jdms

Hm. Orion Cases has them for rather less...also B&H Photo and the aptly named hardiggdistributor.com. Although if his quote is for the case with padded dividers, it's closer to these examples--the cheapest option is to get the case empty and block and line it yourself (I'll get around to it sooner or later...).

How about Niall Vallely in Nomos? I was thinking he'd also played for Solas, but I'm not sure--he might simply have been backing up Karan Casey in her solo work (what with being married to her and all). The song I'm almost remembering was definitely with a band, not just voice and concertina.

I don't know about how others may feel, but the first person I heard/read using the term was one of the makers: Rich Morse. jdms

Others will have more definite knowledge, but I believe it became at least relatively common practice in later years--my 1950s Aeola has aluminum frames. The Edeophone you were inspecting would be earlier than that, of course, but wasn't aluminum cheap enough to use regularly by the 1930s? jdms

I live on the other side of DC now but I grew up between Stephens City and Middletown. James Wood HS Class of 76. Hmmm. When I say it now it makes me sound old. Well, you're older than I am (in 1981 I was twelve and not practicing the piano nearly enough--we might have passed one another in the halls of Shenandoah Conservatory, if you were wandering about in the late afternoon), but you're not in contention for the oldest person here...nor am I in contention for the youngest. Now I should stop contributing to thread drift. Good on you with the Rochelle, and keep it up. jdms

Are you still anywhere near Winchester? I grew up a few miles away and took piano lessons through the Conservatory's CAP (first Creative Arts Program, later Community Arts Program) for several years. If I'd still been in Virginia when I took up the concertina...well, I doubt the CAP has any concertina teachers, but it might have been worth asking. Joshua Mackay-Smith

That's the song that ends "Darling, darling, darling, darling Sean?" I'll have to keep an ear out for the remix.

Paul, Hardigg still exists--it's just that it's now a Pelican subsidiary. As far as I know, they've still got their factories in South Deerfield, MA, and elsewhere, and while I don't know what changes have happened under Pelican's management, I don't think there's any danger of any of the Hardigg product lines going away.

They're very light and strong plastic--Jim Hardigg made his name selling plastic cases for sensitive electronics for both civilian and military use (he's sold out to Pelican, alas, but he had good reasons for doing so). I got a Storm Case with the cubed foam a couple of years ago and carried my Morse about in it for a while, but it tended to try to come out when I took the instrument out, and it was starting to split along the perforations. The current plan is to put blocks in it for my Wheatstone, once I figure out the best way to do that (I have the original Wheatstone case, but it's rather battered). I believe it's Thomas Concertinas that supplies blocked and lined Storm Cases with new instruments. Joshua Mackay-Smith

Ralphie, you just made me spit my drink over the keyboard in laughter. You think he's joking? One can be serious and funny at the same time...

Maybe how long it takes to get there from his front door? jdms

I'm on staff for the Button Box workshop in April next year, so I would think I'd need to be careful about arranging something in Boston too close in time to that. However I do play in Boston pretty regularly, so I could certainly consider your suggestion for a future visit. ...and in the meantime, I was planning on going to the Northeast Concertina Workshop anyway, so that's very good to know. Are you following it up with an appearance at NEFFA again? More to look forward to, if so. jdms

Any plans to be in the Boston area? We could probably dig up enough players for a decent workshop... Joshua

True, but if you take Danny's approach, it doesn't matter a whit (for whatever you consider a whit worth). jdms

I would, but I'm not in Ontario...

Clearly I'm easily confused...or confusing...possibly both.

Back when they started making concertinas, things were tuned differently. If it's tuned to an old system ...that is to say (in case the complete ignorance of which you speak includes this particular bit of information), if the reeds are not tuned such that A above middle C (I think that's the right one) is 440 MHz (kilocycles per second), which is the current standard... jdms

Seems awfully colorful--would Lord Downey approve? jdms

I thought so, but one can't always be sure on the internet... At the very least, I'll have to see about learning it (really must practice more). jdms

I actually meant something along the lines of "If we'd written ourselves a dance but hadn't settled on a tune for it, it would be awfully handy that this tune that doesn't have a dance attached to it already has shown up, but we don't, so I won't try to lay claim to it." This isn't the first time I depended too much on implication. Had I looked in here at lunchtime, I could perhaps have tempered my original comments, but by the time I checked back, you'd already written the dance--quick work! I'm taking the fact that you did go ahead and write a dance to mean that you are not outraged by my apparent demands... To my eye (not meaning to quibble or seem in any way ungrateful for this added effort), the dance looks like it would work better as an English country dance than as a Cotswold morris dance. This is by no means a bad thing--I'm a regular at an English dance series in Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA). It's always good to have new and interesting dances to try, and this one looks like it could fit in well with the series' emphasis on dances that a beginner can handle but a more experienced dancer will still enjoy. The star figure in the second section is particularly nifty. One of our regular callers seems to have a strong liking for step-hop dances (Nottingham Swing and the like)--perhaps I should see what she thinks of it...do you as the author have any preference, assuming you don't object to it being danced as ECD rather than morris, as to whether it becomes a four-couple set-dance or a duple-minor (longways) set? The circle-and-figure-eight at the end shouldn't be difficult for us to adapt into a progressive figure for the latter--I (or the caller, or my wife, who's more experienced at ECD than I) could do the requisite tweaking. Joshua (edited to remove a question you already answered by saying "Modifications and explanations expected.")

I like it. Now if we of the Commonwealth Morris Men just had a dance in need of a tune... jdms

Information on the Pelican (formerly Hardigg) M2075 Storm Case here.

Did the photographer use a Kodiak?

One may hear (a slightly longer version of) this recited by Tony Barrand on his and John Roberts' album Live at Holsteins! (aka Eat Bertha's Mussels). jdms

Now there's something you don't see every day--not only is it a miniature, it's a miniature midget. Ah, EBay... jdms