Stanley Dural Jr., AKA Buckwheat Zydeco 1947 – 2016
By Scott Bernstein Sep 24, 2016 • 3:55 pm PDT
Buckwheat Zydeco, one of the most recognized zydeco bands in the history of the genre, is now without its leader. Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. died this morning after a battle with lung cancer. Dural Jr., who also went by Buckwheat Zydeco, the same name as the band he led, was 68.
The news was revealed by Dural’s manager Ted Fox in a social media post:
It is with deep sadness that I have to announce that our great, beloved leader Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural, Jr. has passed away. He died at 1:32 AM Louisiana time, keeping musician’s hours right to the bitter end. I am grieving for my best friend and colleague of more than 30 years. But, as this great road warrior once said: “Life is a tour, and it’s all about how you decide to get where you’re going…I don’t want to ignore the bad things in life, but I want to emphasize the good things.” Buck made everything and everyone he touched better and happier. RIP my dear friend, my brother.
His daughter, Tomorrow Dural, has created a fundraising campaign https://www.gofundme.com/2khuzztk to help with medical and other expenses.
Buckwheat Zydeco was not only a huge name in the zydeco world, but both Dural and his band crossed over to the mainstream as they performed before an estimated television audience of 3 billion at the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Atlanta, at shows for President Bill Clinton and during appearances on such TV shows as NBC News, CBS Morning News, The Today Show and Late Night With David Letterman. The group was also a fixture at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Dural & Co. also opened for U2 at the height of the Irish act’s success and additionally collaborated with Paul Simon, Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson. It was U2’s label, Island Records that signed Buckwheat Zydeco making the group the first zydeco band to issue an album on a major label. In 1992 Phish opened for Buckwheat Zydeco at the Cultural Center Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia for a taping of NPR’s Mountain Stage. Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio sat-in with Buckwheat Zydeco on “Juke Joint Johnny.” Listen to the Phish set and Trey’s cameo (starting at 19:28) thanks to From The Aquarium:
Stanley Dural, Jr. was born on November 14, 1947 in Lafayatte, Louisana – the same city where he died this morning. He earned the nickname “Buckwheat” due to the similarities between his appearance and the Buckwheat character on The Little Rascals. While he entered the music world as a keyboardist and led a funk band in the early ’70s, he met up with one of zydeco’s most legendary performers Clifton Chenier and would soon join Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana Band. Dural fell in love with the music and in 1978 took up the accordion, the instrument for which he would be best known.
Stanley used the lessons he learned from Clifton to form his own band, Buckwheat Zydeco. It didn’t take long for the band to catch the attention of the musical world as they garnered Grammy nominations and signed the deal with Island. Buckwheat Zydeco the man and the band have been road warriors and had dates scheduled for next year despite a 2013 diagnosis of lung and vocal chord cancer.
Our thoughts are with Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural, Jr.’s friends and family.
