So you say you can’t dance?

Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural says just try not to when he brings Buckwheat Zydeco, his instant party, otherwise known as zydeco and Cajun music, to Rhode Island.

"People are going to get high energy when I play. It’s aerobics. It’ll shake some pounds off you and you won’t have to spend too much," grins this magical musician who was asked to play both the closing ceremonies of the 1996 summer’s Olympic Games and one of President Clinton’s inaugural parties.

Eric Clapton, U2, Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Los Lobos and other artists have shared stages with him as well as recorded with the Louisiana native.

Dural won an Emmy for "Outstanding Music Composition/Direction/Lyrics (Sports)" for the CBS show, "Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich." The show used five songs from the band’s album, "Trouble."

Live versions of four of the songs can be found on the band’s first-ever full-length live recording, the new "Buckwheat Zydeco: Down Home Live."

"What You Gonna Do," one track from that CD, was the theme music for the 10th anniversary season of Comic View, BET’s number one rated series. Every episode opened and every commercial break returned with the Comic View dancers and audience dancing to Buckwheat’s music.

Zydeco blends Afro-Caribbean rhythms and folk music with blues and soul, rock, country and the French-rooted Cajun music of the Creoles’ white neighbors.

"It’s a very, very unique type of music," says the accordionist. "If you’ve never heard it before, I’m pretty sure you will be back. That’s what the music does. It’s happy music. If you’re not a dancer and don’t move anything when you listen to it, something’s wrong. You need to go see a doctor," Dural laughs heartily.

A party can break out anytime anyone picks up an accordion, he adds.

Dural is once again taking that party on the road, spreading the good Creole word.

"I have all generations of people. I perform to all generations," he says.

He knows he is offering "a pretty rare type" of music. "At one time it was kept in one part of Louisiana for many years and generations. Now throughout the years we’re exposing it to different people, cities and countries," Dural says.

The artist has set a challenging goal for himself. "This music still don’t get the airplay of all the other types of music. That’s my goal, to have zydeco to be in the bracket of any type of music. It’s music, but you have radio stations that don’t play it and haven’t heard of it."

He certainly is doing his part, taking the music to anyone who will hear it. He’s had impressive teachers.

The son of a zydeco accordionist, he was raised in the culture, while also taking in Lafayette’s blues and Gulf Coast "swamp pop."

He actually started his professional career as an R&B sideman, playing keyboards for such people as Joe Tex, Barbara Lynn and Gatemouth Brown. In 1971, he began fronting his own R&B band – Buckwheat and the Hitch-hikers. The repertoire includes Parliament Funkadelic and Earth, Wind & Fire. Zydeco and his group had a regional hit in "It’s Hard To Get."

When the demand grew for zydeco bands, he was invited to play organ for the late Clifton Chanier, the king of zydeco. "If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t be where I am," he says.

Following three years of touring, recording and accordion apprenticeship, Zydeco left in 1979 to lead his own group, Buckwheat Zydeco and the Ils Sont Partis Band.

As Chanier did before him, Dural blended traditional Creole zydeco with the latest black-contemporary styles. In 1987, he was signed to Island Records, becoming the first zydeco artist to appear on a major label.

"You smile when you pick up the accordion," says Dural. "The accordion has been here for centuries, but people seemed to walk away from it. I’m an organist by trade. That’s what I played until 1979. I didn’t want anything to do with the accordion. I thought that was meant for my dad, the older generation."

He says he gave the accordion a try for his dad. Now the instrument is making a comeback. "Exactly," says Dural. "So many people say ‘You really helped me out. I went back and got my accordion back out.’ "

Zydeco is more than music, he says. "It’s roots. It’s culture. It’s something you don’t hear nowhere else in the world. It’s a blend of so many musics. You can play any song and take it through different dimensions." The accordion is the key to making the zydeco sound, he says.

Taking that sound to The Olympics was a highlight of his life, he says. "And then the inauguration of the president. That’s an honor just being there and having something to do with it," he adds.

Dural considers taking the stage with U2 in Florida as another high mark. "There were thousands of people looking at me. People just went crazy. It was a great feeling, fantastic."

"Zydeco comes from the blues too," he says. "My music is based on rhythm and blues."

He is proud of what he has been able to do with the zydeco genre. I’m very proud I took this music out and shared it with people who never heard it before," he says. "At one time, it was only kept at home. I’m proud so many young musicians, zydeco and Cajun players, take up accordion. Had it not been for people like myself, and the ones before me, this might have been lost. It’s culture and roots. It’s identity. If you don’t have identity, what do you have?"

Dural lives music. "I was on stage professionally at age 9. That’s a long time," he says. "That’s my heart. Music is happiness. That’s when people come together. That’s what I love to see. I’m on stage and see everybody having a good time. If that can be done for 24 hours, the planet would be happier than it is now."