Buckwheat Zydeco to perform at the Wisconsin Union
Some Mardi Gras magic
Some Mardi Gras magic
Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. leads Buckwheat Zydeco, one
of the premier groups playing the Creole-influenced zydeco
music of Loiusiana.
of the premier groups playing the Creole-influenced zydeco
music of Loiusiana.
Dural got hooked on rhythm and blues and the sounds of Fats Domino who came to perform in Lafayette when Dural was a kid. By age nine, Dural was
playing the organ in a band and in 1971 formed an R&B band called Buckwheat & the Hitchhikers and was performing all along the Gulf Coast. Musically
speaking, things weren’t too good between Dural and his dad. “I didn’t like his music and he couldn’t stand mine,” Dural recalled. His dad kept urging him to take
up the accordion.
In 1975, Dural let his band go and took some time off to contemplate what direction he wanted to take. Clifton Chenier, the King of Zydeco, used to come
out to Dural’s father’s house and play. In 1976, Chenier invited Dural to play organ with his band when they were performing in Lafayette. “My plan was — just to
satisfy my dad — to put my organ on the stage, play this one night and tell my dad ‘Okay, now I’ve done played the zydeco and I still don’t like it,’” Dural
recalled. “That’s terrible. So I learned that what you don’t understand, you don’t criticize. You know a little more tomorrow than you knew yesterday. You have to
have an open mind. And please believe me, that’s what inspired me to pick up the accordion.”
Dural stayed with Chenier’s band for two years before taking a sabbatical to teach himself how to play the accordion. “I stayed in learning this instrument for
about eight months before I decided to get a band together, which is now Buckwheat Zydeco,” Dural said. “When I got this band in 1979 — I knew good singers,
but they wouldn’t sing with me because they knew me as an organist — I had this big band and people said ‘Buckwheat gone crazy.’ That’s what the word was
about me here in Lafayette. Buck gone crazy. Guess what? He’s playing the accordion. Accordion?’”
Dural also began singing for the first time in his career. “If you notice, I speak kind of fast,” Dural said. “I stuttered. I figured throughout my career earlier,
instead of singing, it was best for me to play my organ and keep my mouth closed. During my time in school, kids laughed at me because I couldn’t say what I
wanted to say. Teachers would say ‘Dural, slow down. Just slow down.’ When I went to telling people something as a kid, I couldn’t get it out and they would start
laughing. So I decided I didn’t want to talk no more because it might happen again.” There was something about that zydeco that allowed Dural to master his
stuttering.
Dural and his dad patched things up after Dural began playing the accordion. “My dad and I became best friends,” Dural said. “As a matter of fact, for my
first engagement when I built this band in 1979, I played at a place called ‘The Gypsy Club.’ He was the first person in there. He wanted to see me playing the
accordion. When I used to visit him, I learned some things from my dad. He played his accordion and I played mine. I said this was what I was going to do and I
was inspired by Clifton Chenier. If it weren’t for Clifton Chenier, I don’t think I would be playing the accordion right now.”
Dural and Buckwheat Zydeco rose to fame during the 1980s and became one of the premier zydeco bands with their "Zydeco Boogaloo." They performed all
over Europe and even played with the Boston Pops. Yet Dural has always made the Lafayette area his home. “I’m content to live here,” Dural said. “I’m in the
country part of Carencro, Louisiana. I have animals, birds and different things. I appreciate that. That’s a blessing. It’s just nature and I love that. Everywhere I go,
I might bring my fishing pole and stuff like that because I love to fish.”
Buckwheat Zydeco will be lighting up the Great Hall in the Wisconsin Union with plenty of room to dance. “Our music will lift you up,” Dural said. “It’s party
music. It is happy music. There’s nothing sad about the music that I perform. I perform for sit-down audiences, but it never happens. If the seating area comes all
the way to the stage, someone is going to come on stage with me and dance. Someone is going to shake a leg somewhere. Do you see what I’m saying? Again, I’
m content whether they are sitting down or they are dancing because the music is going to happen. Someone’s got to get up somewhere. You have to have a
left or right side somewhere because someone is going to get up and dance a little bit.”
Put on your dancing shoes because a little bit of Mardi Gras will be hitting the Wisconsin Union February 18.
Tickets are $28 for the general public, $26 for WAA members, Union members, UW faculty and staff, and non-UW students. UW-Student tickets are $10.
Tickets can be purchased by phone (608-265-ARTS)), by fax (608-265-5084), by mail or in person at the box office (Wisconsin Union Theater, 800 Langdon St.,
Madison, WI 53706) or online at http://uniontheater.wisc.edu/.
playing the organ in a band and in 1971 formed an R&B band called Buckwheat & the Hitchhikers and was performing all along the Gulf Coast. Musically
speaking, things weren’t too good between Dural and his dad. “I didn’t like his music and he couldn’t stand mine,” Dural recalled. His dad kept urging him to take
up the accordion.
In 1975, Dural let his band go and took some time off to contemplate what direction he wanted to take. Clifton Chenier, the King of Zydeco, used to come
out to Dural’s father’s house and play. In 1976, Chenier invited Dural to play organ with his band when they were performing in Lafayette. “My plan was — just to
satisfy my dad — to put my organ on the stage, play this one night and tell my dad ‘Okay, now I’ve done played the zydeco and I still don’t like it,’” Dural
recalled. “That’s terrible. So I learned that what you don’t understand, you don’t criticize. You know a little more tomorrow than you knew yesterday. You have to
have an open mind. And please believe me, that’s what inspired me to pick up the accordion.”
