National Accordian Awareness Month

Okay boys, so Alan was right and June is National Accordian Awareness month. According to the website, next month is a special time set aside each and every year since 1989 "to promote the accordion, help spread the word about the resurgence in popularity in the accordion and to educate people about the accordion." As we all reep the benefit of the genuis that is the squeezebox, I feel it necessary that we make every effort to recognize and appreciate this important time and this classic instrument. Following are some important facts taken straight from the website. Read them, learn from them. If we're lucky, maybe we too can attend the 2nd Annual Accordian festival held later next month. One can dream.

Did you know...

• The piano accordion is the official musical instrument of the city of San Francisco and has been since 1990. This year is the 15th anniversary!


• Actress Lucy Liu plays the accordion.


• Guitarist Nils Lofgren started on the accordion.


• Billy Joel and Barry Manilow also play the accordion.


• The accordion is a member of the reed family, not the keyboard family.


• The first United States-made piano accordion (the ones with the keys on it) was manufactured in San Francisco back in 1907. It was at the Guerrini Accordion Company on DuPont St. (Grant Ave., near Columbus Ave.)


• When people think of an accordion, they usually envision that large, black monstrosity with piano keys on one side and about a thousand buttons on the other side. However, the accordion family also includes Cajun button boxes, chromatic and diatonic button accordions, the concertina, the bayan, and the bandoneon.


• Isn't the accordion just being used at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs? Heck no! Shania Twain's immensely popular Come On Over CD has accordion on a couple of tracks. Los Lobos. Bruce Hornsby plays the accordion and uses it in shows. Counting Crows use accordion a lot. Here in San Francisco, the show Forever Tango was a huge hit and featured two bandoneonists.


• China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of accordions in the world.