Just in case it isn’t already marked in bold on your calendar, June is National Accordion Awareness Month! Accordion Awareness Month is the brainchild of Bay Area accordionist Tom Torriglia (who also helped make the accordion the official instrument of San Francisco back in 1990). It’s the perfect excuse to pull that ol’ squeezebox out of your closet and make your neighbors, um, “aware” of its existence.

To kick off this important month, the 16th annual San Francisco Accordion Festival will be held this Sunday, June 4th, at the Cannery at Fisherman’s Wharf. The event is free, runs from noon to 6pm, and features some of our favorite accordion-flavored performers, including Those Darn Accordions, Big Lou’s Polka Casserole, Conjunto Romero, Bella Ciao, Culann’s Hounds, Kielbasia, and the San Francisco Accordion Orchestra. As mentioned previously, the festival features the San Francisco Main Squeeze Pageant, a contest to crown the most talented (and colorful) accordion player in town.

We’re planning to be there on Sunday, so if you see us (probably not wearing lederhosen), come up and give us a big squeeze!

You can feel it in the air — the sound of attack ads, the smell of mud slinging, the sight of old men kissing babies — it’s political primary season! In Iowa, though, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed Fallon is spreading his message while accompanied by his own accordion soundtrack. Fallon has been playing since he was seven (taught by his grandmother) and even took 2nd place at the 2005 Iowa State Fair accordion competition (he’s actually won twice before). Of course, we at Let’s Polka don’t generally endorse political candidates, but having an accordion-playing governor couldn’t be all bad, could it?

I was hoping there would be at least one solid accordion act at the annual Eurovision finals, but it looks like only the performers from Bosnia & Herzegovina (Hari Mata Hari, who took 3rd place) brought along an accordionist (see photo). I didn’t get a chance to watch the entire show, so let me know if there were others I missed.

Even without accordions, though, the winning act — Finnish heavy-metal rockers Lordi, who dress like orcs that have wandered off the set of Lord of the Rings — was certainly impressive. Watch the video of their anthem, “Hard Rock Hallelujah”; it’s almost Spinal Tap-worthy. (And further proof that no one in Europe takes Eurovision seriously anymore.)

Obviously, Anna and I are fans of any couple whose love is built on a mutual love of the accordion. Which is why I was especially happy to see this entry in the Accordion Guy’s blog about the upcoming concert/wedding of “Canada’s premier classical accordion and clarinet duo,” Acclarion. Becky Sajo (clarinet) and David Carovillano (accordion) met three years ago and have been playing an eclectic mix of classical, jazz, tango, samba, and more, ever since. On May 27th in Toronto, they’ll perform a sixty-minute concert followed immediately by their wedding ceremony on the very same stage.

Even if you can’t make it to Toronto for the wedding, check out these sound clips — unlike most couples, Becky and David really do make beautiful music together.

Klezmerized (MP3 sample)

Tico, Tico, No Fuba (MP3 sample)

Want to learn the diatonic (button) accordion, but can’t leave the house? The Italian Accordion Academy has the answer for you!

The Academy has started offering online courses for diatonic accordion. Each lesson is dedicated to a specific tune and includes video, audio clips, exercises and tips for improving your technique. The lessons are available in both Italian and English and all you need is a web browser. You’ll learn not only Italian folk music, but also French waltzes, Spanish fandangos, Irish jigs, and klezmer tunes. (There seem to be audio clips on the site, but I couldn’t get them to work.) Contact the Academy for more information and send us a review if you try their lessons.

There’s an article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (insert your own cheesehead joke here) that talks about how local polka bands are staying relevant and keeping younger audiences interested. Some performers incorporate polka versions of modern tunes into their act, others split their gigs up between playing polka music and deejaying. Jeff Maroszek of New Generation Band talks about overcoming the ‘oompah’ stereotype:

“When a lot of people think of polkas, they always think of the grandpa and the tuba and accordion — just the oompah music — but really that’s not the style of music that it is anymore… Polka music evolved just like country western music and rock ‘n’ roll music evolved. It’s all the same thing. You’ve just got that stereotype to get by.”

Legendary accordionist ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic doesn’t have a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and his fans and supporters want to change that! They have started a fund to raise $15,000 to cover the application fee and sponsorship. With your help they can raise enough to help Al get his own star (and then walk all over it!). They’re halfway there. Can you help? Visit WeirdAlStar.com to find out more.

Following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, who hosted “Zydeco Extravaganza” on Lafayette, LA, television in the late 80’s, Dustin Cravins is launching a new weekly zydeco show called “Squeezebox” next month. It will air at 10 a.m. Sundays on KLAF-UPN 17 (in Lafayette) and the first episode will feature performances by Geno Delafose and Leon Chavis.

Cravins is hoping the show will help spark a zydeco revival and, in addition to live music and dancing, every episode will include a “cultural corner” focusing on elements of Creole culture, including history lessons, French phrases and cooking:

“What we didn?t want was a bon temp… Not to take anything away from that, but if we’re going to call ourselves revolutionaries, let’s come at it from a different approach. A lot of our culture and tradition is an oral one. Something needs to be done where we can actually show some of those things, maybe they had heard of, but never really knew much about.”

Sounds like it’ll be a fun show — now if I only I could figure out some way to get it on TV out here in California…

As if our site alone isn’t enough to keep polka at the center of America’s collective consciousness, here’s a news story from the AP: “Enthusiasts Trying to Revive Polka”. The article begins with Art Altenburg’s desire to sell his Milwaukee concertina bar (“The Only Concertina Bar in the USA”) and then covers how polka fans from coast-to-coast are keeping the polka tradition alive.

Ray Zalokar, who runs 247polkaheaven.com and Ken Irwin of Rounder Records (home of Brave Combo and Jimmy Sturr), are both quoted and talk about promoting the polka to younger audiences.

“Irwin said the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou changed people’s attitudes about bluegrass. Polka needs something similar that shows the music and culture in a positive light, he said. ‘I think it is really infectious music… There is a great amount of talent out there. People, when exposed to it, seem to really enjoy it.'”

That got me thinking — isn’t it time for Hollywood to make a blockbuster polka/accordion movie? With the success of Ray and Walk the Line, America’s clearly hungry for a Frankie Yankovic biopic. Come on, Spielberg, give the Polka King his due!