sallott

My father played the concertina when I was a child and I used to play around with it from tine to time but I mainly played the recorder, various sizes while my brother played mandolin. Move forward many years, growing up, becoming a nurse, marrying, having children. Meanwhile dad has become elderly and frail, and we helped him clean his place out and he moved into a retirement village. I found his concertina and out it away carefully, vowing to play it when I had time - kids at university, husband and myself working. Dad became seriously ill and passed away and once the funeral was over I decided to finally play his concertina seriously ... and it was missing. I was really sad. Dad was an Englishman so I presumed he played and English concertina. I looked at ebay, bought an English jackie being sold locally and bought it. Great excitement when it arrived and I opened it - lovingly packed by its seller .... but it was nothing like the one dad had played - it made the same note pushing and drawing the bellows and it had a funny little strap that only my thumb would fit in. This was the beginning of my education and love affair with concertinas. I learnt as much as I could about concertinas, learnt that dad had played an anglo, learnt to play what I had bought, bought a larger stagi English, a treble and went to Celtic Southern Cross Summer School and had a great time. I now also have a stagi bass and I am buying a hayden. I have in the meantime found and anglo but I found I far prefer the English.