Highlights from this week’s accordion calendar:

• Accordionology (Fri-Sun in Brooklyn, NY)
  Barbès hosts a three-day festival for our “much maligned instrument” with an eclectic lineup that includes Guy Klucevsek, One Ring Zero, the Will Holshouser Trio, Alec Redfearn and the Eyesores, and many more.
• Zydeco/Cajun Grammy Celebration (Wed in Lafayette, LA)
  Celebrate the creation of the newest Grammy category with a party at the Grant Street Dance Hall.
• Shuswap Lake Accordion Festival (Fri-Sun in Sorrento, BC, Canada)
  Three days of jam sessions, solos and duets, bands and dancing on the banks of Shuswap Lake in British Columbia. Beautiful music, beautiful surroundings… what more could you ask for?

On a technical note, I’ve fixed the calendar to better handle multi-day events (like festivals). If you have an accordion-related concert, festival, or meeting to share, tell us about it!

Time to check this week’s accordion events calendar…

• “Blast from the Bayou” Cajun/Zydeco Festival (Thu-Sun in Preston, CT)
  I don’t normally think of Connecticut as a zydeco hotspot, but this weekend’s Cajun/Zydeco festival in Strawberry Park brings Louisiana’s best to the Nutmeg State. Featuring Geno Delafose, Steve Riley, Chris Ardoin, Corey Ledet, the Pine Leaf Boys, the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, and many more.
• Syracuse Polish Festival (Fri-Sun in Syracuse, NY)
  The 53rd Syracuse Polish Festival raises money for the Polish Scholarship Fund and features a slew of polka bands, including Lenny Gomulka and Chicago Push, Stephanie and her Honky Band, and Fritz’s Polka Band.
• Accordion Free-For-All (Tue in Austin, TX)
  The Central Texas Accordion Association holds their annual Free-for-All, a nonstop accordion-fueled variety show.

Is there an accordion concert, festival or hootenanny in your area? Let us know!

Happy Accordion Awareness Month, everyone!

It’s time to haul those big accordions out of the closet, dust ’em off, and give ’em a squeeze. And for the non-players out there, support your local accordionist! Check out our calendar for accordion-related events near you!

What’s on the accordion calendar this week?

• Motion Trio (Various dates)
  With a goal to “extract notes from the accordion which have never been heard before,” Poland’s innovative Motion Trio plays rare US tour dates this week in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. They don’t come around often, so catch these shows if you can!
• Accordion Kings and Queens (Saturday in Houston, TX)
  This concert spotlights the diversity of the Lone Star State’s accordion traditions with players old and young (including winners of the Big Squeeze competition) and stars from zydeco (Chubby Carrier), conjunto (Mingo Saldivar), and Western swing (Ginny Mac).
• Friendly City PolkaFest (Fri-Sun in Johnstown, PA)
  The 10th annual Friendly City PolkaFest features three days of nonstop polka music from bands like Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones, Polka Family, Polka Country Musicians, and many more.

In other important accordion news, today is my wife and co-author Anna’s birthday! Hooray! We’ll be jamming on the porch in her honor this afternoon.

Remember, if there’s an accordion event in your neighborhood, tell us about it!

What’s on the accordion calendar this week?

• Squeeze Box Night (Tuesday in Monroe, WI)
  The first in a monthly series of informal accordion jam sessions at Turner Hall’s Ratskeller. Local accordionist Del Heins leads the session and will offer tips and advice for anyone who’s a bit rusty.
• Tri Tip Trio (Tuesday in Berkeley, CA)
  Every Tuesday night at Ashkenaz, they host a Cajun/Zydeco dance party with a local band (Tri Tip Trio this week) and a pre-show dance lesson.
• Smilin’ Scandinavians (Thursday in Seattle, WA)
  Led by accordionist Toby Hanson, Seattle’s #1 polka band invades the Leif Erikson Lodge #1.

Is there an upcoming squeezebox gathering in your area? Tell us about it!

What’s on the accordion calendar this week?

• Tejano Conjunto Festival (Thu-Sat in San Antonio, TX)
  One of the biggest and best conjunto festivals of the year takes place this weekend in Rosedale Park. The lineup is a “who’s who” of conjunto accordion legends: Mingo Saldivar, Flaco Jimenez, Joel Guzman, Eva Ybarra, Flavio Longoria… you get the idea. Don’t miss this one.
• Billy McComiskey (Friday in New York, NY)
  Button box virtuoso (and Brooklyn native) Billy McComiskey performs at NYU with banjoist Peter Fitzgerald and keyboardist Matt Mulqueen.
• Gator By The Bay (Sat-Sun in San Diego, CA)
  San Diego’s biggest Zydeco, Blues and Crawfish Festival features entertainment on three stages with huge wooden dance floors and bands like Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys, Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers, and more.

As usual, if you have an accordion event in your area — polka, zydeco, rock, whatever — and it isn’t on our calendar yet, tell us about it!

Not to get married — sorry to get your hopes up — but to play for a wedding dinner. Kristine is looking for an accordionist to play some “old Italian songs” after her wedding on the evening of May 27. The festivities will be held outdoors at a small vineyard in Ione, CA (outside Sacramento). I know it’s short notice but if you can help, email her at steelerchick1 at hotmail and save us some cake.

After a couple weeks of vacation/neglect, I spent the weekend adding a bunch of concerts and festivals to our accordion event calendar. On tap for this week:

• They Might Be Giants (various dates)
  The venerable alt-rockers hit the road for a “secret warm-up tour” before the release of their latest album, The Else. Can you believe they’ve been together for 25 years?
• Brett Gibson (Saturday in Overland Park, KS)
  Accordionist Brett Gibson will be the featured soloist with the Kansas City Civic Orchestra and will perform Astor Piazzolla’s Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra.
• Geoff Berner (Thur-Sat in Western Canada)
  The sharp-witted Vancouver accordionist/songwriter brings his rough-edged take on klezmer to Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I hope they’re ready.

I still have a ton of shows to add, so if there’s anything squeeze-worthy happening in your neighborhood, be sure to let me know!

Joseph wrote in to ask:

“I am an old man who loves music… I have a student accordion I fool around with but I would like to know a book that you would recommend. There are a thousand on the net but I can’t afford to buy 3 or 4 ’til I find one I’m happy with. I don’t want to be a professional, I just want to ENJOY.”

My experience with accordion lesson books is fairly limited; I started with the first couple books in the Palmer-Hughes series, but I was bored by the repertoire and eventually abandoned the books in favor of playing by ear (learning tunes that Anna taught me).

What about you? What accordion lesson books would you recommend to Joseph? Leave a comment and tell us what books have worked for you (or your students, if you’re a teacher).