Stephen Mills

Fair enough. I didn’t want to both choose the topic and set the pattern. I never wanted to play a squeezebox. In the U.S., my generation’s exposure to them was largely formed by the Ted Mack Amateur Hour, a TV show where one would see polka players and teenage girls playing “Lady of Spain.” It’s like that current U.S. advertisement where a young Jimi Hendrix narrowly chooses an electric guitar over an accordion. As the soundtrack plays “Purple Haze” on the accordion, the caption reads “Whew, that was close.” What changed? I don’t know; I’ve been interested in folk music of the U.K. and Ireland since I heard Silly Wizard, Bothy Band, Renbourne, Stivell, et al. in the early ‘80’s. As for the concertina, I can only speculate that I was struck by a meteor and regained consciousness wanting one. I started investigating and monitoring C.net. At first, I wanted an Anglo, then decided on an English. Cheap, so I could gauge my real interest. Before I could get one, a normally $230 Anglo came on ebay for $45 because of a silent reed, one of those JL Dyer Chinese units. I got it, fixed the problem within 15 minutes, and set off. Problems are gradually developing with sticky buttons and buzzing reeds, so that my repertoire tends to avoid pieces that cause problems. Martin Wynne’s #2 sounds like a train wreck, but most pieces are fine. I’ve absolutely loved playing the Anglo, in the Irish style and otherwise. I’m looking forward to detouring from a week in Vermont this summer to the Button Box and upgrading. But first, I’m still curious about the English. I’m awaiting delivery of a Jackie, so what will it be this summer? A Ceili, an Albion, or a Hayden duet? A (gasp) Wheatstone? Time will tell. Come on, you others. How about you duet players and those of you who grew up in the tradition? Don't leave this thread to us relative newbies.

How did you get your first concertina? What kind was it? This is not a survey; anecdotes welcome.

So that was you in that alley, Robert. I remember years ago (1974?), watching an almost-unknown Tom Waits open for an almost-unknown Bonnie Raitt in Missoula, Waits was already familiar with brains and eggs at the Oxford.

At least Unseen didn't say "new". My guess, in your near price range, the best Anglo might be a used instrument from Homewood, Edgley, Groff music or Button Box, depending on what they have available. These vendors can be found in the sponsor link at the home page of this site or www.groffsmusic.com. Many say that this $1300 Marcus is great bang-for-the-buck at the buttonbox. This is a 30-button; other dealers may have used 20-buttons below $1000.

The song "I Miss the Mississippi and You" is nice, but may be hard to find. The notes on the back of my out-of-print Eric Schoenberg album suggest it was performed by Jimmy Rodgers, but it is credited to Bill Halley (not Haley). The lyrics are available online and I see Emmylou Harris has recorded it. Do you upriver folk consider New Orleans glamorous or uppity? "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" is fun. "Lakes of Pontchartrain" is great. www.contemplator.com is the best source to hear real shanties and read the lyrics. This is the only general tip I'll repeat of the many fine ones I received, since you can find them easily below. I got a couple of tunes I plan on keeping in my repertoire, although singing is not my forte. You might check out "Aweigh, Santy Ano", which is a lot of fun and mentions going to San Francisco, at least. For your stated purpose, I wouldn't necessarily overlook "Gilligan's Island" for general amusement, especially when people start to throw things at you.

Speaking of Billy McComiskey, I noticed he's teaching BA the week of the Irish Arts Festival in E. Durham, NY. look here Concertina is taught by Michael Rooney and Fr. Charlie Coen. This is July 11-17, winding up with the Traditional Irish Music Festival Saturday, July 17. Is anyone going to this?

Did you notice we gained our 500th (and 501st) member last (US) night. Tassie Devil, I believe. Sorry, no prizes that I know of. It seems like membership has been rocketing since January. Another useless fact. Of 501 members, only 18 have achieved "chatty" status, although another 4 are close. These have contributed over half of our postings since the new forum began! Welcome, Tassie and #501, Boru. Speak up, everyone. Edited to add this comment: I see on clicking on the post by member #502, rfulton, that he is listed next to his comment as member #576. Where are the missing 74 members? Locked in the basement of the Button Box? The missing players in Ireland, somehow rendered incommunicado? At a party I wasn't invited to? Should there be an investigation?

The link that appears on the concertina.net music page is now dead. The intended site is probably this one, which can be reached by either of two URL's. this one or this one Felix and his brother appear about 2/3 of the way down. The second volume of "Citterns on Ice" appears at this site. Felix's selection is B3. Both selections must be downloaded as .zip files and unzipped.

OK, Allison re: your new Avatar I've been to the Brattleboro area every other year for about 12 years. I've found pesto-stuffed pretzels and fine optical filters, but I can't believe you found a chocolate bunny playing concertina. The details, please. I know people who desperately need one of these. a digression, to be sure.

So many hits for "Lillibulero" on Google I wasn't even tipped off I'd dropped the "r". I'll bet it doesn't have as many spelling variants as the Ootpik Waltz, however.

