Monday, October 13, 2014

Incendiary: Buckwheat Zydeco and "Where There's Smoke There's Fire"



A lot going on at work today, so I'm going to keep this post to the bare minimum. Today's random tune is a fun zydeco from a zydeco superstar. Buckwheat Zydeco (jeez, how many times can I type zydeco?) is the stage name of Stanley Dural, Jr. He got the name "Buckwheat" from his resemblance to a character on the Our Gang film shorts. Dural's father was an accomplished Creole accordionist, but Dural preferred rhythm and blues, and actually started out backing artists such as Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Joe Tex. He started his own funk band in the early 70s with some success, but then began backing zydeco legend Clifton Chenier as an organist and discovered the popularity of zydeco. His relationship to Chenier led him to take up the accordion, and after a year he felt confident enough to start Buckwheat Zydeco in 1978. Buckwheat Zydeco has opened for and collaborated with some of the biggest names in music, and it is one of the few zydeco bands to achieve mainstream success. This song, Where There's Smoke There's Fire, can be found on the band's 1990 CD of the same name.

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