Concertina Band in Nevada, MO

[saguaro_squeezer]

Something rather strange has come up that could prove very intersting. I've been corresponding with Jenny Cox (Marches and Tunes) about concertina bands and the possibility of doing something similar in the US. As it turns out, the Smithsonian is doing a tour of American Roots Music this summer and one of the stops is Nevada, MO. The intersting thing is that my great-grandfather, Rush Wagner Crawford, was a music teacher in the area, had 8 children and they had a travelling show called Crawford's Comedians.

 

My mother told me a bit about this but I wasn't aware until recently that they were quite a thing.

 

It might be interesting to see if we could get a group of concertina players to play as a band at one of the weekends in October when the travelling display is there.

 

Any interest from those in the Midwest?