I Love Me Some Buckwheat!

Since I heard a zydeco band at the North Beach Festival on Saturday, I’ve spent part of this evening listening to zydeco music again and thought it appropriate for this Musical Monday.  I have no idea where my love of zydeco music began, but it REALLY, REALLY makes me think of (and miss) New Orleans.  This song in particular, of course.  My favorite zydeco musician is this man, Buckwheat Zydeco.  I’ve seen him perform live 4 times here in San Francisco – once at what used to be Justice League, once at Biscuits N Blues, once at a festival in Golden Gate Park (that was free!) and most recently at Yoshi’s.  His hair kills me, but…  he’s a great musician and a sweet man in person.  Whenever I go to New Orleans, I try to be there on a Thursday night, if possible, for Zydeco Night at the Rock N Bowl.  That place is an institution.  It used to be an old bowling alley upstairs in some bad part of town (Midtown, perhaps) that always had live music.  I went to the old place twice, once with Laurent and once by myself.  Laurent had said that it was the highlight of his trip to New Orleans; he enjoyed the music, the energy and how people of all ages just wanted to dance together.  When I went by myself, I’d never done any zydeco dancing before.  Three men made me dance with them all night – an older black man, an even older white man and a young black man.  All 3 had different dancing styles, but they were very patient in teaching me and I had a phenomenal time with them.  I had the most fun dancing with the young black guy, though; he was making me laugh and we were tearing up the dance floor!  In fact, the night I went by myself via cab, the older black man drove me back to my hotel.  His friends assured me that he was completely trustworthy and some of us even exchanged phone numbers (though I lost the numbers later).  The man was so nice; he gave me a  little mini tour of parts of New Orleans near the French Quarter that I wasn’t familiar with, then simply dropped me off at my hotel and wished me a good night.  After Hurricane Katrina, the Rock N Bowl moved to a different location.  I went there once, but it didn’t feel the same at all.  Maybe it just takes time.  I’ll give it another try on a future Thursday night, and I can only hope that Buckwheat will be playing there!  (Oh, and the second video is a snippet of a zydeco band that I filmed for a moment when I was down on Bourbon Street in December).

“Walkin’ To New Orleans” – Buckwheat Zydeco

Zydeco Band on Bourbon Street