“What is zydeco music?” you may ask.  You have probably heard it, but were unaware of what you were listening to.  Remember the Popeye’s Chicken commercial?   If you have been to the French   Quarter in New Orleans, no doubt, you would have heard zydeco music blaring in the shops and on the streets.  It has also played out in many movies, especially those with a Louisiana flavor.  Zydeco is “Creole music,” a music known in an earlier era as “la-la music.”   The birthplace of zydeco is central and southwest Louisiana.  The French Creole  speaking people of African descent, who  historically lived on the prairies of southwest    Louisiana are attributed with this style of dance music.  Creole music was very similar to Cajun  music prior to WWII.  Its basic instruments are the accordion, electric guitar, bass, drums, and brass if the band is large enough.  But the most distinctive instrument of zydeco is a corrugated metal rubboard.  It seems that the term zydeco has several meanings, depending upon who you talk to.  Some say it comes from the Creole saying “Les haricots ne sont pas sales, which, when spoken in the Louisiana Creole French, sounds like “leh-zy-dee-co nuh sohn pah salay.”  This translates as “the snap beans aren’t salted”, something like - times are really hard if you don’t have salt for your beans, much less meat in the pot.  Or it could mean, “I have no spicy news for you.”  That’s just two of the possibilities that are circulating around the origin of the term.  Featured on your cachet is Stanley Dural, Jr. who was born in Lafayette,    Louisiana and goes by the stage name “Buckwheat Zydeco.”  Buckwheat was a name he acquired as a kid because his hair made him look like the character         Buckwheat from Our Gang/The Little Rascals. 

Read the article in its entirety in the April 2015 

Bevil newsletter, which accompanies the cover.

Released to collectors June 18, 2015, along with  Florida,  Texas,  and  Vermont