Bruce over at Accordion Noir forwarded us an Augusta Metro Spirit piece on folk-rock band Bain Mattox and Shot From Guns. Based out of Athens, Georgia, the band is led by Mattox on the guitar, banjo, mandolin, and (of course) accordion.
“The band has added an accordion in the past few years and they use it like a lead guitar. [Mattox] laughs, ‘I am trying to make the accordion sexy… Today, it seems you see the accordion everywhere — but in my defense, I started playing over seven years ago.'”
He even has a great “first accordion” story to prove it:
“I saw a band called 16 Horsepower and the lead singer played a bandoneón. I was amazed and said, ‘I am going to have to play the accordion now.’ The next day, I saw an ad in the classifieds. I went to this old, old man on a farm. He told me he’d bought the accordion in Germany when he was in the war. I spent a great afternoon with him, then left with an accordion, a couple of watermelons and hot peppers.”
The band has been working on an album this summer; in the meantime, check their MySpace for clips like the one below.
Bain Mattox and Shot From Guns: Shotgun Pageant (MP3 download)