Want to learn the diatonic (button) accordion, but can’t leave the house? The Italian Accordion Academy has the answer for you!

The Academy has started offering online courses for diatonic accordion. Each lesson is dedicated to a specific tune and includes video, audio clips, exercises and tips for improving your technique. The lessons are available in both Italian and English and all you need is a web browser. You’ll learn not only Italian folk music, but also French waltzes, Spanish fandangos, Irish jigs, and klezmer tunes. (There seem to be audio clips on the site, but I couldn’t get them to work.) Contact the Academy for more information and send us a review if you try their lessons.

Thanks to Anna, I can’t stop listening to “(Is it Love or) Food Poisoning” by Slim’s Cyder Co., a London-based accordion band that plays country, swing, and rockabilly, mixed with a healthy dose of humor. According to Slim’s MySpace profile, he has played with the likes of Joe Ely, Billy Bragg, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and many more over the years. Check out a couple tunes from Slim’s latest release, “Journey into Cyder Space,” and catch the bug:

Food Poisoning (MP3 download)

Sweet Sweet Kisses (MP3 download)

There’s an article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (insert your own cheesehead joke here) that talks about how local polka bands are staying relevant and keeping younger audiences interested. Some performers incorporate polka versions of modern tunes into their act, others split their gigs up between playing polka music and deejaying. Jeff Maroszek of New Generation Band talks about overcoming the ‘oompah’ stereotype:

“When a lot of people think of polkas, they always think of the grandpa and the tuba and accordion — just the oompah music — but really that’s not the style of music that it is anymore… Polka music evolved just like country western music and rock ‘n’ roll music evolved. It’s all the same thing. You’ve just got that stereotype to get by.”

Balkan style
uploaded by plenty.r.We’re suckers for photos of cute animals, so this Flickr shot of an accordion-playing puppy is right up our alley. And according to the description, he’s available for booking for weddings, bar mitzvahs, and funerals! I noticed he’s playing a button accordion — I wonder if he switched after having trouble hitting the piano keys with his paws?

Legendary accordionist ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic doesn’t have a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, and his fans and supporters want to change that! They have started a fund to raise $15,000 to cover the application fee and sponsorship. With your help they can raise enough to help Al get his own star (and then walk all over it!). They’re halfway there. Can you help? Visit WeirdAlStar.com to find out more.

The 7th annual Vienna Accordion Festival wrapped up last weekend and, judging from this post on rec.music.makers.squeezebox, there were some stellar performances. The month-long festival brought together performers from all over the world — over 160 artists from 28 countries — and also included films, workshops, and plenty of squeezebox networking. A handful of Americans made the trip and performed this year, including Frank Marocco, Jason Webley, and CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band. Check out some photos from this year’s festival, and then start making your plans for 2007.

Zydeco legend Buckwheat Zydeco is on the road again, with his white accordion in hand, starting instant zydeco parties from coast to coast. Recently, he’s been garnering rave reviews in such exotic locales as Harrisburg, Grand Rapids, and Morgantown. Check the tour dates to see when he’s coming to your town; we may try to catch him at the Monterey Bay Blues Festival in June.

In the meantime, here are a couple Buckwheat tracks to get you ready:

Hot Tamale Baby (streaming)

I’m Gonna Love You Anyway (streaming)

Roy Bertelli
uploaded by JennyEagle-eyed readers have probably noticed the stream of Flickr photos (tagged with the keyword “accordion”) that appear on our home page. What I love about the stream is you never know what you’ll see when you visit; for instance, take this photo of Roy Bertelli’s elaborate “Mr. Accordion” tombstone at the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, IL. Apparently he paid $30,000 for this 2,000 lb. granite slab, which is now a “must-see” on the cemetery tour (Abraham Lincoln is also buried at Oak Ridge). A small price to pay considering his “Lifetime Dedication to the Accordion.”

Following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, who hosted “Zydeco Extravaganza” on Lafayette, LA, television in the late 80’s, Dustin Cravins is launching a new weekly zydeco show called “Squeezebox” next month. It will air at 10 a.m. Sundays on KLAF-UPN 17 (in Lafayette) and the first episode will feature performances by Geno Delafose and Leon Chavis.

Cravins is hoping the show will help spark a zydeco revival and, in addition to live music and dancing, every episode will include a “cultural corner” focusing on elements of Creole culture, including history lessons, French phrases and cooking:

“What we didn?t want was a bon temp… Not to take anything away from that, but if we’re going to call ourselves revolutionaries, let’s come at it from a different approach. A lot of our culture and tradition is an oral one. Something needs to be done where we can actually show some of those things, maybe they had heard of, but never really knew much about.”

Sounds like it’ll be a fun show — now if I only I could figure out some way to get it on TV out here in California…