Buckwheat Zydeco Happily Plays to the Younger Set

Stanley (Buckwheat) Dural Jr. played organ with Clifton Chenier from 1976 to 1978--a stint that left more than a musical mark on the musician: Working with the late zydeco patriarch reintroduced him to the Creole roots and culture he had previously shunned.

“Before I got with Clifton Chenier, I’d never played accordion before in my life,” recalled Dural, 40, in a phone interview from his home outside Lafayette, La.

“My father wanted me to play the accordion when I was coming (growing) up and I didn’t think it was hip enough for me: ‘Hey, no way. That’s old style, for my dad’s generation.’

“When I went with Chenier, it really got to me, like I was running away from my roots by being ashamed to play the accordion, being ashamed to speak French. . . . I’m just glad I woke up.”

Dural’s group Buckwheat Zydeco, which headlines Sunday at the two-day Cajun and Zydeco Festival at Cal State Dominguez Hills, has been waking up some sectors of the rock world with its spirited zydeco sound. The group’s last four albums earned Grammy nominations, and its “On a Night Like This” album on Island even spent a few weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album chart last year.

Buckwheat Zydeco has opened shows for Los Lobos and U2. Dural contributed accordion to a song on Keith Richards’ upcoming solo album, and Eric Clapton added a guitar solo to the group’s version of his song “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?,” one of the cuts on the Buckwheat Zydeco album due this summer. All of which suggests that Dural and company are the zydeco outfit most likely to expand the music beyond its traditional audience.

“Clifton Chenier was playing this music for so long and he was making waves, but I don’t think people were listening too good,” said Dural. “Through people like Island Records that will take a chance on this music and get the roots culture a little more exposure, it seems to be opening up a little.

“I’m glad to see what’s happening right now, but I surely in my heart wish that it had happened for somebody who worked so hard like Clifton Chenier, the master. But it’s one of those things--everything takes its course.”

Dural’s own musical course started with playing piano at 4. He got his first organ at 9 and did some nightclub performances around his hometown of Lafayette. A school buddy slapped him with the “Buckwheat” nickname from the character in the “Our Gang” comedies. Said Dural, “I couldn’t stand it but it stuck on me.”

Dural’s father played traditional zydeco accordion at family events when Dural was growing up, but Buckwheat’s gigs were with soul and rock bands covering the hits of the day. In 1971 he formed his first band, a 15-piece unit called Buckwheat & the Hitchhikers. He disbanded the group in 1975, and then the Chenier interlude prompted his shift of musical direction.

Dural was skeptical about his prospects for success playing zydeco when he formed Buckwheat Zydeco & the Ils Sont Partis Band in 1979. He gave himself a 2 1/2-year time limit, but the deadline became academic when he began touring Europe by the end of 1980. He released five albums on Louisiana’s Blues Unlimited label before moving up to deals with Black Top and its parent label Rounder, and then became the first zydeco performer to land a major label deal, with Island.

The Island album broadened Buckwheat’s audience by mixing his tradition-steeped original material with songs by contemporary songwriters to lure what Dural termed “the younger generation”--a rarity in the often insular zydeco world.

Buckwheat Zydeco’s music has also been featured in the films “The Big Easy” and “Casual Sex?,” but Dural knows it’s the nine months he spends on the road performing before live audiences that forms the basis of his support.

“We had a ball up in Florida for the U2 concerts at the Orange Bowl and Tampa Stadium,” Dural said. “Even the agent came up to me and said it really surprised him that these young kids really got into the music. They were singing along with the band and that’s good.

“It’s supposed to be like that because without the audience you can’t do it. You can’t say, ‘Hey, this is what I got to offer and you got to accept it.’ You get out there, play good music and make people happy. That’s what I’m about.”