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Buckwheat Zydeco brings now beloved accordion to B-N

By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com

You'd think the man who made the accordion hipper than thou would have fonder childhood memories of his claim to instrumental fame. But no. | Audio

The founder and namesake of the most famous zydeco band in America, Buckwheat Zydeco, hated the accordion.

HATED IT!

He'd rather have watched a 24-hour "Lawrence Welk Show" marathon at gunpoint than pick one up and squeeze it.

All these many years and squeezes later, you can still sense the horror of it all in the voice of Stanley Dural Jr., who was nicknamed "Buckwheat" in fourth grade and never shook it.

That's because his high-flying coiffure resembled that of "Buckwheat" from the "Our Gang" comedies, according to his best pal Eddie Taylor.

Thanks, Eddie?

"I hated it!" he confesses of the moniker.

Almost as much as the accordion, he adds.

"Even in class, the teacher would tell everyone, 'His name is Stanley Dural!' But the minute we all went outside to play, it was back to Buckwheat!"

Stanley and the teacher lost the battle, needless to say.

Preferring to be called today simply "Buck," the 59-year-old musician says he was no different than any other kid his age growing up in the heart of Creole country (Lafayette, La., to be precise).

Accordions were un-cool.

Un-hip.

Lawrence-Welk-ish.

Moreover, the instrument was a mainstay of the Dural household -- like carrots for dinner and washing behind the ears before bedtime.

Accordingly, Buck's father, Stanley Sr., played the accordion all the time.

But only for the family. And only at home.

"He never played it at venues away from home," says Buck, who this weekend is bringing Buckwheat Zydeco to a Twin Cities venue far, far from home -- the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts (7:30 p.m. Friday; tickets still available).

"He felt that the music was sacred to the family."

So playing it in public was -- you guessed it -- sacrilege.

Not only was playing the accordion at home a family tradition, it was also intended to be a like-father-like son ritual.

"He told me, 'You should play the accordion!'

"I said, 'No I shouldn't!' I was hearing it 24/7 already!"

And so it went, a generational tug-of-musical-war, with Stanley Jr. associating the accordion with the "older generation."

For Buck, the music of the moment was happening outside the two tiny rooms of the Dural homestead (jam-packed, by the way, with seven brothers and six sisters).

It was called rock 'n' roll, with an R&B flourish.

And a hefty piano-pounder and fellow Louisianan named Fats Domino was providing the sounds his youthful ears liked to hear.

As a result, little Buck took up the piano and, later, the Hammond organ.

He admits this musical rift kept him and his father estranged for many years as Buck went his own way, working in bands like Sammy & The Untouchables and Little Buck & The Top Cats (with that Buck referring not to Buckwheat but to guitarist Paul Senegal, also known as Buckaroo).

At the age of 24, he formed his own band, Buckwheat & the Hitchhikers, a whopping 15-man funk-and-soul assemblage, with the founder going to town on, yes, the Hammond.

But then something unexpected happened.

"I'd decided to stop and take a year off from music, to see what direction I should take," recalls Buck.

"Before I could do that, I got a call from Chenier."

As in Clifton Chenier, the legendary accordionist who almost single-handedly brought zydeco, stomping and singing, into the second half of the 20th century.

"It sounded like he was probably taking orders from my dad," laughs Buck, who knows for a fact that his old man had been urging him to catch a Chenier show for years.

Predictably, Buck saw the accordion around Chenier's neck and immediately assumed he would be hearing more of his father's housebound music.

Chenier extended an invitation to Buck to play the Hammond organ in his group, the Red Hot Louisiana Band, whose membership also included old musical crony Paul "Little Buck" Senegal.

"I said, 'OK, I'll give it a shot -- if Little Buck can play in it, it can't be that bad.' I had no clue (about Chenier). He was just the guy who used to come and play with dad at the house."

In the space of one performance, though, Buck's musical life was changed for all time.

More importantly, the accordion he loathed became his instrument of choice and the father he was estranged from "became my best of friends."

The change came out of the blue.

