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Google "Nightmare Before Christmas Street band" for some great shots with innovative support straps!

A quick click on you-tube shows them both as barn dances . The clip is of Collin Botts and the comments say as per Cormac Begly. Mind you, "barn dance" seems to be a catch all term when applied to individual tunes, unlike "hornpipe or "polka".

Yes, indeed! A good stomping Balance needs a different feel than a Gypsy or a Hay for Four and if the head couple is waiting out, you should be playing the "B" part.

I think I'd bring my wreck of a Lachenal tudor that I've been meaning to restore.....someday. it's so leaky it would be quite useful in this situation! It'd make a great fish trap with some slight modification and could be used as a Baleen for sieving out the small organic goodies for making soup. Assuming the hot/dry alternative, it's black bellows would make it a dandy solar shower and it will provide cooling comfort in the mid-day hours. It's ubiquitous octagon wooden box has many potential uses. Among the less discrete; a pillow, a seat, a means for transporting coconuts (after draining, to keep them from drying out) an abode for one's pet crab....... Additionally, the few squawks and groans it does make, could be useful for luring in sea birds and marine mammals looking to mate, with a few frantic box lid claps to disperse them if things get out of hand.......?

Welcome to contra dancing! Here's my advice; -Play for the dancers. You're not center stage but part of a delightful whole. To this effect, pay attention to the caller/prompter and refrain from excessive chat and /or exercising your instrument while they're giving instructions. -Even when playing lead you need to drive the rhythm. Aspire to being able to play the dance all by yourself. Join the dance with your upper body while playing! - As you have mentioned, contra music is a hodgepodge and each dance desires a unique approach: marches, reels, polkas, hornpipes, jigs, rags etc. for the longways sets and maybe a hombo or Schottish before the brake, and of course a waltz. -Oom-pa is sometimes appropriate, especially with a sparse band but try to fill empty spaces ( and leave some). A chug on the back beat really works as does a counter melody in the lower register. For a waltz, a Swedish beat : 1,2'-1,2'- works well.

Alex, do you mean the reed it's self or the reed/shoe combination?

I've been thinking along similar lines for my duet to fill some vacant slots, leaning toward the bisonoric solution, however the idea keeps popping into my head of using a single reed for both push and pull thus gaining an extra note. The only major problem with this that I can think of is that with no valve on the draw the air would tend to push the pad open when the note is not being played. I'm sure others have considered this. does anyone have a fix? I can envision an entire instrument set up this way: same # of buttons but half the reeds and valves.

Bravo!

You could try an ebony touch up pen (like a magic marker but made for various woods). Minwax makes them among others.

Appears to be a unisonoric duet.....?

Thank you Geoff. This is very helpful in explaining how the pattern of this Wheatstone instrument (sold to me around 1970 by your brother, I have the bill of sale somewhere) was arrived at and instructs me as to how to fill in the vacant reed spaces. would the Crabb internal layout have been in a radial pattern like the Wheatstone or parallel like the Jeffries?

You could try a spray product like Cramer Firm Grip on your fingers. I wouldn't use anything like rosin or chalk that might drop into the concertina and cause problems.

Very nice, I like hearing uncommon tunes....? Peace and Harmony to all

Aye! Did you catch the second if brief appearance? (hint; audio only)

a quietude of things below the full solstice moon a far carol sings peace

Sounds like you're ready to sit in with a dance band. The pressure will be off you individually, the rhythm and other instrumentation will pull you in and along. Focus on the dancers and you'll be whipped into shape in no time! ?

In "The Man Who Invented Christmas" about Charles Dickens' writing of "A Christmas Carol" the lead engages in a few frustrated squeezes (on an anglo I think) in the first few minutes of the film. Apologies if this has been posted previously.....?

As to #1, I have some friends who deal in oriental rugs and they inform me there are laws here in the U.S. against this practice. You can't misrepresent either to raise or lower the price and can be sued for fair market value. On the other hand, a low asking price is fair game. I personally wouldn't expect to get much of a deal from auction or an online bidding site. too many eyes on the prize. Craigslist is a better bet and Facebook has a concertina for sale page. to my mind estate sales and garage sales etc. are best. but you need to get to them early. I don't buy stuff just for speculation but to improve my lot. I sit with my morning coffee, lap top, and a hand lens and go through craigslist. Takes about a half an hour for 3 local sites. lots of people are putting their estates and other sales up with group pics. With the hand lens I can go through 5 or 6 garage sales in short order from my arm chair.

That's a beauty! I see It has a Jeffries duet finger pattern in it's spots....?

I'm facing a similar situation with a pretty rosewood ended Lachenal tutor that I bought right from a friend. It's a mess. After a period of "why the heck did I buy this piece of junk?" I started thinking of it's problems individually. I've never worked on a concertina and have done only minor repairs and adjustments to fiddles, banjos and such. I began to realize that there are cosmetic issues, mechanical issues.and acoustical issues To quote my daughter when she was around two years old: " Look, daddy it's a bouquet of motorcycles!". Setting aside the cosmetic, solve the mechanics and the acoustical problems disappear.

Try Wexford Carol in a couple different keys . I'll bet you can find a key other than C/G that it fits!

I don't know much about music theory or how an anglo is set up but try A minor and E minor (relative minors for C and G). I know from messing around with a 2 row melodeon trying to play Quebecois music that lots of tunes fit that are not in either full scale row. You just won't be able to play chromatically in every key. If your box has some accidentals try playing in those keys and see what fits.

I think any acoustic solution should be internal because the instrument is so beautiful. What comes to mind is the banjo tone ring. The examples of concertinas with perforated ends recently shown here don't in my opinion improve the looks of the instrument and aren't constructed like a tone ring. For an excellent article by Barry Hunn on the function and materials of banjo tone rings see: blog.deeringbanjos.com/what-banjo-tone-rings-do .

It occurs to me that part of my difficulty is that this (Wexford) is a song as well as a tune and when the two are paired it's very smooth. For me the ornamentation puts the melody in a strait jacket and it just sits there unable to move.

Sounds lovely. My only (subjective of course) suggestion would be not to play the same roll in the same place every time and use phrases of the tune without ornament on occasion. The harmonies are beautiful but the melody might flow more. ?