Dural stayed with Chenier’s band for two years before taking a sabbatical to teach himself how to play the accordion. “I stayed in learning this instrument for
about eight months before I decided to get a band together, which is now Buckwheat Zydeco,” Dural said. “When I got this band in 1979 — I knew good singers,
but they wouldn’t sing with me because they knew me as an organist — I had this big band and people said ‘Buckwheat gone crazy.’ That’s what the word was
about me here in Lafayette. Buck gone crazy. Guess what? He’s playing the accordion. Accordion?’”
Dural also began singing for the first time in his career. “If you notice, I speak kind of fast,” Dural said. “I stuttered. I figured throughout my career earlier,
instead of singing, it was best for me to play my organ and keep my mouth closed. During my time in school, kids laughed at me because I couldn’t say what I
wanted to say. Teachers would say ‘Dural, slow down. Just slow down.’ When I went to telling people something as a kid, I couldn’t get it out and they would start
laughing. So I decided I didn’t want to talk no more because it might happen again.” There was something about that zydeco that allowed Dural to master his
stuttering.
Dural and his dad patched things up after Dural began playing the accordion. “My dad and I became best friends,” Dural said. “As a matter of fact, for my
first engagement when I built this band in 1979, I played at a place called ‘The Gypsy Club.’ He was the first person in there. He wanted to see me playing the
accordion. When I used to visit him, I learned some things from my dad. He played his accordion and I played mine. I said this was what I was going to do and I
was inspired by Clifton Chenier. If it weren’t for Clifton Chenier, I don’t think I would be playing the accordion right now.”
Dural and Buckwheat Zydeco rose to fame during the 1980s and became one of the premier zydeco bands with their "Zydeco Boogaloo." They performed all
over Europe and even played with the Boston Pops. Yet Dural has always made the Lafayette area his home. “I’m content to live here,” Dural said. “I’m in the
country part of Carencro, Louisiana. I have animals, birds and different things. I appreciate that. That’s a blessing. It’s just nature and I love that. Everywhere I go,
I might bring my fishing pole and stuff like that because I love to fish.”
Buckwheat Zydeco will be lighting up the Great Hall in the Wisconsin Union with plenty of room to dance. “Our music will lift you up,” Dural said. “It’s party
music. It is happy music. There’s nothing sad about the music that I perform. I perform for sit-down audiences, but it never happens. If the seating area comes all
the way to the stage, someone is going to come on stage with me and dance. Someone is going to shake a leg somewhere. Do you see what I’m saying? Again, I’
m content whether they are sitting down or they are dancing because the music is going to happen. Someone’s got to get up somewhere. You have to have a
left or right side somewhere because someone is going to get up and dance a little bit.”
Put on your dancing shoes because a little bit of Mardi Gras will be hitting the Wisconsin Union February 18.
Tickets are $28 for the general public, $26 for WAA members, Union members, UW faculty and staff, and non-UW students. UW-Student tickets are $10.
Tickets can be purchased by phone (608-265-ARTS)), by fax (608-265-5084), by mail or in person at the box office (Wisconsin Union Theater, 800 Langdon St.,
Madison, WI 53706) or online at http://uniontheater.wisc.edu/.
By Jonathan Gramling
There is the old maxim ‘You can get too much of a good thing.’ When Stanley “Buckwheat”
Dural Jr. — the accordionist and singer for Buckwheat Zydeco, which will be playing at the
Wisconsin Union February 18 — was growing up in the heart of Creole-Cajun country in Lafayette,
Louisiana, he heard the thumping of the washboard and the free-flying sound of the accordion
what seemed to be day and night.
“The washboard and the accordion were the only two instruments when zydeco first began,”
Dural said during a phone interview with The Capital City Hues. “The music was played only for
family entertainment at home. The drums were like a cardboard box. I experienced this when I
was a kid. My father is deceased now, but he was an accordion player. He refused to play in any
night club, anywhere. He felt the music was only meant for the family. You would bring 100
people to the house and he would play for 24 hours. You could bring him into a night club for
one hour and he wouldn’t play at all. He wouldn’t play one note on an accordion. He never
performed for the public. He was a purist.”
Dural’s father was in love with the music. “When my father got up in the morning, he played
it,” Dural recalled. “When he came home from lunch, he played and when he came home at
night, he played. I didn’t like it at all because I heard it so much. That was enough accordion for
me.”
There is the old maxim ‘You can get too much of a good thing.’ When Stanley “Buckwheat”
Dural Jr. — the accordionist and singer for Buckwheat Zydeco, which will be playing at the
Wisconsin Union February 18 — was growing up in the heart of Creole-Cajun country in Lafayette,
Louisiana, he heard the thumping of the washboard and the free-flying sound of the accordion
what seemed to be day and night.
“The washboard and the accordion were the only two instruments when zydeco first began,”
Dural said during a phone interview with The Capital City Hues. “The music was played only for
family entertainment at home. The drums were like a cardboard box. I experienced this when I
was a kid. My father is deceased now, but he was an accordion player. He refused to play in any
night club, anywhere. He felt the music was only meant for the family. You would bring 100
people to the house and he would play for 24 hours. You could bring him into a night club for
one hour and he wouldn’t play at all. He wouldn’t play one note on an accordion. He never
performed for the public. He was a purist.”
Dural’s father was in love with the music. “When my father got up in the morning, he played
it,” Dural recalled. “When he came home from lunch, he played and when he came home at
night, he played. I didn’t like it at all because I heard it so much. That was enough accordion for
me.”