My Concertina On Stage Without Me

[Rod Thompson]

I have directed a musical version of James Joyce's "The Dead" for our community theatre group, and we needed chordal accompaniment for some of the songs to back up flute, fiddle and piano. (http://villanovaplayers.com/index.php)

Because it is set in Dublin in 1904, the concertina seemed appropriate, but I couldn't play it myself (as director - I just had too much to do).

So, I passed my old Lachenal Crane duet on to one of the actors, with some very brief instructions on how to play basic chords, and he taught himself.

He is now accompanying several of the songs, and sounding very good.

I suspect that what he is doing is what so many of the Sally Army concertina players were doing a hundred or so years ago.