Tune into San Francisco radio station KFOG 104.5 tomorrow morning around 6:50am, and you should hear SF accordionist Tom Torriglia playing some romantic tunes on Dave Morey’s morning show. If you’re outside the Bay Area, you can listen online at KFOG.com.

Tom was also featured recently on a Canadian TV show called Careers TV, where they chronicled his passion for playing and promoting the accordion. (Look for episode #06-808 on their site for more info.) Maybe one of our Canadian readers can upload a clip to YouTube…

Can’t afford a brand-new Cajun button accordion? Try building your own! The DIY Network show Handmade Music recently aired a five-part series on building your own Cajun accordion.

Led by Louisiana accordion maker Marc Savoy, the series covers the whole process step-by-step — from building the reed-mounts to fashioning the keyboard on through to attaching the bellows. Even if you aren’t planning to build your own box, it’s a fascinating look at how button accordions are built.

I couldn’t find any video clips, but there are extensive summaries (with photos) of each episode online. Did anyone out there catch the show? If so, leave a comment and let us know what you thought.

I finally tracked down some clips of eight-year-old zydeco accordion prodigy Guyland Leday on the recent HBO special, The Music in Me: Children’s Recitals from Classical to Latin, Jazz to Zydeco. In addition to showing Guyland’s incredible talent, there are brief interviews with family members, zydeco star and friend Terrance Simien, and, best of all, some of Guyland’s young friends.

Part one:

Part two:

Unfortunately, I don’t get to watch much daytime TV; my daytime job really gets in the way. But I’m setting my Tivo to record Ellen this Friday so I can catch Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience performing as part of a special show on New Orleans. Even better: eight-year-old zydeco accordion prodigy Guyland Leday will also be there. If you missed Guyland on the HBO special earlier this month, be sure to check it out. He’s incredible.

What were you doing when you were two years old? Making mud pies? Eating crayons? Tormenting your parents? Guyton Leday of Opelousas, LA, was like a lot of kids his age, with one exception: he was learning to play accordion, zydeco-style.

Six years later (at the ripe old age of eight), Guyton is featured on an HBO documentary premiering tonight called The Music in Me: Children’s Recitals from Classical to Latin, Jazz to Zydeco. The show focuses on six inspiring musical prodigies, each from a different musical and cultural tradition.

As the great, great grandson of the late Delton Broussard, Guyland clearly has the zydeco spirit in his blood. By the time he was four, he was already onstage playing with Zydeco Force, which features his great uncle Jeffrey Broussard on accordion. Last night, Guyland played Carnegie Hall in New York with an all-star zydeco band of friends and family (including Terrance Simien) to promote the documentary.

The show premieres tonight on HBO at 7pm, but will air a number of times there (and on HBO Family) this month. So set your Tivo now!

With his 12th album due out next month, let’s take a stroll down memory lane and watch Weird Al Yankovic’s first television appearance from way back on April 21, 1981. Armed with only his accordion, his trademark curly hair, and a ridiculously loud pair of pants, he performed his Queen parody “Another One Rides the Bus” on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. Longtime collaborator Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz pitched in by playing Al’s accordion case as a drum.

[Found via Videobomb]

Gogol Bordello is a band known for chaotic live shows and music that blends Eastern European melody with punk bravado and cabaret flair. Founder and singer Eugene Hutz came to the US from the Ukraine with his family in the early 1990s and learned English in large part by listening to Johnny Cash records. Now living in New York City, Hutz has surrounded himself with an impressive band incorporating violin, saxophone, and, of course, accordion (from their excellent accordionist, Yuri Lemeshev).

Their latest album, Gypsy Punks: Underground World Strike, is polished, but still manages to capture some of the intensity of their live show. To appreciate Gogol Bordello, though, you really need to see them as well as hear them. Here’s a clip of the band performing two songs (”Not a Crime” and “60 Revolutions”) during their appearance on Later… with Jools Holland last month:

Ever wondered how Britney Spears’ “Toxic” or Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” would sound if they were played on solo accordion? Well, thanks to accordionist Martin White, you no longer have to wonder. Martin’s made a name for himself playing whimsical covers of popular songs on accordion, and has appeared in a number of segments for The Culture Show on BBC 2. Here’s an unaired clip of Martin doing Alice Cooper’s “Poison”:

Lest you think Martin’s just a novelty act, check out his website and his albums of original music (usually instrumental, but there are a couple Edgar Allen Poe poems put to music as well). This tune from his Mystery Fax Machine Girl album shows there’s a definitely a serious musician in there… somewhere.

Cologne (MP3 download)

I was hoping there would be at least one solid accordion act at the annual Eurovision finals, but it looks like only the performers from Bosnia & Herzegovina (Hari Mata Hari, who took 3rd place) brought along an accordionist (see photo). I didn’t get a chance to watch the entire show, so let me know if there were others I missed.

Even without accordions, though, the winning act — Finnish heavy-metal rockers Lordi, who dress like orcs that have wandered off the set of Lord of the Rings — was certainly impressive. Watch the video of their anthem, “Hard Rock Hallelujah”; it’s almost Spinal Tap-worthy. (And further proof that no one in Europe takes Eurovision seriously anymore.)

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…