A&E

DTA! Lil' Buck a go this evening

by Dominick Cross

As of 2:04 p.m. today, word is Downtown Alive! will take place in Parc San Souci this evening. We checked in with tonight's DTA! Performer Paul "Lil' Buck" Sinegal to see what he has planned for the weekly outdoor gig set for Parc San Souci.

We checked in with tonight's DTA! Performer Paul "Lil' Buck" Sinegal to see what he has planned for the weekly outdoor gig.

"Blues, rock and roll, 50's and 60's, brand new stuff - everything," Sinegal says. "We're going out there to have fun and satisfy the people. We're going to play what they want."

Touted as the best guitar slinger South Louisiana has to offer, Sinegal honed his chops as an Excello session man and Clifton Chenier's longtime guitarist. Revered for his work with Lil' Bob, Rockin' Dopsie, and Fernest Arcenaux, Lil' Buck also recorded his own killer instrumentals in the late '60s.

When Sinegal's band takes the stage, he'll joined by Bobby Allen, vocals; Lloyd Richard, keyboard; Greg Gordon, drums; and Lee Allen Zeno, bass.

"We're going to knock 'em out if we get a chance to play," he says, who recalled a couple of years ago when he was slated to play DTA!

"Last time we were all on the porch about two years ago ready to go when they called and cancelled it," Sinegal says. "We were ready to go and when the phone rang and I was scared to pick it up.

"But I think we might pull it through tonight," he says. "I don't know."

If rain washes out the show tonight, you'll still have a chance to see Sinegal as he says he plans to take a break from the road and play more around Lafayette.

"I'm going to try to play more around here for a while, you know," he says. "I've been on the road for so much, so long and all that," he says. "I'm going to try to do more playing around here."

Sinegal was on the latest Corey "Pop" Ledet and His Zydeco Band release.

"We didn't change nothing, but he wanted me to play to put that old time stuff in with what he's doing, you see," he says. "It came out good. Came out real good."

Sinegal co-founded the Lafayette-based all-star aggregation Cowboy Stew Blues Revue. In 1999, Lil' Buck was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame.

DTA! begins at 5:30 p.m. with food and beverage concessions. The music plays from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., unless otherwise noted. Concession sales help keep DTA! free, so please leave your ice chests at home with your pets. For more information, visit here.

Downtown Alive! is produced by Downtown Lafayette in cooperation with Lafayette Consolidated Government.