Last month, Paul “Li’l Buck” Sinegal left his home in Lafayette, Louisiana and boarded a plane to Europe. There were no throngs of admirers to send him off or screaming fans to welcome him back.

But during his week-long tour of Switzerland, Sinegal had thousands hanging on every bluesy note of his 1954 Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2005, Sinegal will mark his 30th year of playing music overseas. Fans there know him for his outstanding work on more than 300 recordings in each decade since the 1950s. His sessions include Grammy-winning albums by Clifton Chenier and Paul Simon’s 1987 Graceland.

Sinegal’s gigs in Europe last week were among the thousands of concerts he’s played in his career. “People love the blues over there, also zydeco,” said Sinegal. “It’s flooded with the blues over there. There’s not too many blues bands here. You get there and they’re excited to see you. It feels good when people appreciate what you do.”

Sinegal hopes to create more excitement abroad and at home on his new CD, Bad Situation, released on Lucky Cat Records of Lafayette.

On the new CD, Sinegal shows off the blues guitar mastery that has landed him in the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame. The 14-song disc includes eight originals, along with covers of classics like B.B. King’s “Why I

Sing the Blues,” Albert Collins’ “Cold, Cold Feeling” and Guitar Slim’s “Well I Done Got Over It.”

Sinegal’s Stratocaster and 1975, hollow-body, f-holed Gretsch shine throughout. He’s backed by Lee Allan Zeno (bass), Nathaniel Jolivette (drums), Keith Clements (keyboards and accordion) and co-producer Andy Cornett (harmonica).

Sinegal also acknowledges his zydeco roots on Clifton Chenier’s “Highway Blues” and “Shakin’ the Zydeco,” which both feature Clements on accordion and keyboards. Sinegal, 58, says the recording has some rough edges.

But so has Sinegal’s life. He was 19-years-old before he slept in a real bed. With nine people crammed in the small, family house on St. Charles Street in Lafayette, Sinegal slept on the floor, feet propped on a hot water bottle, to make room for his grandmother and four sisters.

Sinegal remembers his father Joseph, who only made $45 a week, driving to New Iberia every week to make $10 payments on his son’s guitar. Sinegal’s parents died nine months apart in 1986. Those memories are Sinegal’s rough draft of his bluesy CD. “It’s not perfect, but it’s the true me,” said Sinegal. “I wanted that raggedy sound, just like I speak here every day. Don’t worry about pronouncing the T’s and the G’s. Just do it like you do it every day.

“I was sitting around in the summer, on the porch, thinking about my parents,” added Sinegal. “They’re all deceased now, but they struggled to keep me playing. They wanted me to play. I wish they would be here to hear me now.

“That’s how I wrote that song ‘Red Beans and Pork Chops.’ That was our specialty in this house. I never had too much, but I made do with what I had.” Joseph Sinegal’s investment soon paid off. Buck graduated from playing around his family’s home and neighborhood to forming his first band, the Jive Five.

The band became a hit at local dances, playing the radio hits of Little Richard, Jimmy Reed and Fats Domino. The group lasted until 1958, when Sinegal formed his next band, the Top Cats.

The Top Cats were a 15-piece ensemble that included male and female vocalists and Sinegal’s cousin Donald as MC, road manager and valet. The group opened for Joe Tex and backed up Percy Sledge, Millie Jackson, Barbara Lynn and Robert Parker.

When the Top Cats broke up in 1969, a chance encounter with future zydeco king Clifton Chenier at the Blue Angel Club in Lafayette led to Sinegal becoming an original member of Chenier’s heralded Red Hot Louisiana Band. After 14 years with Chenier, Sinegal is credited with defining zydeco guitar.

Sinegal said Chenier taught him the blues, encouraging him to listen to B.B. King and other greats. Chenier

even entrusted Sinegal to drive the van as the band toured across the country. Sinegal said Chenier taught him a lot about giving all for the fans. “We were coming out of California to play at Antone’s in Austin and he told us to empty an ice chest we had with food. The bologna and stuff we had was changing colors, so we stopped at a rest area and threw it out.

“Five hours later, guess what happened? We found out his brother had threw his insulin out and his feet started swelling. He said, Buckaroo, you got to get me to Austin right away. Don’t worry about the speed or nothing.’ Antone had a doctor there waiting for Cliff and he gave him a shot in his vein. Antone said ‘Clifton, we’re going to cancel this week’ and Cliff told him, ‘No, let me get some rest.’ He slept about four hours, got on the bandstand and played four hours straight. He told me, the bass player and John Hart, the sax player, to stay off the stage. He said, ‘I want just my brother, the drummer and me.’ Just those three played the whole gig by themselves. That was an amazing, man.”

After 14 years with Chenier, “Li’l Buck” became one of the most requested studio musicians in Louisiana music. Sinegal went on to record with Buckwheat Zydeco, Rockin’ Dopsie Sr. and Jr., Fernest Arceneaux, Katie Webster, Lazy Lester, Henry Gray and others. As a solo artist, Sinegal has been called “…the best blues guitarist you never heard” by broadcaster Jeff Harris of Rochester, New York.

After decades as a “sideman,” a term Sinegal dislikes, he’s ready to continue his time in the spotlight. “I hear a lot of people use ‘sideman.’ I would just like to call them musicians. People come up to me and say, ‘You’re a sideman for such and such.’ I’m not a sideman. I’m a musician. Without a sideman, what is a musician? Nothing. That’s why I call them musicians. But I’m ready to be out on my own. I want to go out for five, six weeks at a time and play four or five nights a week. I want to feel if I did good or I didn’t do good. You can learn from that and straighten it up. I’m looking forward to that.”