Buckwheat Zydeco
Encyclopedia
Buckwheat Zydeco is the stage name of Stanley Dural, Jr. (born November 14, 1947), an American
accordionist and zydeco
musician. He is one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music group is formally billed as Buckwheat Zydeco and Ils Son Partis Band, but often they perform as merely Buckwheat Zydeco.
The New York Times says, “Stanley ‘Buckwheat’ Dural leads one of the best bands in America. A down-home and high-powered celebration, meaty and muscular with a fine-tuned sense of dynamics…propulsive rhythms, incendiary performances.” USA Today calls him “a zydeco trailblazer.”
Buckwheat Zydeco has performed with a large number of famous musicians from Eric Clapton
(with whom Buckwheat also recorded) and U2
to The Boston Pops
. The band performed at the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics
to a worldwide audience of three billion people. Buckwheat performed for President Clinton
twice, celebrating both of his inaugurations. The band has appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman, CNN
, The Today Show
, MTV
, NBC News
, CBS Morning News
, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition
.
, Louisiana
. He acquired his nickname as a youth, because, with his braided hair, he looked like the character Buckwheat from Our Gang/The Little Rascals
movies. His father, a farmer, was an accomplished, amateur traditional Creole
accordion player, but young Buckwheat preferred listening to and playing rhythm and blues
.
, and by the late 1950s he was backing Joe Tex
, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and many others.
In 1971, he founded Buckwheat & the Hitchhikers, a funk
band that he led for five years before switching to zydeco. They were a local sensation and found success with the single, “It’s Hard To Get,” recorded for a local Louisiana-based label.
He began backing Clifton Chenier
, one of the most legendary zydeco performers. Though not a traditional zydeco fan when growing up, Buckwheat accepted an invitation in 1976 to join Clifton Chenier
’s Red Hot Louisiana Band as organist. He quickly discovered the popularity of zydeco music, and marveled at the effect the music had on the audience. “Everywhere, people young and old just loved zydeco music,” Buckwheat says. “I had so much fun playing that first night with Clifton. We played for four hours and I wasn’t ready to quit.”
Buckwheat’s relationship with the legendary Chenier led him to take up the accordion
in 1978. After practicing for a year, he felt ready to start his own band under the name Buckwheat Zydeco. They debuted with One for the Road in 1979 on the Blues Unlimited label and then recorded for New Orleans’ Black Top
label. In 1983, they were nominated for a Grammy Award
for Turning Point and in 1985 for Waitin’ For My Ya Ya after switching to the Rounder Records
label. The band then signed to Island Records
, becoming the first zydeco act on a major label, and released On a Night Like This, a critically acclaimed album that was nominated for a Grammy as well. The band appeared in the movie The Big Easy in 1987.
In 1988, Eric Clapton
invited the band to open his North American tour as well as his 12-night stand at London’s Royal Albert Hall
. As even more doors opened, Buckwheat found himself sharing stages and/or recording with Keith Richards
, Robert Plant
, Willie Nelson
, Mavis Staples
, David Hidalgo
, Dwight Yoakam
, Paul Simon
, Ry Cooder
and many others, including indie music stalwarts Yo La Tengo
on the soundtrack to the Bob Dylan
bio-pic, I'm Not There
. His music has been featured in films including The Waterboy
, The Big Easy, Fletch Lives
and Hard Target
. BET
’s show Comic View, used his live version of “What You Gonna Do?” as theme music for the program’s 10th anniversary “Pardi Gras” season. He also wrote and performed the theme music for the PBS television
series Pierre Franey
’s Cooking In America. Buckwheat won an Emmy
for his music in the CBS
TV movie, Pistol Pete: The Life And Times Of Pete Maravich
.
Buckwheat Zydeco has played many major music festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
(numerous times), Newport Folk Festival
, Summerfest
, San Diego Street Scene
, Bumbershoot
, Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Voodoo Experience
, and countless others.
