Waltz of Love

American pop music to the contrary, the accordion is a very popular instrument in many cultures. The above was recorded at a Slovenian gathering near Cleveland, Ohio, on January 23. Frank Moravcik and his band are playing Waltz of Love, written in 1965 by Stan Blout. Waltz of Love was voted 2009 "Greatest All-Time Hit Song" at the XXII Polkas International Award Show in Cleveland, Ohio.

For more about the song, visit the Slovene-American Club of Spring Hill

Walkin' In My Winter Underwear

This is a thin connection with accordion! The background music strongly features one, but I think the accordion will not be the main point of interest. Enjoy!

This comes from a 1950-1960s local children's television show called Lunch with Casey, aired in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About Lunch with Casey

Derision Central

Overheard on "Everybody Loves Raymond:"

"I’m not having some big shindiggy accordionic singalong."

Friday Funnies

Zydekats on PBS Holiday Celebration

The PBS Los Angeles Holiday Celebration special aired tonight. This program features the best hour of acts from the previous year's event. The production of the L.A. County Arts Commission actually lasts for six hours! I have to say that this is the most interesting holiday program I've seen yet this year.



The range and quality of the acts was spectacular. If you like traditional children's choirs there was one. If you wanted Gospel, it was there. On the other extreme was a ballet dancer who used two fabric banners suspended from the stage rigging as props for a dance routine, or a new interpretation of a portion of the Nutcracker that combined ballet and break dancing.

But the very first act was the Zydekats, led by Lisa Haley, who perform traditional and contemporary Americana/Cajun/Zydeco arrangements. Lisa sings and plays violin, but an accordion is strongly featured in the backup band. This picture was taken off my TV screen, but if you follow the link below you can see a short video about them at PBS.

The accordionist is playing a 72-bass piano accordion.

See a video of the Zydecatz at about the middle of the page.

Friday Funnies

Q. What is the difference between a dead accordion player in the road and a dead chicken in the road?

A. The chicken was probably on his way to a gig.

Amazing Race Goes Accordion Crazy

If you thought it was exciting to see an accordion on the Amazing Race, Season 14, Episode 1, you were ecstatic in Episode 4 this past Sunday. There were no fewer than three accordions! First of all we see this fellow playing what appears to be a chromatic button accordion. This is where all the teams have to stack huge piles of wood, in Siberia!



Just a few minutes later in the program... hours later in real life... the weather has cooled off, and the musicians have a fire. Our same accordionist is still at it. But now he has a smaller red accordion, rather than a black one!



Most amazing of all is the Russian dancer. He is playing a 2 or 3 row diatonic accordion (I can't quite see which with the fuzzy picture). But I'm here to tell you that playing and dancing simultaneously is quite a feat of coordination!







Accordions are very popular internationally, so it should really be no surprise to see them so often. There was also an accordion at a German town in Episode 2, but I haven't taken time to pull that picture out yet.