OK Go- This Too Shall Pass- Notre Dame Band

This is called OK GO- This too shall pass. Great stuff, but the accordion player is only playing the keyboard hand.

Joan Plays Cotton-Eyed Joe

OK, I'm being brave and proving that I can play a little bit. Enjoy it or not! haha.

Lessons learned:
1. Even when I think I'm smiling, I'm not
2. I'm still not holding my right arm out straight
3. I'm rushing the timing
4. I'm still looking at the keys occasionally (bad, bad)
5. I don't have the camera aimed very well (need a good camera man)
6. I shouldn't rush off the second I stop playing

The PUP Plays Accordion

Well, the PUP didn't perform so well on Live TV for America's Got Talent, but for sheer novelty and new ways to make an accordion look bad, this one is right up there.

Friday Funnies

Note that she is playing a diatonic accordion with buttons on both sides. The right hand buttons have notes in one or two keys, and the left hand buttons have the corresponding chords. If it is bisonoric a different note is produced when the bellows are pushed or pulled.

Wish we could hear this one-woman band!

Everybody Loves Raymond - The Bachelor Party Episode

Another episode in the ongoing derision of the accordion, from Everybody Loves Raymond.



Ray throws a bachelor party for his brother, Robert, at the lodge. Even though it's supposed to be a second, improved party, it's pretty lame. The banner is printed with the wrong name, there is no booze and no strippers, and of course... includes an accordion player.

I have no idea if the director knew that he was making the scene look extra stupid or not. Notice that the player's right thumb is held behind the accordion case. This is not how an accordion is played... so it's obvious that the music was faked.

The instrument is a 72 bass piano accordion.

Music Book Review- Broadway Favorites (Kotwitz)

This book, Broadway Favorites, arranged for accordion by Kenny Kotwitz has some great classic songs in it, but the arrangements are surprisingly difficult to play.

Contents:
Climb Ev'ry Mountain (Sound of Music)
Don't Cry for Me Argentina (Evita)
Getting to Know You (The King and I)
I Whistle a Happy Tune (The King and I)
If I Were a Rich Man (Fiddler on the Roof)
Matchmaker (Fiddler on the Roof)
It Might As Well Be Spring (State Fair)
Mr. Wonderful (Mr. Wonderful)
No Other Love (Me and Juliet)
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' (Oklahoma)
People Will Say We're in Love (Oklahoma)
The Sweetest Sounds (No Strings)
We Kiss In a Shadow (The King and I)



At first glance this appears to be a book of arrangements of average difficulty. In practice, many of the left hand bass solo notes involve jumps that are out of the range of dexterity for the average player. The right-hand melody lines are fine, so it is probably worth having this book just for the tunes it contains, but be prepared to do a bit of alteration on the left hand to make it easier to play.

Published by Hal Leonard.

Dixie Chicken - Little Feat Album Cover

Isn't this just the greatest album cover?



That said, it's sort of a mystery. The band, Little Feat, doesn't seem to use an accordion. They are a rock band, begun in the 1970s under Lowell George and resurrected under keyboard artist Bill Payne after George's death.

It appears that the album cover (1973) was inspired by some words from the song by Bill Payne "Cajun Girl:"
Fingers that fly on accordion keys
and later...
Might find me a dream, just West of New Orleans
If you pole up the bayou St. John
The way twin fiddles play
And she squeezes her box until dawn

But that song is not found on this album. Any comments with more info would be welcome.

See lyrics to Cajun Girl
Little Feat web site