During the 1990s and early 2000s Buckwheat recorded for his own Tomorrow Recordings label and maintained an extensive touring schedule. Buckwheat Zydeco's latest album, Lay Your Burden Down, was released on May 5, 2009 on the Alligator Records
label. It was produced by Steve Berlin
of Los Lobos
and included guest appearances by guitarists Warren Haynes
and Sonny Landreth
, Trombone Shorty, JJ Grey and Berlin himself. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award
. Sonicboomers.com says, “The CD is a vastly entertaining and appealingly diverse package. Bandleader Dural remains an ever-engaging vocalist and a whiz on any keyboard he touches. So, for Buckwheat Zydeco fans, Lay Your Burden Down finds the maestro and his group near the top of their form. For listeners with less interest in the ol' accordion get-down, the collection supplies enough interesting wrinkles to get the good times rolling.
Buckwheat’s especially powerful and haunting version of the classic "Cryin' in the Streets" appears on the benefit album for Hurricane Katrina
recovery, Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast
.
Buckwheat's version of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" appeared on 2011's Alligator Records 40th Anniversary Collection. It originally appeared on the 2009 Buckwheat Zydeco album "Lay Your Burden Down".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
accordionist and zydeco
Zydeco
Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music...
musician. He is one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music group is formally billed as Buckwheat Zydeco and Ils Son Partis Band, but often they perform as merely Buckwheat Zydeco.
The New York Times says, “Stanley ‘Buckwheat’ Dural leads one of the best bands in America. A down-home and high-powered celebration, meaty and muscular with a fine-tuned sense of dynamics…propulsive rhythms, incendiary performances.” USA Today calls him “a zydeco trailblazer.”
Buckwheat Zydeco has performed with a large number of famous musicians from Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
(with whom Buckwheat also recorded) and U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
to The Boston Pops
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
. The band performed at the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....
to a worldwide audience of three billion people. Buckwheat performed for President Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
twice, celebrating both of his inaugurations. The band has appeared on The Late Show With David Letterman, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, The Today Show
The Today Show
Today is an iconic American morning news and talk show airing every morning on NBC. Debuting on January 14, 1952, it was the first of its genre on American television and in the world. The show is also the fourth-longest running American television series...
, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
, CBS Morning News
CBS Morning News
For CBS's main morning news program, formerly known as CBS Morning News, see The Early Show.CBS Morning News is the half-hour daily television broadcast from CBS News that airs following Up to the Minute and features late-breaking news stories, weather forecasts, and sports scores...
, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition
Weekend Edition
Weekend Edition is the name given to a set of American radio news magazines produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It is the weekend counterpart to Morning Edition. It consists of Weekend Edition Saturday and Weekend Edition Sunday , each of which airs for two hours, from 8 a.m. to 10...
.
Early life
Dural was born in LafayetteLafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. He acquired his nickname as a youth, because, with his braided hair, he looked like the character Buckwheat from Our Gang/The Little Rascals
Our Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
movies. His father, a farmer, was an accomplished, amateur traditional Creole
Creole peoples
The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
accordion player, but young Buckwheat preferred listening to and playing rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
.
Career
Dural became proficient at the organOrgan (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, and by the late 1950s he was backing Joe Tex
Joe Tex
Joseph Arrington, Jr. , better known as "Joe Tex", was an American Southern soul singer-songwriter, most popular during the 1960s and 1970s...
, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and many others.
In 1971, he founded Buckwheat & the Hitchhikers, a funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
band that he led for five years before switching to zydeco. They were a local sensation and found success with the single, “It’s Hard To Get,” recorded for a local Louisiana-based label.
He began backing Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier , a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordion and won a Grammy Award in 1983...
, one of the most legendary zydeco performers. Though not a traditional zydeco fan when growing up, Buckwheat accepted an invitation in 1976 to join Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier , a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordion and won a Grammy Award in 1983...
’s Red Hot Louisiana Band as organist. He quickly discovered the popularity of zydeco music, and marveled at the effect the music had on the audience. “Everywhere, people young and old just loved zydeco music,” Buckwheat says. “I had so much fun playing that first night with Clifton. We played for four hours and I wasn’t ready to quit.”
Buckwheat’s relationship with the legendary Chenier led him to take up the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
in 1978. After practicing for a year, he felt ready to start his own band under the name Buckwheat Zydeco. They debuted with One for the Road in 1979 on the Blues Unlimited label and then recorded for New Orleans’ Black Top
Black Top Records
Black Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
label. In 1983, they were nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Turning Point and in 1985 for Waitin’ For My Ya Ya after switching to the Rounder Records
Rounder Records
Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
label. The band then signed to Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, becoming the first zydeco act on a major label, and released On a Night Like This, a critically acclaimed album that was nominated for a Grammy as well. The band appeared in the movie The Big Easy in 1987.
