the Cache Valley Drifters, the Rincon Ramblers and Acadiana.
