Every August, accordionists from around the country converge on a small Northern California town for two days of nonstop squeezebox madness. It’s the 18th annual Cotati Accordion Festival, taking place this Saturday and Sunday, and featuring a diverse lineup that includes Dick Contino, Vagabond Opera, Polka Freakout, Limpopo, Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers, and many more. There’s also a polka tent, accordion-related vendors, and the annual “Lady of Spain” ring and the releasing of the doves. (Really!)

If you’ve never been to the festival, here’s a great set of video clips from Sonoma Uncorked to give you a taste:

Are you headed to Cotati? Leave a comment on this post and let us know. We’ll be there on Sunday, so if you see us — I’ll be wearing a red Let’s Polka shirt — so say “hi” and I’ll give you some stickers.

• Live Review: Steve Jordan Tribute
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• Amoriental Accordion
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  This fun video slideshow, put together by Abbie Stillie and Katey Gries, includes interviews with members of Accordions Anonymous and the Bad Mitten Orchestre about the accordion’s resurgent popularity.

Lock up your kids! The Monsters of Accordion all-accordion road show is back and ready to take the West Coast by storm. This year’s tour — which starts Thursday in Santa Rosa — is bigger than ever, with stops in ten cities including San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. Tour organizer Jason Webley is headlining once again; Mark Growden, Amy Denio, and Duckmandu will join him for every stop. Meanwhile, each show will include special local guests, including Eric Stern of Vagabond Opera, Dan Cantrell, Mrs. Hobbs, and many more.

As an added bonus this time out, the Monsters will be holding “Accordion Monster Master Classes” in Oakland (August 17) and Seattle (August 24). Class topics will include “choosing an accordion, left-hand technique, DIY instrument repair, audience participation, accordion for punks, repairing your van with a handgun, and the role of the accordionist in the digital era.”

Anna and I went to the show in San Francisco last year and it was easily one of the best (and most fun!) accordion events we’ve ever attended. Check out our photos and a video of the incomparable Corn Mo performing “We Are the Champions,” then make your plans to catch this year’s tour.

Anna had a nasty bout with food poisoning earlier this week, so to speed her recovery, here’s a video from Slim’s Cyder Co. called “Is it Love or Food Poisoning?” We’ve mentioned Slim and his gang before; they’ve been playing fun-loving, accordion-fueled country/rockabilly around the UK for more than fifteen years. Here’s hoping the next time Anna’s tummy feels queasy, it really is love and not food poisoning…

The annual Ottawa International Jazz Festival just wrapped up and one of the biggest hits was French accordion virtuoso Richard Galliano. Performing with his Tangaria Quartet, Galliano’s concert was “as thrilling a performance as was heard” throughout the entire festival, according to a review in the Ottawa Citizen. Galliano “reeled off one exhilarating song after another,” allowing the audience “to lose themselves in his brilliance.” Not a bad review, I’d say.

Born in Cannes in 1950, Richard Galliano studied at a conservatory as a youth, but quickly changed his musical devotion to jazz after hearing (and memorizing the solos of) jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown. Galliano set out to establish the accordion’s reputation in jazz, becoming a sought-after accompanist and soloist. Astor Piazzolla invited him to be the bandoneon soloist at the Comédie Française production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” starting a close friendship that lasted until Piazzolla’s death in 1992.

More recently, Galliano has become known for a style he calls “New Musette” — a fusion of styles ranging from samba and salsa to waltz and tango. Regardless of what he’s playing, though, it’s always with unparalleled skill and passion. Here’s a fantastic video of Galliano performing Piazzolla’s “Libertango” solo:

I remember reading that Jimmy Stewart got his start by playing accordion, but I had never him play until I found this clip from the 1957 Western, Night Passage. In the film, Stewart plays an ex-railroad man (and traveling accordion player) who tries to prove himself by defending a payroll train from a gang of outlaws. Unfortunately, this clip is dubbed in Spanish, but you can still hear Stewart squeezing and singing “You Can’t Get Far Without a Railroad”:

I thought MTV gave up on music years ago, opting instead to corner the market on inane reality shows for 16 year olds. Despite their best efforts, however, some music manages to occasionally escape onto their airwaves. Thankfully, one example is Mexican singer/songwriter/accordionist Julieta Venegas’ recent performance on MTV Unplugged, which was released this month as both an album and DVD.

Trained as a classical musician on piano and cello before rising to fame with the accordion, Venegas decided to take a fresh approach for her Unplugged performance, including instruments like the ukelele, banjo, xylophone, and tuba. And in addition to hits from her four albums, she unveiled a handful of new tunes, including “Ilusión,” a Spanish/Portuguese duet with Marisa Monte, and the bouncy “El Presente,” which you can watch over at YouTube:

Julieta Venegas: El Presente

I spent my Memorial Day weekend in Mendocino, lounging around my in-laws’ house, reading their subscription to Smithsonian magazine when I stumbled across an article about vallenato, the popular accordion-driven folk music from Colombia. It mentioned that on June 6, a new Smithsonian film about vallenato called The Accordion Kings will premiere at the National History Museum.

The documentary focuses on the annual accordion competition held at the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata in Valledupar. (We’ve shown clips of this festival on our site before.) Traditionally played with the accordion, caja (drum), and guacharaca (percussion stick), vallenato is a melting pot of African, European, and Colombian rhythms and sounds. Here’s a clip of five-time competition winner Hugo C Granados, who last year won the special Rey de Reyes (“King of Kings”) contest which is held only once every ten years.

I always loved the circus growing up, but I’ll tell you — Ringling Brothers had nothing on the high-energy, French ten-piece Babylon Circus. What started as a ska band in 1995 in Lyon has evolved to include reggae, rock, jazz, and numerous other eclectic influences. But with lyrics in French and English — sometimes both in the same song — addressing social and political issues (like the Iraq war), Babylon Circus isn’t pure diversion. It’s music with a message: get out of your seat and take action, whether it’s marching in the streets or jumping on the dance floor.

Their latest record, Dances of Resistance — released in France in 2004, but just making its way here now — continues to mix the political with the carnival, interspersing full-length songs with brief, circus organ-ridden ditties. Described by some as a French Gogol Bordello, the band has a reputation for electric live shows, as shown in this performance of “J’aurais Bien Voulu”: