Blues Search Engine: Lil’ Buck Sinegal

Lil' Buck Sinegal (Paul Alton Sinegal) was born on January 14, 1944 in his parents Lafayette, LA home on St. Charles Street. Sinegal, the fourth of six children born to his Creole parents, Joseph Senegal and Odette Broussard, Lil' Buck honors the tradition of family ties seen so often in Southwest Louisiana. Despite his career which has taken him to many parts of the world, Lil' Buck maintains his family home as a secondary residence where he and his close friends gather to cook, barbecue, and have refreshments while reminiscing and telling stories ... Around the age of ten or eleven (1954-1955), Sinegal received his first guitar- a Harmony, from his blind uncle from New Iberia. Within a short time, Sinegal began to figure out licks and parts of tunes. It was at this time that Sinegal began to earn money playing the guitar down at the corner newsstand. He would sit outside on the corner and some of the newsstand patrons would put coins in his guitar to encourage him. Sinegal would give his grandmere the money. She kept it in a sock. When he wanted some ice cream or a soda, she would pull some change from the sock and give Sinegal some coins. Playing the guitar replaced Sinegal's dancing activities ... Within a year or so after receiving the guitar from his uncle, Sinegal had an amazing encounter with Raymond "Swank" Monet, a very talented Lafayette Creole guitarist. Listening to Sinegal reminisce about this encounter, one gets the feeling it was a "mystical" experience. Sinegal credits the encounter as the event that sealed his fate with the guitar and music. As the story goes, Sinegal was doing chores in the front of his home. Monet, a stranger at the time, approached Sinegal and asked him if he was the little boy he had heard about who would sometimes play guitar on the street corner by the newsstand. Buck said, "Yes." When Monet asked Sinegal to get his guitar, Sinegal told Monet that the guitar didn't have any strings. Monet asked to borrow Sinegal's bike. Trusting, Sinegal lent him the bike, Monet brought back guitar strings from his apartment,s and put them Sinegal's guitar. For three consecutive days Sinegal and Monet spent many hours together with their guitars on Sinegal's front porch on St. Charles Street. Monet showed Sinegal chord progressions and riffs ... Soon after the encounter with Monet, Buck and some of his friends that played other instruments began to play outside the Sinegal family home drawing neighbors who would listen and dance. This led to Buck's first band, the Jive Five. The band played then current popular tunes from the radio, some of which were tunes by Little Richard, Jimmy Reed and Fats Domino. Buck handled the guitar and arrangement duties. Over the next few years until 1958, the Jive Five became regulars at many community schools' proms and some Catholic churches' bazaars. Although Clifton Chenier later dubbed Sinegal as "Buckaroo", he was nicknamed Lil' Buck while in the Jive Five. Buck formed his next group, the Top Cats, in 1958. This group was a fifteen-piece band with a rhythm section (bass, drums, guitar, keyboard), horn section and male and female vocalists and backup singers. Buck's cousin, Donald Senegal served as the bands' valet, road manager, and MC. To this day, Donald will MC some of Buck's shows ... Shortly after the Top Cat's breakup, Buck began playing with the great King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier ... At the time, Chenier played a lot of Jimmy Reed and other blues tunes in his show. When Buck was called on for solos, Chenier encouraged Buck to "sting 'dat guitar". After the concert, Chenier suggested that Lil's Buck listen to BB King and other blues artists to get the feel for blues guitar solos. The next day Buck bought a copy of BB King's "Sweet 16". While playing with Chenier, Buckaroo got to see many fine blues bands and guitarist at shows as they traveled throughout the world- such as Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Albert King, Lightnin' Hopkins (a relative of Chenier's), Lowell Fulsom, Etta James, Louisiana Red, Albert Collins. In 1982, Buckaroo left Clifton's Red Hot Louisiana Band as Chenier's health begin to impede his playing and travelling. In the years following his departure from Chenier's band, Sinegal worked with several noted bands: Rockin' Dopsie, Sr.'s band, Rockin' Dopsie Jr.'s and Buckwheat Zydeco. (quoted from Lil’ Buck Sinegal's official website)