Jim Besser

Wonderful!

You too, Al. Hopefully I'll get back to the UK one of these days and squeeze out some tunes with you.

Many years ago, I got a whole bunch of players at the Northeast Squeeze In to record "Chocolate Rabbit" to send to you. Got home, and realized I had forgotten to hit 'record.' So long ago, it was a cassette recorder!

Nice version. And thanks to melodeonist Martin Ellison for bringing it to my attention!

It's a Morse ESB C/G baritone. You have one too, right?

Noël Nouvelat, a 15th Century French carol, learned today from a wonderful recording by melodeonist Martin Ellison . Played on a 30 button Morse C/G baritone Anglo concertina. Happy holidays to all! https://soundcloud.com/concertinist/noe-l-nouvelat-12-24-2024

The Three Sea Captains. Another tune gleaned from Andy Turner's Squeezed-Out blog, played on a 30 button Morse CG Anglo. While dealing with arthritic thumbs, I've been playing the super-light hybrid box more these days, and it seems to help! https://soundcloud.com/concertinist/three-sea-captains-12-21-2024

"It wasn't great, but it was music...."

Wonderful. I've always found it fascinating that these are two superb players who happen to be related - but their styles are so different.

Another requirement for a good session: a solid rhythm player who can drive the group and hold things together. I have recordings of a wonderful session about 20 years ago. There were a bunch of very good musicians, and a superb pianist who tended to join tunes only after a couple of cycles. You can clearly hear how things snapped into place when he started playing.

That pretty much reflects my views, especially David's 'strict' rule. It's why playing in sessions with David is always great fun!

Way cool.

Missing it this year was such a bummer.

Nice. I used to play this for Border Morris dancers, and always liked it. Also known as Wm Irwin's Modal Hornpipe and Butchers of Bristol, I believe.

Totally agree. Simple DIY fixes are fine, but this is the kind of issue that can have many non-obvious causes. I've used Bob Snope and Greg Jowaisas over the years, and both are outstanding. Bob recently did a major overhaul of my Jeffries, with the goal of improving playability, and the results were amazing. Not cheap, but worth it. There's also a new repair guy in Brattleboro -Ben Hemmendinger. I've met him, but have had no personal experience with his services.