Buckwheat Zydeco
Lay Your Burden Down
Alligator Records
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Stanley Dural Jr., AKA Buckwheat Zydeco, makes his Alligator Records debut with a very strong and progressive showing of his prodigious talent. This son of a traditional Creole accordion player turned his back on the music of his family, preferring the funk of R & B until Clifton Chenier persuaded him to join his Red Hot Louisiana Band in the mid 70’s. The switch from backing Joe Tex and Gatemouth Brown on the Hammond Organ, to Clifton’s band and the eventual change to accordion showed him the power of Zydeco and he has not looked back, but like his Zydeco mentor has looked ahead and infiltrated all sorts of influences into his Zydeco music. This disc with Producer Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) is his most adventurous undertaking and is a full display of his extraordinary talents both as a writer of 5 new songs and interpreter of writers as diverse as Bruce Springsteen, Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart), and JJ Grey. These are songs that .
are stories that seem to run close to his heart, and he treats them with the respect that they deserve. “When The Levee Breaks,” the great Joe Mc Coy song made famous first by Memphis Minnie and later by Led Zepplin is given a whole new going over that carries a poignancy that brings it to life. A stand out track here is the Warren Haynes and Michael Barbiero penned “Lay Your Burden Down” that gives it an intensity that bursts with energy and life