Carrefour Mondial de l’Accordeon (Thu-Mon in Montmagny, Quebec) The town of Montmagny (northeast of Quebec City) welcomes accordionists from around the world for five nights of concerts, dances, and exhibits at the city’s accordion museum.
Big Sky Polka Festival (Fri-Sun in Billings, MT) Billed as the largest dance festival in the Rocky Mountains, the Big Sky Polka Festival promises three days of nonstop dancing with the John Stehle Band, the Dick Zavodny band and Don and the High Rollers.
Tejano Conjunto Festival (Sunday in Sacramento, CA) Conjunto festivals aren’t just for Texas anymore. Sacramento’s first Tejano Conjunto Festival includes performances by Flaco Jimenez, Ruben Ramos and the Mexican Revolution, and more.
Do you know about any accordion gatherings in your area? Is there a festival coming up? Is your band going on tour? Let us know and we’ll add your events to our calendar.
Ah… another year, another glorious weekend spent at the Cotati Accordion Festival. We spent nearly ten hours in La Plaza Park today, listening to an incredible collection of accordion-oriented artists. Where else can you hear a klezmer band followed by a yodeling, accordion-playing cowboy? Or see hundreds of white doves released into the sky as a crowd plays “Lady of Spain”? Only in Cotati.
We finally got to see Brave Combo live and they didn’t disappoint; it only took a couple songs before they had most of the crowd in a giant conga line, weaving their way through the park. Culann’s Hounds were a big hit, too; I’m glad that word’s getting around about how good they are. We heard virtuoso accordionists across the generations, from Tony Lovello working the crowd to Alex Meixner alternating between piano and button accordion to young Coupe Mondiale participant Sammy Thomas. We also grabbed a hot-off-the-presses copy of the new Those Darn Accordions album, Squeeze Machine (review coming soon!).
And while Anna didn’t win the raffle this year, we still had a fantastic time. We were completely blown away by the number of people who came up to us and mentioned the site. Thanks for all your support and hopefully we’ll be reporting on Cotati Accordion Festivals for years to come.
It isn’t every day you get to see five of North America’s hottest singer/songwriter/accordionists in one place, but we were lucky enough to do so last night at 12 Galaxies in San Francisco as the Monsters of Accordion tour rolled into town. The crowd was incredible — my amateur guesstimating skills say around 300 people — including a handful of Let’s Polka readers who came up and introduced themselves throughout the night (thanks for coming!).
The show kicked off with Geoff Berner whose “Canadian klezmer drinking songs” had the crowd singing along from the start. In between songs, he told stories of his great-grandfather’s move to Saskatchewan, incompetent French generals of the 1930s, and everything in-between. By contrast, Duckmandu (Aaron Seeman) was all-business, storming through punk covers, country songs, and originals from his new album, Shut the Duck Up and Play Accordion. He closed with his always-popular “flaming hat” rendition of “Highway to Hell.”
As soon as Corn Mo hit the stage, one of my friends turned and asked “Is this guy the love child of Meatloaf and Freddie Mercury?” His show-stopping performance of “We Are the Champions” did little to dispute that hypothesis and Corn Mo had the crowd eating out of his hand for his entire set. (Anna declared him “Best in Show” for the night.) Each show on the Monsters tour has featured a special guest and, after Corn Mo, we were treated to a rare set by the Bay Area’s own Mark Growden. (Mark wins the award for most drool-worthy accordion — what appeared to be a chromatic Bugari.)
Finally, the man who organized it all — Jason Webley — took the stage and whipped the crowd into a frenzy with nonstop sing-a-longs and even a cover of Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” thrown in for good measure. He was floored by the passionate, accordion-loving crowd and remarked that “the tides are changing… in three or four years, people are going to be embarrassed to admit they took guitar lessons as a kid.” The show closed with all five accordionists onstage performing (or just drinking along to) Webley’s “Drinking Song” as the crowd spun in circles and headed out into the cool San Francisco night.
It was a fantastic event and, if you’re in the Bay Area tonight, be sure to catch the last show of the tour over at Smythe’s Accordion Center in Oakland. This is absolutely a can’t-miss, must-see show. Even if you’re up in Cotati today (we’re headed there now), you can still make it down in time for the Monsters show.
For those who couldn’t be there last night, here’s a video I recorded of Corn Mo performing “We Are the Champions”:
The 60th annual Coupe Mondiale accordion competition, held last week outside Washington, DC, was a huge success. In addition to the competition itself, there were nightly accordion concerts at the Kennedy Center, a one-of-a-kind massed accordion band performance of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” on the steps of the US Capitol (written up in the Washington Post), and countless opportunities for accordion lovers from around the world to hear amazing music and share the squeezebox love.