"The way Chenier played zydeco, adding horns and guitars and drums, was not the way my dad played it, which was with the washboard my mother used to wash my clothes," Buck recalls.

"And Chenier had that thing wrapped around his neck, and I was amazed at what he did with it! I couldn't believe it! Before I saw him, I'd stayed away as far away as I could from the accordion. After that, I decided I had to learn how to play it myself."

He continued to man the Hammond organ during his two-year stint with Chenier. But when he decided to form his own band in 1976, he fully embraced the past he formerly rejected, right down to his own much-despised nickname.

Even singing, which he had never tried, became a part of the picture.

"People were saying, 'Buckwheat's gone crazy!'"

But with the arrival of Buckwheat Zydeco, the music tradition not only received its biggest popular boost and its own superstar band -- it also sealed the deal between father and son.

"We just couldn't make it before," he says. "And then we became tight, tight, tight! The best of friends."

More than 30 years later, the good times just keep rolling for Buck and his band (whose membership now includes his own son, Reginald, on washboard).

Though Buckwheat Zydeco's popularity peaked in the late '80s, courtesy their participation in the hit Dennis Quaid movie, "The Big Easy," the spirit-lifting music has maintained a firm foothold as a vital component of American's home-grown soundscape.

Speaking of feet, cautions Buck: "I'd recommend bringing two pairs of shoes to our show -- because you'll wear the first ones out dancing!"

And speaking of dancing, he adds: "Anybody who comes to one of our performances and just sits there in their seat -- well, they better go see a doctor. Quick."

At a glance

What: Buckwheat Zydeco

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 110 E. Mulberry St., Bloomington

Tickets: $18.10 to $28.50

Box office number: (866) 686-9541

Zydeco primer

• Pronounced: "ZY-deh-ko"

• Derived from: Creole pronunciation of the French word for "the snap beans," "les haricots," from the old song, "Les Haricots Sont Pas Sale" ("the snap beans aren't salty")

• Also known as: "Zodico," "La la music"

• Original form: Sung in Creole French, with only accordion, washboard and (maybe) drums for back-up

• Pioneers: Clifton Chenier, Buckwheat Zydeco, Boozoo Chavis, Queen Ida, Rockin' Sidney, John Delafose

• Ingredients: Afro-Caribbean rhythms, blues, soul, rock, country, folk, Cajun, reggae, ska

• Modern form: Accordion, washboard (or "rubboard"), drums, guitar, bass guitar, fiddle, horns, keyboard

Buck stops here

• Real name: Stanley Joseph Dural Jr.

• Source of nickname: Buckwheat, from the "Our Gang" comedies

• Preferred usage: Buck or Stan

• Hometown: Lafayette, La.

• Least favorite instrument as a child: Accordion

• Most favorite instrument as an adult: Accordion

• First instrument mastered: Keyboard (piano, Hammond organ)

• Early bands: Sammy & The Untouchables, Little Buck & The Top Cats

• First band of his own: Buckwheat & The Hitchhikers

• Life-changing encounter: With father of modern zydeco, Clifton Chenier

• Life-changing gig: Spending two years as a keyboardist in Chenier's Red Hot Louisiana band

• Life-changing result: Taking up the accordion and founding his own zydeco band, Buckwheat Zydeco & The Ils Sont Partis Band, circa 1976

• Signature anthem: "Zydeco Boogaloo"

• Signature albums: "Waitin' for My Ya Ya" (1985), "On a Night Like This" (1987), "Taking It Home" (1988)

• Buckwheat cinema: "The Big Easy" (1987), featuring BZ both on screen and on the soundtrack; and "The Waterboy," "Fletch Lives," "Little Buddha," "Hard Target," "Casual Sex"

• Buckwheat-TV: Penned theme song for PBS's "Pierre Franey's Cooking in America"

• Buckwheat Grammys: Four nominations, no wins

• Duets/collaborations: Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Ringo Starr, Jimmy Buffett, Greg Allman, John Hiatt, Neil Young, Robert Plant, Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, Andy Summers

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Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural Jr. is bringing his band, Buckwheat Zydeco, to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on Friday.

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