By Big Dave   

Buckwheat Zydeco, the band USA Today called "zydeco trailblazers," won a Grammy Award for the 2009 release LAY YOUR BURDEN DOWN in the Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album category. The band has been nominated five previous times in three different categories. This is their first Grammy Award.

LAY YOUR BURDEN DOWN, the album OffBeat called "the band's most adventurous disc yet," was released on May 5. 2009. American musical icon and bandleader Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural, Jr. has been leading the band for 30 years. "I'm thrilled the album won the Grammy," says Dural. "We really appreciate it. Thanks to all of our fans who have been so supportive over the years. Now come out and see us next time we're in your town."

Buckwheat Zydeco recorded LAY YOUR BURDEN DOWN at Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana in January and February 2009 with Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) producing as well as leading the horn section. Guest stars including Louisiana slide guitar wizard Sonny Landreth, Gov't Mule and Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes and Alligator label mate JJ Grey (on their own compositions) and New Orleans phenomenon Trombone Shorty lent their formidable talents. The album boasts five new Buckwheat originals and complete reinventions of songs by Memphis Minnie (When The Levee Breaks, made famous by Led Zeppelin), Bruce Springsteen (Back In Your Arms), Gov't Mule (Lay Your Burden Down), Captain Beefheart (Too Much Time), Jimmy Cliff (Let Your Yeah Be Yeah) and JJ Grey & Mofro (The Wrong Side).

LAY YOUR BURDEN DOWN has received some of the best reviews of 2009 for a roots/blues album. Living Blues says, "Buckwheat Zydeco returns with a new release on famed Chicago blues label Alligator Records, and the results are stunning." Blues Revue continues, saying the album "is as steeped in blues as in the joyous Louisiana soul at the heart of this outstanding, wonderfully diverse set." Chris Morris, writing in Sonicboomers.com, which named LAY YOUR BURDEN DOWN an "Album Of The Week," called it "a vastly entertaining and appealingly diverse package."
Scott Simon, on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday - in a nearly 10 minute feature airing shortly after the album's release - brought Buckwheat Zydeco's music to millions of listeners across the country. Simon called leader Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural, Jr., "the go-to guy for zydeco music...a master of accordion and organ," and praised the new CD's scope from "feel good, get-up-and-dance music to slow R&B grooves and brooding blues." Simon's far ranging discussion with Dural was heard by more than five million listeners worldwide, helping to start the 30th anniversary celebration.
The album remained on the Billboard Blues Chart for weeks, and has landed in rotation on top tastemaker radio stations nationwide including WXPN in Philadelphia, WTEP in Pittsburgh, WYMS in Milwaukee, WFDU in Teaneck, NJ, KRSH in Santa Rosa, CA, KUT in Austin, TX, with new music airplay from WXRT in Chicago and WFUV in New York City, among many others.
As Living Blues says, "The entire work is a vibrant testament to Buckwheat Zydeco's spirit, reminding us that Louisiana's musical heritage has taken all the hurricanes could give. This is an album that can introduce a new generation of music fans to the world of zydeco music and serve as a wonderful reminder about what a great zydeco band can do."

MORE PRESS QUOTES:

"A zydeco trailblazer with a soulful bayou-steeped set of originals and covers."
--USA TODAY

"The results are stunning. The entire work is a vibrant testament to Buckwheat Zydeco's spirit, reminding us that Louisiana's musical heritage has taken all the hurricanes could give. This is an album that can introduce a new generation of music fans to the world of zydeco music and serve as a wonderful reminder about what a great zydeco band can do."
--LIVING BLUES

"Lay Your Burden Down ends up being Dural's most accomplished and mature album yet, moving from start to finish like everything belongs together. Nothing misses its mark, and several tracks do so much more than that. He has given us something else again, an album that works both at the dance party and still rings clear the next day when maybe it's time to dig deeper and do a little thinking. It's the best kind of musical synthesis."
--ALLMUSIC.COM

"On this sucker he nails it firm and deep.The opener When The Levee Breaks, the Memphis Minnie/Kansas Joe McCoy classic known to rock fans from Led Zep's version, signals that something magical is happening here with its Louisiana-style Southern rock fury. With the able assistance of Steve Berlin as producer, the singer and accordionist creates a potent brand of greater Gulf music. By the time this delicious disc cools down on the closing grace note instrumental waltz of Finding My Way Back Home, you know you're in the presence of bayou music greatness."
--BLURT

"Ace accordionist Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural, Jr.) celebrates his 30th anniversary in the business with the hands-down best album he's ever waxed, moving away from straight zydeco and into a vital, ultra-soulful zone of his ownIs this the R&B-based zydeco with which Dural made his bones? No. It's something deeper and better."
--THE BOSTON HERALD

"Producer Steve Berlin captures Dural's natural bayou bounce but lets him wander into other territory while keeping one foot firmly in zydeco. But Dural's sound is as steeped in blues as in the joyous Louisiana soul at the heart of this outstanding, wonderfully diverse set."
--BLUES REVUE

"You can't attack a levee with a guitar, but Buckwheat Zydeco and Sonny Landreth seem to try on When the Levee Breaks. It's a startling and potent opening to an album that goes on to subvert all expectations.There's almost too much life on this near-bursting release, proving that thirty years into the music game, Buckwheat Zydeco is still brimming with ideas."
--RHAPSODY.COM

"Buckwheat Zydeco is a bona-fide roots music legend, and Lay Your Burden Down proves that the old dog still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Although long-time fans will revel in zydeco's playful accordion-bashing and friendly vocals, Lay Your Burden Down is more than just another Fat Tuesday soundtrack album. Featuring a number of great vocal performances on a wide range of challenging rock, blues, and soul material, zydeco exceeds expectations and, after thirty years in the trenches, shows that he can still surprise and educate his audience as well as entertaining them." (Four stars)
--ABOUT.COM

"Buckwheat Zydeco has been carrying the torch for his eponymous music for more than three decades. He is a fine accordionist, but there's always been more to his sound. He is a gutsy pianist and organist who earned his stripes in a funk/soul band, and the functions brilliantly outside the confines of zydeco... Alligator Records evidently thought that regrouping Dural and his former producer might ignite some lively music, and Berlin was brought in to supervise Lay Your Burden Down, Buckwheat Zydeco's label debut. The notion has paid off with a vastly entertaining and appealingly diverse package."
--SONICBOOMERS.COM

"Buck's most adventurous disc yet...Buck jams and slices a fat groove...slow-grinding and hypnotic."
--OFFBEAT

"Buckwheat Zydeco shines on accordion and vocals, and his tight band is superbly captured by producer Steve Berlin of Los Lobos. Stanley 'Buckwheat' Dural, Jr.'s in terrific form on Lay Your Burden Down."
--THE DETROIT FREE PRESS

"Great New Orleans stylings, but it's also got a lot of heart and mind behind it. Dural has put together a collection of thoughtful, wide-ranging songs...that come up pulsating with the Buckwheat spirit."
--THE PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

"An album of highlights...a great party."
--POPMATTERS.COM