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Tom Orr Scottish band BBC4.. last night

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Soulsaver

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Lovely! Listening/watching it now!

BTW, if one does a search there for accordion, there another INTERESTING PROGRAM about accordions, A celebration of the Tiree accordion scene and the influence of island tutor Gordon Connell.... but youd better brush up on your Gaelic... lol
 
Yet another post which demonstrates to me how little I know about the music of my own country (or anybody else's country for that matter). I was brought up with knowledge of the accordion in Scotland, but ultimately chose to ignore it, and concentrate on almost any other accordion style I could find. Precisely why that happened is unclear, but that's the way it was for me.

As I remember it, the accordion enjoyed a fair amount of popularity in Scotland for a while in various musical styles. Then from about the 70s until fairly recent times the Scottish media was rather unkind to the Scottish folk scene, often poking fun at the tunes and the people who played them. To many of us who lived in the decidedly non-picturesque parts of the country, the music was often associated with tourist propaganda relating to the highlands and islands, frequented by rich foreigners.

Given the fact that only just over 1% of the Scottish population can actually speak Gaelic, this tends to have an adverse effect on potential audiences. I have lived in Scotland for most of my life and don't know anybody at all who can speak Gaelic. Most lowland Scottish people I know generalise all of the Scottish accordion styles as "Teuchter music", with the obvious inference that it is not of their culture (teuchter is a rather derogatory Scottish term for a slow-witted rural type of person, particularly of the Gaelic speaking variety). Now, I know that the music has a following throughout Scotland, and ceilidhs are played from Shetland to Gretna. However, a fair number of people who attend these don't go to listen to the music. They use it as an excuse to dress up in kilts and get slaughtered!

The Edinburgh accordionist, Phil Cunningham, who appears in the documentary posted by Jerry about the accordion in Tiree, is probably the most famous player in Scotland today. He tells us that there are loads of youngsters learning accordion, and there is an upsurge in folk bands throughout the country. In time they may make the traditional music popular again, and persuade people like me to try and get to like it.

I'm waiting with interest to see if there will be a similar programme about Irish accordionists. Hope I don't have to "brush up my Erse" to understand it though!

(for the uninitiated, the Scottish word "erse" is our variation of English "arse", and US "ass". Erse is the name of the version of Gaelic spoken in Ireland.)

Anyway,

Great posts SS and Jerry. Anything about Scottish accordion deserves to be promoted, and I must confess I actually liked some of it!
 
Do I see sporrans and kilts being on some xmas wish lists this year?
Well done lads.
Garth
 
Not in Canada, Garth. Yesterday, it touched -25 Celsius here! The poor lads that would wear a kilt in this weather would suffer, especially if they were "regimental"... lol
 
Bosca, I'm Czech/English... your response totally has me scratching my head... lol
... but I wasn't in any rush, except to get in out of the cold! ;)
 
HAHA... ok, I've had a translation by my own personal Gaelic translator (*cough-Garth-cough*)... so, thank-you Bosca (because even Google Tanslate failed on this one)! :D
 
Bocsa ...garlick for 'Box' (no idea what Bocsa might be in Gaidhlig) ;)

Bocsa nam putan ...just a button box (nowt to do with the oldest profession :lol: )
 
Got it now! There's a Bócsa in Hungary, a Bocșa in Romania, and a Bocsa chocs under the Xmas tree for the wife!

Nearly forgot about the one in "West Anglia" who can speak Garlick! Took me longer to look up the meaning of "bocsa nam putan" than it did to find the towns in Eastern Europe, but I know what it means now. Stull cannae unnerstaun that hielan patter though!
 
Sweet Jesus, you guys owe me a computer screen cleaning... I just spit coffee all over my monitors while laughing... LOL
 
Sorry Jerry. It looks as though we have an English guy (bocsa) who can speak Scottish Gaelic, and me a "Scotch Irish" type who can't understand a word of the Gaelic as spoken in either country. My ancestors on my father's side were Presbyterian Scots who fled to Ireland to avoid religious persecution by Catholic Royalists during the "Killing Times" in the latter part of the 17th century. They then married into other Presbyterians of English and German origin in Ireland before coming back to Scotland, where they ironically married into people of Catholic Irish origin who had come to Scotland with them during the Irish Famine of 1847. My mother's family are all native Irish. I am therefore the product of people of varied ethnic origin who has never really felt "Scottish" at all, and have spent most of my life trying to avoid the "kilt and tartan" Scottish badge.

At least you know your Czech origins. If somebody gave me a decent set of dice I might be able to roll them and finally settle down to accept a particular nationality and appreciate their music.

In the meantime I'll just plug on with my late grandfather's choice of music, which was French and Belgian musette. He had us listening to it night and day when we lived with him. I think it was the case that like me he never really knew what he was, and he must have passed it on. He had heard the music and fell in love with it whilst serving as a field gunner in WW1, probably blowing up people who were distant relatives of his (only not that distant as he fired 4.5 howitzers). Then in WW2 my father was badly wounded and taken to hospital by the Germans who had shot him. Maybe they knew he had German blood!

Funny old world we live in, isn't it!

Keep getting to grips with that Roland, as I'm sure most of us want to hear more of it!
 
Mixed heritage ... there's a lot of it about ...Irish links on Grandfather's side and a tenuous link to Scottish via the Viking genes :lol:

gives rise to equally eclectic tastes in music ...ken

currently flirting with a simple Irish flute, now there's an exercise in frustration :)
 
Forgot about the Vikings. There is a lot of Viking ancestry in the UK. I actually lived in Norway for a wee while, and still have one or two relatives there. Never told them about the German connection though, as I valued my life! Actually, my German connection was only for a couple of generations. They were Esslers from Mecklenburg, and made their living in Ulster as cattle dealers/drovers. Not people to be messed with, and they and my Walkers had a "mafia" of outposts along the drove roads in County Antrim.

All of my considerable Irish ancestors were from the former province of Ulster (the original 9 county Ulster, and not the current "Northern Ireland" version).

Eclectic musical tastes have been a part of my life for a very long time. A few years ago I abandoned the accordion (again) to go back to playing Greek bouzouki. My sister lives on Crete and I decided to rekindle my interest in that instrument. Never lasted long, as the only people who can play bouzouki well are all Greeks (thought I'd have that worked out at the age I was, but that's just the way I am).

Over the years I have played harmonica, guitar, trumpet, violin, penny whistle, mandolin (my grandmother was a great player), Turkish saz, Greek bouzouki, Persian lute, charango, ronrroco, requinto, pan pipes, balalaika, clarinet, and various other folk related wind instruments. Managed to get tunes out of all of them, then I discovered the accordion (too late) and they all became redundant, with the exception of the guitar which I still play.

Maybe you can't get more eclectic than that, but I bet there is probably somebody who can.
 
Soulsaver said:
Repeat from July believe. Nice sounding wooden finish accordion (not sure of make, thought Pier Maria but not sure now..) and a Gola in there, too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...-trads-series-3-1-tom-orr-scottish-dance-band
Note non UK clicks may not access it...
I tried it (for sure) and it works.

Interesting bellows in and outing on both boxes presumably to try and get an approximation of the magic sound of the Shand Morino and other large diatonic boxes

For the real thing have a look at the various youtubes of Scottish Senior Accordion champion 19 year old Brandon McPhee. Proof positive that the box is alive and well in Scotland. There are of course also the numerous box and fiddle clubs where the box has never gone out of fashion!!

george
 
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