Buckwheat Zydeco

“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.” –The New York Times

American musical legend Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. (a.k.a. Buckwheat Zydeco ) is the preeminent ambassador of Louisiana’s zydeco music.

If you’ve gotten into zydeco music, or felt its influence, or watched the world celebrate this great aspect of Louisiana culture over the past 30+ years it’s likely been because of Buckwheat Zydeco. Many millions witnessed the excitement when Jimmy Fallon chose him to open the final episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: The show opened “cold” with a tight close up of Buck’s accordion, then – joined by Fallon on guitar and backed by the Roots – they kicked off a rousing rendition of “On A Night Like This.”

That song was the title track of Buckwheat Zydeco’s groundbreaking first Island Records album and was responsible for bringing the unique sound of zydeco into the musical mainstream in 1987. It was also the first major label zydeco record, and a Grammy nominee. No other zydeco artist has come close to selling as many records or exposing the music to more people around the world. The band claims the three largest selling zydeco albums of all time.