Perfect Duluth Day: Accordion Awareness Month

There is no geekier holiday known to man!
All Things Accordion
Accordion USA

Did you know...

*The piano accordion is the official musical instrument of the city of San Francisco and has been since 1990.

*Actress Lucy Liu plays the accordion

*Guitarist Nils Lofgren started on the accordion.

*Billy Joel and Barry Manilow also play the accordion.

*The accordion is a member of the reed family, not the keyboard family.

*The first United States-made piano accordion (the ones with the keys on it) was manufactured in San Francisco back in 1907. It was at the Guerrini Accordion Company on DuPont St. (Grant Ave., near Columbus Ave.)

* When people think of an accordion, they usually envision that large, black monstrosity with piano keys on one side and about a thousand buttons on the other side. However, the accordion family also includes Cajun button boxes, chromatic and diatonic button accordions, the concertina, the bayan, and the bandoneon.

*Isn't the accordion just being used at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs? Heck no! Shania Twain's immensely popular Come On Over CD has accordion on a couple of tracks. Los Lobos. Bruce Hornsby plays the accordion and uses it in shows. Counting Crows use accordion a lot. Here in San Francisco, the show Forever Tango was a huge hit and featured two bandoneonists.

*China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of accordions in the world.

Comments

Q: How long does it take for an accordion to fall down a well?

A: Depends on how many banjos it hits on its way down!

That animated, moving mouth scares the hell out of me.

Posted by: adam | June 1, 2007 08:59 PM

Q: What's the difference between an accordion and a trampoline?

A: You take your shoes off before you jump on a trampoline.

more here.

Posted by: zra... | June 1, 2007 09:29 PM

Q: What do accordion players use as a contraceptive?
A: Their personalities.

Q: How do you protect a valuable instrument?
A: Hide it in an accordion case.

Posted by: Gwanto | June 1, 2007 09:52 PM

In all honesty, the accordion is a very versatile instrument. I'm a sucker for parisian-style accordion paired with a lonely violin. Or it's hillbilly cousin paired with a fiddle. Or zydeco. Polka music is hard not to smile about, or run away shrieking in horror about, depending on your taste in music. They're impossible beasts to play and I have great respect for those who can actually play them. Every once in a while, I pick mine up and attempt to scare my neighbors. I think it works. All hail the geekiest instrument in the world!

Posted by: Gwanto | June 1, 2007 10:11 PM

My friend Andy convinced me of the fabulousless of the accordion when he played Dreaming by Blondie and some Velvet Underground. I had only known this guy 5 minutes, but that was enough for my girlfriend-wife and I to let him stay on our couch.
That and the fact that he was as tall as me and wore the same size shoes.
Make friends, stay places for free, play the accordion.

Posted by: Brian | June 1, 2007 11:31 PM

Is the accordion museum still in Superior?

Posted by: Brian | June 1, 2007 11:32 PM

A World of Accordions Museum | www.accordionworld.org

Posted by: Paul Lundgren | June 2, 2007 09:26 AM

If you want to see crazy accordion skill, check out this guy doing "Flight of the Bumblebee" on an accordion - crazy!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbuIZ-5-8o

Posted by: Bad Cat! | June 2, 2007 11:02 AM

I had a friend once who was driving a rusty winter beater around with several very expensive accordions in the back seat. He pulled into a parking lot and went into a convenience store to pick something up, and when he came back to the spot where his car was parked, all that he found was a bunch of very expensive accordions in a pile where his car had been.

Posted by: zra... | June 4, 2007 06:23 AM

Accordion Awareness Month

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