In 1988, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
invited the band to open his North American tour as well as his 12-night stand at London’s Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
. As even more doors opened, Buckwheat found himself sharing stages and/or recording with Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, Robert Plant
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...
, David Hidalgo
David Hidalgo
David Hidalgo is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work with the band Los Lobos. He is also a member of the supergroup Los Super Seven and of the Latin Playboys, a side project band made up of some of the members of Los Lobos...
, Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Yoakam
Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...
, Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
, Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
and many others, including indie music stalwarts Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...
on the soundtrack to the Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
bio-pic, I'm Not There
I'm Not There
I'm Not There is a 2007 biographical musical film directed by Todd Haynes, inspired by iconic American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's life and public persona: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw...
. His music has been featured in films including The Waterboy
The Waterboy
The Waterboy is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It stars Adam Sandler alongside Henry Winkler, Kathy Bates, Jerry Reed, and Fairuza Balk. Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher, Paul Wight, and Rob Schneider have cameos...
, The Big Easy, Fletch Lives
Fletch Lives
Fletch Lives is a 1989 comedy film starring Chevy Chase. It was directed by Michael Ritchie with a screenplay by Leon Capetanos based on the character created by Gregory Mcdonald. Fletch Lives was released by Universal Pictures. It is a sequel to the 1985 film Fletch.- Plot :Chevy Chase once again...
and Hard Target
Hard Target
Hard Target is a 1993 American action film directed by Chinese director John Woo. The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux, an out-of-work Cajun merchant seaman who saves a young woman, Natasha Binder , from a gang of thugs in New Orleans...
. BET
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
’s show Comic View, used his live version of “What You Gonna Do?” as theme music for the program’s 10th anniversary “Pardi Gras” season. He also wrote and performed the theme music for the PBS television
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
series Pierre Franey
Pierre Franey
Pierre Franey was a French chef, best known for his televised cooking shows and his "60 Minute Gourmet" column in The New York Times.Franey grew up in northern Burgundy, France...
’s Cooking In America. Buckwheat won an Emmy
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for his music in the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
TV movie, Pistol Pete: The Life And Times Of Pete Maravich
Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich
Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich is an Emmy Award-winning documentary of "Pistol" Pete Maravich. It first aired on CBS during the Final Four Tournament on April 1, 2001. It was produced by George Roy, written by Steven Stern, and narrated by Harry Connick, Jr. It is considered the...
.
Buckwheat Zydeco has played many major music festivals, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, often known as Jazz Fest, is an annual celebration of the music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana...
(numerous times), Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
, Summerfest
Summerfest
Summerfest is a yearly music festival held at the Henry Maier Festival Park along the lakefront in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. The festival lasts for 11 days, is made up of 11 stages with performances from over 700 bands, and since the mid-1970s has run from late June through early July, usually...
, San Diego Street Scene
Street Scene (San Diego music festival)
Street Scene was a music festival that was held each summer in San Diego, California from 1984 to 2009. Street Scene was one of America's largest annual music festivals, growing to include over 70 musical acts covering different musical genres and styles on multiple stages.-History:Beginning in...
, Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot is an annual international music and arts festival held in Seattle, Washington. One of North America's largest such festivals, it takes place every Labor Day weekend at the 74-acre Seattle Center, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Seattle Center includes indoor theaters,...
, Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Voodoo Experience
Voodoo Experience
Voodoo Experience, also commonly referred to as Voodoo or Voodoo Fest, is a multi-day music and arts festival held in City Park, New Orleans, Louisiana. It was first held on Halloween weekend in 1999. It has since moved between the weekend before Halloween and Halloween weekend throughout the years...
, and countless others.
During the 1990s and early 2000s Buckwheat recorded for his own Tomorrow Recordings label and maintained an extensive touring schedule. Buckwheat Zydeco's latest album, Lay Your Burden Down, was released on May 5, 2009 on the Alligator Records
Alligator Records
Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...
label. It was produced by Steve Berlin
Steve Berlin
Steve Berlin is an American saxophonist, keyboardist and record producer, best known as a member of the rock group Los Lobos and, before that, Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, The Blasters, and The Flesh Eaters...
of Los Lobos
Los Lobos
Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
and included guest appearances by guitarists Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes
Warren Haynes is an American rock and blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. Haynes is best known for his work as long time guitarist with The Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a guitarist for David Allan Coe and The Dickey...
and Sonny Landreth
Sonny Landreth
Sonny Landreth is an American blues musician from southwest Louisiana who is especially known as a slide guitar player. He was born in Canton, Mississippi, but soon after, his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, before settling in Lafayette, Louisiana...