It’s another big week on the accordion calendar and it includes two events that I’ve had circled for months:
Cotati Accordion Festival (Sat-Sun in Cotati, CA) Tony Lovello, Brave Combo, and Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers headline the 17th edition of this legendary festival. In addition to two days of nonstop accordion music, there’ll be dance floors, jam tents, and the releasing of the doves while the crowd plays “Lady of Spain.” There’s also a great raffle; last year, Anna won a new Hohner!
Monsters of Accordion (Various dates on West Coast) An army of accordion troubadors — Jason Webley, Corn Mo, Geoff Berner, and Duckmandu — storm down the West Coast for a series of shows, with special guests in each city.
Sturbridge Polka Festival (Fri-Sat in Sturbridge, MA) It wouldn’t be a summer weekend without a polka festival. This time, it’s an all-star lineup in Sturbridge that includes Jimmy Sturr, the Eddie Forman Orchestra, and Stas Golonka.
Just like last year, Anna and I will be in Cotati, checking out the bands and handing out Let’s Polka stickers. We’ll also be at the Monsters of Accordion show in San Francisco on Friday night. So if you see us in either place (I’ll be wearing a red Let’s Polka t-shirt), say ‘hi’ and help yourself to some stickers!
And, as usual, if there’s an accordion gathering in your area that isn’t on our calendar, be sure to let us know.
The Cajun Squeezebox Blog has a list of winners from last night’s Le Cajun Awards sponsored by the Cajun French Music Association. The Pine Leaf Boys won Band and Album of the Year, while Jason Frey was named Accordionist of the Year. Bonjour Louisiane host Pete Bergeron and accordionist Kevin Naquin nabbed Song of the Year honors for “Ma Petit Ange (My Little Angel).”
You can catch some of the winners, and plenty of other talented Cajun musicians, at the Le Cajun Music Festival this weekend in Lafayette, LA.
Watch out, West Coast: the Monsters of Accordion are on the loose. Next week, four unique singer/songwriter/accordionists — Jason Webley, Corn Mo, Geoff Berner, and Duckmandu — will be spreading squeezebox mayhem in Seattle, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, and Oakland. Special guests will join the tour in each town, including Amy Denio and Hell’s Bellows in Seattle, Eric Stern of Vagabond Opera in Portland, and Mark Growden in San Francisco. Needless to say, if you only attend one all-accordion extravaganza this summer, Monsters of Accordion should be it.
The Monsters of Accordion tour is the brainchild of the foot-stompin’, tomato lovin’ Jason Webley. I recently had the chance to talk with Jason about the tour and I’ll be posting our interview here soon.
It’s been almost a year since polka legend Li’l Wally Jagiello passed away, but he certainly hasn’t been forgotten. Chicago punk/polka band The Polkaholics are hosting a free tribute concert this Friday, and they’ll be playing a slew of Li’l Wally classics. There’ll also be some Li’l Wally memorabilia on display and raffled off to lucky attendees. (Note: the Polkaholics don’t have an accordion player, but I don’t hold that against them.)
Li’l Wally and the Polkaholics may seem like an odd match, given the generational gap and the latter’s leanings toward punk-ed up, guitar-driven polka, but they actually performed together at Chicago’s Zakopane Lounge back in 2002. Filmmaker Wes Hranchak chronicled their epic meeting in the appropriately-titled documentary, Polkaholics.
Posted August 15th, 2007 in Events, Polka, Rock · Comments off
This week, Washington, D.C. becomes the accordion capital of the world as the 60th annual Coupe Mondiale (World Cup) competition rolls into town. It’s like the World Series and Super Bowl rolled (or squeezed) into one as the best accordionists from around the globe compete in the world’s most prestigious accordion championships.
Coupe Mondiale Competition The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat… you can catch the actual competition proceedings all week long at the Holiday Inn in Alexandria. There are categories for junior accordionists, as well.
Kennedy Center Concerts The Coupe Mondiale isn’t all about competition, though. All week long, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage will host free concerts with renowned international accordion ensembles like Akkordeonorchester Hof and Accordeonova. There’s also a champions concert featuring the Coupe’s first-place winners on Saturday evening.
Coupe Mondiale Grand Finale Concert What better way to end the week than with the first-ever performance of the World Accordion Orchestra? The orchestra consists of 150 accordion players from around the world, many of whom are CIA officers or delegates.
If 150 accordionists isn’t enough for you, there may be even more at Friday’s “Massed Accordion Band” performance on the steps of the Capitol building. All accordionists within shouting distance are invited to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime performance of John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” (Aren’t you glad they didn’t choose “Lady of Spain”?)
If you’re attending any of the Coupe Mondiale events this week, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line and we’ll post a recap early next week.
Santa Barbara Independent: Squeezing Out Swinging Sparks “Jazz fans who reflexively smirk at the phrase ‘jazz accordion’ are actually blessed: They may be in for an awakening. Accordion jazz, while still a subcultural niche within jazz, can be uniquely exciting.” The Independent praises jazz accordion in advance of Frank Marocco’s gig on Monday.
Posted August 9th, 2007 in Events, Links · Comments off
