Accordionist.org is a new discussion forum for accordion players that I found via the Accordion Guy’s blog. Share news, promote gigs, swap tips, buy/sell gear, or just hobnob with your fellow squeezeboxers. It’s only been running for about a week, so spread the word and hopefully it’ll attract a critical mass of accordion enthusiasts.

Some other good places to rub elbows with accordionists online:

• Reyes Accordions forum
  Part of the excellent Reyes Accordions site, this is probably the best tex-mex/conjunto/norte?o accordion forum around. Lots of knowledge players (Joel Guzman drops in occasionally) and resources for beginners.
• AccordionFreedomForum
  A more general accordion forum hosted on Yahoo Groups. Members frequently share their own recordings (which are usually pretty good!) with the group.
• alt.music.polkas
  All polka, all the time. Sometimes gets sidetracked by polka community politics, but even those discussions are strangely interesting.
• Cajun Accordion Discussion Group
  Lots of good cajun/zydeco accordion news and tips, straight from the Bayou.

This is by no means an exhaustive list — just a few of my favorites, all of which have a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio. Leave a comment below if you have any other good ones to share.

If you’re looking for some cajun flavor in the Bay Area this weekend, check out the Boogie on the Bayou, an annual celebration held in downtown Campbell, CA. There’ll be live music (performers include Motordude Zydeco), cajun food, and the usual abundance of arts and crafts booths that you can’t avoid at events like this. The party goes from 11am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, and parking and admission are free. We may be there on Saturday, so say ‘hi’ if you see us!

Neal Pomea’s cajun music collection is a phenomenal resource for anyone interested in cajun music and its history. Neal’s gathered MP3s of recordings that go all the way back to the 1920s, often recorded off the original 78s. (I just realized that some people have probably never seen a 78…) Artists include Nathan Abshire, Joe Falcon & Cleoma Breaux, Octa Clark, Roy Fusilier, and many more. Take some time and explore the site — there’s a lot of great stuff in there. Here are a few hot tracks to get you started on your Bayou journey:

Joe Falcon & Cleoma Breaux: Fe Fe Poncheaux (MP3 download)

Octa Clark: High Ball (MP3 download)

Angelas LeJeune: Vielle Valse de la Louisiane (MP3 download)

If you’re in the Portland (Oregon) area tonight, check out the Big Squeeze, an all-accordion event at P.P.A.A. with international flavor. The lineup includes Johnny B. Connolly (Ireland), Leonid Nosov (Ukraine), Gheorghe Borcea (Romania), and Milen Slavov (Bulgaria). After they perform, Too Loose Cajun Band will provide the soundtrack for a cajun dance party. The cost is on a sliding scale, anyone under 15 gets in free, and here’s a map if you get lost. Have a great time!

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…

Just because Mardi Gras is over, it doesn’t mean les bon temps have to stop rolling. Here are some cajun/zydeco music links to keep the party going while you recover from that hangover:

• Big Nick & The Cydeco’s Cajun Button Box Seminar is a fantastic introduction to cajun accordion and includes both audio and video lessons. Nick covers the basics, from scales and melodies to trills and rhythm techniques and, best of all, the lessons are free!
• Clarence’s Cajun & Zydeco Radio Guide is probably the most comprehensive list of cajun and zydeco radio programs that broadcast online. KBON from Eunice, LA, is one I enjoy, and they focus heavily on local/Louisiana artists.
• And if you’re into podcasts, ZydecoRoad “On the Air” features music, interviews (including Buckwheat Zydeco, the Neville Brothers, and more), and even gumbo recipes. You can subscribe to it through iTunes, Odeo, or wherever you get your podcast fix.