Cajun Accordion Or Melodeon?

[Steve Holley]

Ever heard "If I Only Had A Brain" cajun style? 

Isn't that known as Bluegrass? (Time to run!)

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Junior, Fetch me up a rope.

[JimLucas]

Ever heard "If I Only Had A Brain" cajun style? 

Isn't that known as Bluegrass? (Time to run!)

Junior, Fetch me up a rope.

Is that where the term "redneck" comes from?

 

Well, Junior, make sure you bring him "enough" rope.

[Mark Evans]

Well, no Jim. It refers to my relatives skin pigmentation. Dear ole' Dad and his side were very fair....one dare say white? Crackers (that would be a fair discription of most of the family) never take off their shirts while working outside. They never seem to tan, only achieve an angry reddish burn around the neck. On the few occations I saw Dad "sans" shirt the contrast between the red neck and the lily white torso was...well, remarkable.

 

Momma an' nem' are a bit on the dark side as am I. We browns up right nice thank ye!

 

Now 'bout dat' rope...

[bill_mchale]

Well, no Jim.  It refers to my relatives skin pigmentation.  Dear ole' Dad and his side were very fair....one dare say white?  Crackers (that would be a fair  discription of most of the family) never take off their shirts while working outside.  They never seem to tan, only achieve an angry reddish burn around the neck.  On the few occations I saw Dad "sans" shirt the contrast between the red neck and the lily white torso was...well, remarkable.

 

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Well since the regions of the US that is most famous for Red Necks are also areas with heavy Scotts-Irish immigration it is not necessarily all that crackers for them not to take their shirts off.

 

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Bill

[JimLucas]

Now 'bout dat' rope...

Please, please make it Old Rope.

(Or should I be playing like Brer Rabbit, and saying "no, no, not Old Rope!"?)

[Mark Evans]

Bill you are correct...however, something happened to those immigrants: They incountered heat and BUGS baby. Men of my fathers generation even prefered long sleeve work shirts in summer for protection from sun and swarms of bloodthirsty, 24-7 BUGS!

 

Also, the overly shame-based forms of religion prevalent in the deep south demanded modesty from male and female adults alike (past, get thee behind me! ).

 

Jim, I like your thinking on the rope bit.

 

Oh, Bill I hate to say this but the Scotts-Irish immigrants were Crackers...Peckerwoods...and my Auntie Maybel's favorite phrase...White Trash.

Edited January 20, 2005 by Mark Evans

[bill_mchale]

Oh, Bill I hate to say this but the Scotts-Irish immigrants were Crackers...Peckerwoods...and my Auntie Maybel's favorite phrase...White Trash.

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Just remember that no fewer than 11 US presidents were Scotts-Irish; including some of the more important presidents we have had.

 

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Bill

[Mark Evans]

Oh I do Bill, I'm very proud to be of Peckerwood extraction. You know, Dubbya (after all It's Dubbya big day) is of Scott's extraction as well.

 

Please don't take what I said about my own heritage as a "dis". 'Twas just my southern humor leakin' out... Dad burnit Maw you can't take that boy anywhere!

 

Editoral note: In honesty, one of my ancestors was Henry Clay of Kentucky with all the good and bad that encompasses. Ain't it about time ya'll get back ta squeeze boxes? I'll shut up an' read from now on.

Edited January 20, 2005 by Mark Evans

[Stephen Chambers]

Point of order:  ... Very important that "W".

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A bit like the one in crayfish/crawfish ?

[Mark Evans]

Exactement!

[Stephen Chambers]

... if you want to play Irish or Quebecois music you will need a melodeon in D to play with other people.

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Actually even a D melodeon is not a great session instrument since G tunes only barely lag behind D tunes in popularity (at least around Baltimore that seems to be the case).

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The reason that Irish and Quebecois players have prefered the D melodeon, for the past century, is that it is the only one capable of playing in the three fiddle keys of D, G and A.

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The thing is, I am not sure how many of those old Melodeons were in D; an awful lot of them were in C.

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But the serious players, who bought serious melodeons like the "Globe" and "International" models, had worked out that the key of D was best and preferred that key, so they could play with other instruments at "concert pitch".

