Dan Worrall

Hi Robin, No need to buy Japanese tee shirts for concertina information. The way to find the most recent version of the At Sea article, plus all the information in my anglo concertina history books, is well described (and the books are digitally free) in Leonard's link. I think the original At Sea article, by the way, is also still posted at the Concertina Library site, www.concertina.com. Those books are now 13 years old and still see activity on Amazon. Although the history research has held up well, it would be fun to update them using more modern search engines and

Harry seems to be the fellow with the concertina in the Jazz era photo that David Wes commented about, if we take Jody's source (an Edna Barney photo blog) over Gary's source (a William Barney genealogy site). Not unusual to have family histories disagreeing! If Elsie was Harry's daughter (or James's niece), and James is one of the other figures in the photo) then all is right in the world, because a potential age of about 14 or so fits the picture. But who knows?

Harry was born in 1869, according to this snippet accompanying that photo from Jody Kruskal's site; I remembered seeing that photo before. Harry (Edward William Henry) Richardson 19 March 1869 ~ 9 September 1933 on concertina with the Richardson Family Jazz band, 1920 from Edna Barney's family pages, http://www.flickr.com/photos/neddy/92276930/

Kathryn, Noodling is great and fun and necessary. So many places on the anglo, including the 20 button, though, have been explored by others, so it is good when starting out to get a grounding on the classic era players....many of them working people from simple backgrounds who had a great feel for the music, without our modern tendency to over-technology the playing. If I could make a suggestion, go to the Concertina Journal site (www.concertinajournal.org) and find the Current Chronicle section, post number 4 (ok, here is the direct link). That is a collection called

Kathryn, I enjoyed your piece, your style, and the way you are working harmonically with the 20 button. Layers of complexity encouraged by use of the additional buttons on the 30 or 38 key instruments fall away, leaving the essence of anglo playing, IMHO. For one thing, the oom-pah bass and chord thing is gone, and then there are the octave passages that you use instead to dress things up. Not that oom-pah is a bad thing, mind you - I very much enjoy hearing the modern English masters of the harmonic anglo just like everyone else - but it reveals a simpler way of looking at the ang

Very fitting remembrance. I never knew him, but I was amazed at his recordings. So the other two concertina headstones include one for William Kimber (see attached), but for whom was the other one created?

Gavin, I'll leave the technical notes to others. I enjoyed your recording....very nice indeed. You make the odd, rare Jeffries duet sound useful, artful and approachable! Thanks for posting.

Thanks for posting this, Peter. I just heard the sad news from his daughter Ann. There is not much you can say about this good man that hasn't been already said over the many years. I was blessed to have played a few tunes with him; he was a big influence on me in many ways from my earliest days attempting to play the concertina. May he rest in peace. I've taken the liberty of attaching a tune that I learned from his playing: Cruacha Glasa Na hEireann. Somehow it seems appropriate. Dan Cruacha.pdf

This instrument makes perfect sense if you consider the purposes of its first owner, and the needs of the Sally Army in the 1870s and 1880s, when Anglos were their main instrument. I wrote a bit about those early SA days in my Anglo-German Concertina: A Social History, volume 1. If you don't have a copy, it is online on Google Books. Herbert is pretty much explained on p. 91, when he was arrested for playing a "noisy instrument" in a street procession, "to the annoyance of the inhabitants." As other passages show, these early Salvation Army street processions could be very rowdy and the partic

Way to go, Gary! I've been waiting for this one. For those who may have been living under a rock (or accordion) and thus are not up to speed on what Gary has been doing at Rollston Press, here is a brief interview Again, congrats on the latest! Dan

Wow, that's an old thread! No worries, recordings of Eric Holland have survived, and are part of my "House Dance" CD Rom project from 2015 or so. There are about 200 recordings there of classic players in the early years of the last century, from all over the world. Not sure why more people don't use it as a resource, or know about it. You can get it via Musical Traditions, or download it for - I think - just 10 bucks or so at the www.concertinajournal.org site (go to Current Chronicle". If you search on "House Dance" on this website I'm sure you can find many of the descripti

Three new topics have just been added to the online Concertina Journal: An interview by yours truly of Gary Coover, concertina tutor author extraordinaire A new Australian chronicle by Warren Fahey, including a brief word sketch of Aussie concertina maker David Hornett Three new CD reviews by Roger Digby (Queally sisters; Antoin MacGabhann and Caitlin NicGabhann; Dapper's Delight) As always, the Concertina Journal is online and freely accessible at www.concertinajournal.org. The new articles mentioned above are filed under the sections marked "Current Chronic

Gary, Your proposed book of John Watcham's arrangements will be a superb addition to Anglodom. Can you get him to make a few recordings of the tunes, for putting up on Youtube to accompany the book? Cheers, Dan

Kimber is perhaps the best known example of someone playing a 20 button in a harmonic style, but in his day there were many more. By the way, he played a 30 button later in life (it was a gift) but remained basically a player who used only the bottom two rows. Some years ago I prepared a detailed analysis of both his music and his fingering of it that is sold by the EFDSS. I think they sold out of it at present but we are in discussion about preparing an updated and revised version this year. Until 40 years ago most Irish players essentially used a two row style on what originall

The photo of the Lachenal on board the Endurance has come up before on the Forum. The photo itself is on page 305 of my Anglo-German Concertina, A Social History, Volume 1, which can be read free on GoogleBooks. The concertina apparently never made it to Antarctica. Here from 2005, in a thread called "Concertinas and Sea Music," is what mikebmcnamara posted about it. It would seem that the original source material, with notes on the back of the photo, has disappeared, so we'll have to take mike at his word: ********************************************************** Posted January