, Trombone Shorty, JJ Grey and Berlin himself. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
. Sonicboomers.com says, “The CD is a vastly entertaining and appealingly diverse package. Bandleader Dural remains an ever-engaging vocalist and a whiz on any keyboard he touches. So, for Buckwheat Zydeco fans, Lay Your Burden Down finds the maestro and his group near the top of their form. For listeners with less interest in the ol' accordion get-down, the collection supplies enough interesting wrinkles to get the good times rolling.
Buckwheat’s especially powerful and haunting version of the classic "Cryin' in the Streets" appears on the benefit album for Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
recovery, Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast
Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast
Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast is an album which presents songs recorded in September and October 2005, shortly after the failure of misdesigned levees flooded New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina With the destruction of their hometown fresh in their minds, New...
.
Buckwheat's version of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" appeared on 2011's Alligator Records 40th Anniversary Collection. It originally appeared on the 2009 Buckwheat Zydeco album "Lay Your Burden Down".
Discography
- 2009 Let The Good Times Roll: Essential Recordings (Rounder RecordsRounder RecordsRounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
) - 2009 Lay Your Burden DownLay Your Burden DownLay Your Burden Down is a studio album by Buckwheat Zydeco, released in 2009 through Alligator Records. The album ranked number five on Billboards Top Blues Albums. In 2010, the album earned Buckwheat Zydeco the Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album...
(Alligator RecordsAlligator RecordsAlligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...
) - 2006 The Best of Buckwheat Zydeco: Millennium Collection (Island RecordsIsland RecordsIsland Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
) - 2005 Jackpot! (Tomorrow Recordings)
- 2003 Classics (Rounder Records)
- 2001 Down Home Live (Tomorrow Recordings)
- 2000 The Ultimate Collection (Hip-O RecordsHip-O RecordsHip-O Records is a record label, currently part of Universal Music Group, which specializes in reissues and compilations. Their Hip-O Select label is currently in the midst of releasing the Complete Motown Singles, a series of fourteen box sets which include both sides of every 45 from Motown...
) - 1999 Buckwheat Zydeco Story: A 20 Year Party (Tomorrow Recordings)
- 1997 Trouble (Tomorrow Recordings)
- 1994 Five Card Stud (Island Records)
- 1994 Choo Choo Boogaloo (Music For Little People)
- 1993 Menagerie: The Essential Zydeco Collection (Mango Records)
- 1992 Buckwheat's Zydeco Party (Rounder Records)
- 1992 On Track (Atlantic RecordsAtlantic RecordsAtlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
) - 1990 Where There's Smoke There's Fire (MCA Special ProductsMCA RecordsMCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
) - 1988 Taking It Home (Island Records)
- 1987 On a Night Like This (Island Records; reissued on MCA Special Products)
- 1985 Waitin’ For My Ya Ya (Rounder Records)
- 1983 Turning Point (Rounder Records)
- 1983 100% Fortified Zydeco (Black Top RecordsBlack Top RecordsBlack Top Records was a New Orleans, Louisiana based independent record label founded in 1981 by brothers Nauman S. Scott, III and Hammond Scott. The label specialized in blues and R&B music. The first release was "Talk To You By Hand" by Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets...
; reissued on Shout Factory RecordsShout! FactoryShout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
) - 1979 One For The Road (Blues Unlimited Records; reissued on Paula Records)
Music videos
| Year | Video |
|---|---|
| 1990 | "Hey Good Lookin' Hey Good Lookin' Hey Good Lookin is a 1982 American animated film written, directed, and produced by Ralph Bakshi. The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1950s and focuses on Vinnie, the leader of a gang named "the Stompers," his friend, Crazy Shapiro, and their girls, Roz and Eva... " (with Dwight Yoakam Dwight Yoakam Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music... and David Hidalgo David Hidalgo David Hidalgo is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his work with the band Los Lobos. He is also a member of the supergroup Los Super Seven and of the Latin Playboys, a side project band made up of some of the members of Los Lobos... ) |