Thanks. That was very interesting. But, what is ECD? I'm sure it's not "English Concertina Diagrams" or even "Evident even to the Culturally Deprived".

Almost at the very beginning of the Tunes/Songs subforum, someone mentioned the tune "Lillibulero". I thought no more about it until I clicked on a Jackie English sound file of the tune and immediately recognized my old classical guitar piece by Henry Purcell, "A New Irish Tune", which I've noodled around with on Anglo. A tedious trawl through Google yielded little extra systematic information. I gather it was appropriated widely, even at one point being an anti-Irish tune. Any of you Irish or UK'ers (or anyone else) have any interesting tidbits to add about this tune and its history?

Well, Stephen, you are a difficult case. All other free reed instruments shall remain black. What color is rusty English with aspirations toward Anglo, and otherwise collector, connoisseur and savant of concertinas? At the moment you resemble a pimento-stuffed olive prematurely situated over Kilrush, but I don't think we can leave you in such a unique state.

Perhaps. Do you have any Jeffries?

Welcome Felix, It's exciting to have the so-called Celtic part of Spain represented here. I'm curious what galician traditional music sounds like. What are some of your tunes? In fact, if you use the .abc format, please consider adding one of your favorite tunes to the Tune-o-Tron. Also please note that you can add .mp3's to the tune section if you're comfortable with doing that.

Stephen Chambers Oops! Getting from the original 76 dots to 206 involved examination of postings and some "educated" guessing. Your MacCann Duet website led me astray. What do you play?

Very nice, Henk. One barrier to broader contributions, besides reticence, is that most of us have never made MP3's. Perhaps those of you who have could offer some guidelines regarding the recording equipment and software you use, with an eye toward economy and simplicity.

As promised, here is a more complete map of concertina.net members. 277/810 registered members at the time of the survey (now 309/934) indicated either their location or their type of concertina and are included on the map. The distributions are: Anglo only mentioned: 158 English only: 84 Duet only: 19 Anglo+English: 25 Anglo+Duet: 7 English+Duet: 4 All three types: 5 type not given: 11 US players: 158 UK players: 76 Australia: 12 Belgium: 2 Canada: 12 France: 5 Germany: 6 Italy: 2 Japan: 2 Netherlands: 6 New Zealand: 2 Norway: 2 Poland: 1 South Africa: 5 Spain: 2 Sweden: 2 Switzerland: 2 Denmark: 2 Ireland: 3 no country listed: 24 The color codes for concertina types appear next to the concertina fish, along with the number of members for each type not listing a country at all. Members listing a country, but no more precise location, are placed in the Australian outback, Hudson Bay, St. George’s Channel, or in the middle of their countries, for concertina-sparse countries. There are undoubtedly some errors on my part. Three members living in two locations each received half dots in both locations. Anyone entertaining specific hypotheses about the distribution of concertina types should note that these points are probably a tiny subset of concertina players. Statistics are almost always inferior to careful observation. It’s rumored that there are players in Ireland proficient on the Anglo. last updated 12/01/2005. Sorry, I am no longer updating this map.

Concertina players think outside the box (but drool on top of it). -- Stephen Mills

Schoenberg just wished he'd said it. If Schoenberg were alive today, he'd probably be composing morris tone rows, or maybe he'd be Stuart Estell. If you listen carefully, Stuart, those tone rows can seem to hover wistfully around C, E, and G. It can be tough being an iconoclast.

Although the map has probably enjoyed its appropriate amount of time in the sun, I am preparing an update for the following reasons: Many people have updated their profiles or contacted me with new information. I was gratified and owe them their dots. I was seriously mistaken in dismissing those with fewer than 5 postings. Among the very many serious players lumped in with the transients were, for example, Wim Wakker and a member of the Crabb family. Just a little digging into posts recovers most information. The number of members represented will be more complete. Yes, I can pretty much break it out by Anglo/English/Duet and the combinations thereof. I have just finished a crash course in UK geography. So, if you fear you won't be represented and want to be, or have suggestions, you have a small window of opportunity to email me or post. I don't think I'm going back through the profiles again, however.

With your wonderful morris web site? Your dot is in the mail.

According to the omniscient Concertina.net satellite, you were eastbound on I88 the day of the survey. Where would you like to be? Oahu is not an option.

I love it. You couldn't tell it from my postings, necessarily, but I admire taciturnity (your postings = 2. below criterion). Your dot is in the works if, (SEE PREVIOUS POSTINGS), I can find the southern tip of Vancouver island (and I've even been to Seattle). Thanks for amending your user info, or, sorry for missing your location, whichever the case may be. I suspected the term "transient" might be inflammatory. Apologies where due.

You have two bipolar/bifurcated/bigeographical identities (but we love you for it, don't we?). Statistician's prerogative, I put you in MA because I like Massachusetts and because MA's concertin...(fill in the suffix of your choice) complained so much about their omission in Dr. Atlas's survey. Similarly, I put another UK/San Francisco person in the UK, because, after all, concertinas belong to the UK in my geographically-imprecise-mind (see previous postings.)