You See Gallup New Mexico: Buckwheat Zydeco and "Route 66"

Buckwheat Zydeco, the late accordion and zydeco player, brings us todays random tune - a zydeco version of an old standard. Buckwheat Zydeco was the stage name of Stanley Dural, Jr. He got the name "Buckwheat" from his childhood 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 opened for and collaborated with some of the biggest names in music, and it was one of the few zydeco bands to achieve mainstream success. This song, Route 66, can be found on his 2005 album Where There's Smoke There's Fire. He performs the song on the video with David Hidalgo of Los Lobos.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckwheat_Zydeco

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.