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Tonight I also bought a Globe "Gold Medal" melodeon (with original case + cardboard box) off eBay :

 

 

This was the instrument played by John Kimmel and the great Irish-American players who followed him in the 1920's, such as P.J. Conlon and Jerry O'Brien (before they both changed to the Irish-Model Italo-American Baldoni, Bartoli ). Both it (the key is labelled on the outside of the box) and the International (here) that I bought from Germany recently (which arrived today) are in the key of D, as these models commonly are.

 

And I would be extremely surprised if the Baldoni, Bartoli (here), which has got delayed in the New York blizzards, is in any other key either.

 

Edited to add more quotes (because it's fun ! )

 

And edited again to improve photo, and add Kimmel.

 

And yet again for links.

Edited August 8, 2005 by Stephen Chambers

[Helen]

Stephen,

 

Congrats on the new instruments. Have fun. You deserve it. How's the ankle? Not dancing yet, I gather.

 

Helen

[Stephen Chambers]

Congrats on the new instruments. Have fun. You deserve it.

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Thanks Helen, I can't believe just how lucky I have been with instruments this month , though it is going to take me a long time to put them all into playable condition . Don't be surprised if I'm not posting here so much for a while, I'm going to have plenty to do over the next few months, one way and another.

 

How's the ankle? Not dancing yet, I gather.

No, but I did find my battery charger and start driving again on Sunday, starting with a short run to Cappa, and then a longer one to Kilkee. It was wonderfully liberating after 7 weeks stuck in this flat . The prisoner has escaped ! I even drove to Ennis today.

 

Still can't walk without crutches though.

[Stephen Chambers]

How's the ankle? Not dancing yet, I gather.

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I'm reminded of another (very) old joke :

 

Patient : "Doctor, Doctor, will I be able to dance when my ankle gets better ?"

 

Doctor : "I don't see any reason why not."

 

Patient : "Gosh, that's wonderful, I couldn't dance before I broke it !"

[Helen]

Phooey Stephen,

 

You can't stop posting. And don't give the instruments as an excuse. You were posting because you couldn't get out of the house. Now you are free. And you've tossed us over.

 

Seriously, glad you can get out and about. Must have been terrible to be stuck for so long.

 

Helen

 

And about that dancing ...

[Stephen Chambers]

You can't stop posting.

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Who said I was going to stop ? I'm just expecting to return to a more "normal" level ...

 

And don't give the instruments as an excuse.

Like I said, "one way and another" : I have to get walking again, move into my new place, carry out some building work, open a shop, get my new concertina-making project going and fix all these wonderful old instruments off eBay.

 

And about that dancing ...

You want me to find time for that as well ... ?

Edited January 25, 2005 by Stephen Chambers

[Helen]

Uh huh, sure, yes I want you to find time for dancing too, Stephen.

 

I know you didn't say you were going to stop posting, I was just pulling your leg. Ouch. Sorry, Jim's punniness rubbed off on me for a bit. I'm okay now.

 

Wow a new shop. What fun. Gosh now I really have to get to Ireland.

 

To look at your shop not to tease you. Oh well, maybe some teasing would be involved.

 

So what kind of dancing...

 

Helen

[JimHarvey]

Steve, I can't answer all of your questions, but I can offer a couple of comments: firstly, YES, they're brilliant fun to play. I have a one-row four-stop Hohner Pokerwork in G, and it's great. I never tire of playing it. 

 

As has been mentioned elsewhere on the forum recently, boxes prepared for Cajun playing have the thirds of the scale tuned flatter than normal, so that they give true thirds rather than equal-tempered thirds. Mechanically they're like playing one row of a melodeon on its own, and of course you only have the root and 5th for bass notes and chords in the left hand.

 

I haven't played an Ariette, but the Pokerwork is a perfectly adequate machine for my needs - it has good response, and is very loud. The only drawback in their construction is that the four stops for the different sets of reeds work loose so you find yourself needing to wedge them open with whatever stray piece of wood comes to hand (I think John Kirkpatrick uses shoelaces to keep his open).

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I just returned from New Orleans and went to a few Cajun places and I am very impressed by the strong reed sound of the Cajun accordians. It sounds super.

 

Exactly how does one imitate a cajun accordian using a 30 buton CG anglo?

 

And if I orderd a Cajun accordian, what key what I want to get that deep, rich, Cajun sound? Thanks