Wendy Nielsen And Her Amazing Technicolour Accordion

If I learned three things in les Iles de la Madeleine, then they are as follows:

1) Jean Gaudet is a modern day genius and an all-around great guy.

2) Windsurfing is an addiction.

3) I love the sound of the accordion.

Today's focus will be on the accordion. Within the past year or so Wendy has expressed an interest in learning the accordion. That's music to my ears because I'd love to see her expand her hobbies/interests and I'd also love to hear the bittersweet sounds of the accordion regularly.  

I never paid much attention to the accordion for my first forty years, thinking it to be little more than the  'oom-pa-pa' at Octoberfest. During the past ten years I've been more aware that the accordion has made its way into popular music, and I like it. Bands and artists ranging from Nirvana to k.d.lang to John Mellencamp have incorporated the accordion brilliantly.

I think I have to attribute my interest/love of the accordion to Sonia Painchaud, the owner of Café de la Grave in les Iles de la Madeleine. While vacationing in les iles we happened upon a café in La Grave and my appreciation for the accordion was born. Every evening Sonia would play her accordion in the café and the place would be transformed to old France or early Quebec, or so it felt. The accordion was both mood creating and mood altering. It's not easy to explain. You pretty much have to go there to experience it for yourself.

Back to 2014....though Wendy had expressed an interest in the accordion, none of us knew much or anything about buying an accordion. I wracked my brains for a couple of months but still wasn't comfortable buying a used one. Accordions have a long shelf life and there are plenty of them on the market, but my experience in buying used guitars had left me wary. And then the lights went on....

My ukulele instructor, Steve McNie, is a multi-instrumentalist and a music tour de force (and a nice guy!). He also plays the accordion. I asked him for some advice on buying an accordion and ultimately ended up buying one of his (he had a dozen or so, two of which were for sale). So, on March 3, 2014, I very proudly gave Wendy her first accordion. It's a Marotta United accordion, made in Italy in the 1950s or the 1960s. It's in mint condition and sounds great.

I think I'm as excited for Wendy to learn it and she was to receive it (it was a surprise!). I'm pretty pumped for us to get going on some music that incorporates guitar (Julian, me), piano (Julian) and accordion (Wendy!). On that musical note, Wendy just rolled out of bed. When she came out of the bedroom door her first words this morning were....

"Where's my accordion? I've got to get to work!"

Music to my ears.