Jackpot!

Product Review

The Bayou's barnstorming bandleader Buckwheat Zydeco is back with his first studio disc in eight years, and he'll be on tour all over the country.

Jackpot! combines soulful original tunes, inspired playing and singing, and the trademark exuberance that's made him the world's best-loved zydeco artist, and has earned Buckwheat Zydeco the sobriquet "the world's greatest party band." There's plenty of Buckwheat's signature accordion, and for the first time ever Buck specifically features his soulful mastery of the horizontal keyboard on a three-song Hammond B3 "Encore featuring Organic Buckwheat."

Jackpot! opens with the strutting "I'm Gonna Love You Anyway" before swinging into "It Must Be Magic," a tune that leads into a string of great new songs. The sweetly funky title cut and the slinky guitar breaks of "Rock, Boogie, Shout!" are due for road tests at festivals, theaters and clubs across the U.S. and Canada during the months ahead. Zydeco fans can expect more of the rootsy boogie that fuels "Come And Get Yourself Some" and the Creole French "Old Times La La" on the album, two of nine accordion-led originals on the disc.

Jackpot! takes a surprising and very cool side trip as it goes home with a trio of tunes offering a 18-minute encore presentation of "Organic Buckwheat," reuniting Dural with his first love, the Hammond B3 organ.

Dural's venerable keyboard playing stands up to anyone playing the B3 today -- whether it's the wailing blues of "Buck Goes Downtown," the jazzy tour de force Jimmy Smith tribute "Buck Goes Uptown," or on the anthemic reggae of the finale, "Buck Goes To Trenchtown." The Hammond organ only brings Buck back closer to his roots - as he first gained renown playing the Hammond in zydeco king Clifton Chenier's legendary Red Hot Louisiana Band in the 1970s.

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