Button Up Your Squeezebox

Featuring Damien Mullane . Irish Button Accordion . Irish reels . Melodeon . Button accordion . Kur . Marie Lynn . Squeezebox . Squeezebox Night . Cajun Squeezebox . Graham Irvine . Argyll Pipe . Newfoundland Button Accordion . Tiny Red Light . Dave Collins . Blind Mary . Sunny Brogens

anturk Arts Festival : The words ‘Button Accordion’ and ‘Jackie Daly’ are synonymous in the world of Irish Traditional Music. Described in the New York Times as “probably the best accordionist in Ireland”, Jackie was born in Kanturk, Co. Cork, where he grew up surrounded by the rich and diverse musical sounds of Sliabh Luachra. His mother is a singer and his father played the accordion.

Joe Derrane : Around 1940, he started studying the 10 key melodeon with the great Jerry O’Brien, who had immigrated from Kinsale, Co. Cork. By the time he was 14, Joe was active in the then popular house party scene. By the time he was 17, he had purchased a 2-row instrument (D/C#) and had become a fixture in the legendary ballroom scene in the Dudley Street section of Roxbury.

John Lavelle : John spent many years playing the accordion for the entertainment of his family and neighbors quite outside of the Irish music scene. Now that the children are raised, he is once again concentrating on his music and hopes to share it with others, in particular the young folks, who might be interested in learning.

John Kirkpatrick : Whilst with the team he took up the melodeon, then the button accordion, then the anglo concertina, and got hooked on the traditional songs that were accompanied with a post-dancing pint.

vallelymusic.com : Brian Vallely plays the Uilleann pipes and Eithne the fiddle, but Niall instead took up the concertina, an instrument not usually associated with music from Ulster. His fearless exploration of the concertina’s undiscovered capabilities has helped redefine its role in irish music.

Ceolas : Growing up in the village of Ruan (near Corofin) Sharon Shannon was continually exposed to folk traditional music. Her parents were set dancers and all four of the children played instruments, starting with tin whistles; she started the accordion when she was 11 and also performs on fiddle and melodeon.

Musical Traditions : Tony Mac Mahon was the first player I know of to attempt slow airs on the accordion and there are five examples here. He was encouraged by Seamus Ennis to play slow airs and makes full use of the box in his execution of them. Huge chords underpin the air, like a piper’s drones and regulators in full flow and he varies the volume to an incredible degree as he interprets different nuances and twists in the tune.

highqualitymp3.NET : Tufty Swift, English melodeon player and a pillar of Derbyshire’s folk music community, collected dance tunes & songs from Derbyshire source musicians, and popularised the dance tunes of the Yorkshire Dales. He set up the first folk club in Belper, Derbyshire, and formed the influential country music band Umps & Dumps with John Kirkpatrick.