Michael Ducky Raley

I am a relatively new Anglonaut in the little town of Poulsbo, Washington , USA.

I commute to Seattle, where I am a system administrator for a large hospital.

My knowledge of Concertina is just enough to be dangerous.

I was a Sonar man on a submarine for a few years and spent a lot of time listening to shrimp, horny dolphins, and clanky merchant ship screws.

A few years of schooling is involved in that learning the electronics, and the physics of sound propagation.

My approach is more of a mad accoustic scientist than musician. I had a bit of music education in Middle school where I played tenor sax,

But I like a lot of Jazz, Blues, Motown, and world music.

After I started treating my sleep apnea I was awake during the day and needed a hobby during my commute. I decided to take up glass blowing, but the bus drivers had issue with the kiln, so I switched to Origami. From Origami I developed the craving for folding things in my hands which led to my first bulky twenty button Anglo in late 2007, followed by a mystery 30 btn chinese anglo designed for very tiny hands.

I built extension handles for it using cut and carved dowls, I reduced air leakage by pushing heavy pins through the action board

in order to stabalize the spring and post for the air button, constant reopening to retrieve stuck buttons led me to drilling wider holes

I now own a new Morse 30 btn C/G Anglo as of Feb 2009 and enjoy showing it off.

I describe my playing as Post Modern concertina.