Lil' Buck Sinegal

Early years

Paul Alton Senegal was born in Lafayette, Louisiana. According to researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc, the spelling "Sinegal" rather than "Senegal" was the result of a passport error, which he never corrected. Sinegal was nicknamed "Little Buck" (for buckwheat) or "Lil' Buck" because of his short stature. Fellow musicians just called him "Buckaroo.^{[3] [4]} Sinegal's mother, Odette Broussard, played guitar. In the late 1950s, Sinegal began performing with other musicians, such as Carol Fran, James "Thunderbird" Davis, Lee Dorsey, and Joe Tex.

Career

Sinegal entered the music industry as a session musician at Excello Records, working with musicians such as Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester. Sinegal recorded with Rockin' Dopsie, Allen Toussaint Fernest Arceneaux, Katie Webster and Lil' Bob.^[4][5] In the late 1960s Sinegal recorded his own instrumentals, including "Cat Scream" and "Monkey in a Sack", for the La Louisianne record label.^[6][2]

Sinegal joined Clifton Chenier's band in 1969 and toured regularly with him in Europe and elsewhere over the next decade. Later, in the 1980s and 1990s, Sinegal also toured internationally with Buckwheat Zydeco and Rockin' Dopsie.

Sinegal founded the Cowboy Stew Blues Revue with C. C. Adcock. In 1999, Sinegal released the album The Buck Starts Here, featuring songs predominantly written and produced by Allen Toussaint.^[5] Critic Richie Unterberger described the record as "a fairly straight blues album with faint or nonexistent traces of zydeco",^[7] Sinegal commented: "I am probably more known as a zydeco guitarist... [but] I've always been a bluesman...Zydeco is the blues. It's basically blues played with accordion. Clifton Chenier's music was blues throughout."^[6]