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Brooks Peterson
Brooks Peterson's column is published Mondays. Brooks also sits on the Caller-Times editorial board and can be contacted at petersonb@caller.com
Monday, July 24, 2000
Squeezebox's historic moment finally at hand
This may strike you as more than a little fanciful, but I recently experienced, in a miniaturized way, the kind of thrill Lenin must have felt when he learned that the moment of The Revolution was at hand.
Not for a moment do I suggest he and his pals were much of an improvement on the czars - but think! Think of the drama: world-historic forces in motion, empires hanging in the balance. It was such a moment as revolutionaries and insurrectionists the world over dream of.
And on the morning of Saturday, July 15, I experienced just such a moment as I opened my local newspaper (ahem) to page A2 and beheld the following:
Accordion 'very cool' once again
I read on: "Squeeze box is not just for old people anymore, kids say"
Oh, this was good. Very, very good. Brigitte Greenberg of the Associated Press, no less, had uncovered the first big, really big, story of the millennium (save those clips, Brigitte: this is Pulitzer material): The Return of the Squeezebox.
Reporting on the American Accordionists' Association Millennium Festival in Washington, this bold journalist brought to light an underground movement that has steadily been gaining momentum through years of neglect and scorn. After biding their time, keeping their squeezeboxes warm and dry, the members of the Accordionist Army of Liberation have served notice that their Moment is at hand.
Here's the story: The boomers (who have a lot to answer for in any case) sneered in their long-ago tie-dyed, rose-tinted youth at the hopelessly passé accordion. Their sensibilities lacerated by acid rock, their perceptions dulled by their own insularity, they dismissed it as a clunky, corny anachronism.
Ha! And ha! again. Turns out the boomers' kids, rebelling against their parents, have discovered that sweet soulful squeezebox music. In their innocence, they have discovered the great truth their parents could not confront: that this magnificent instrument - the only instrument that breathes - has a potential undreamt of by a world dominated by supercilious dilettantes and sniffish elitists.
Consider: As Greenberg learned, such cutting-edge musicians as k.d. lang, Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam), Sheryl Crowe, Peter Holsapple (Hootie and the Blowfish) and Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) not only honor but play the accordion.
You know what we're talking here? Critical mass.
I have written in this space once before about the beauties of the accordion and the music it makes - but then it was as an exile, a figure of fun. Ha! again. Look who's laughing now: We're on our way to the Finland Station!
Oh, and just by the bye: There's a local angle. You should know that Corpus Christi and South Texas are veritable citadels of accordion music - and talented practitioners thereof: Tejano bands, polka bands, crossover outfits, experimental ensembles . . .
And (the best for last) the superb Steve Jordan, the man for whom the squeezebox not only breathes but wails.
Now, we can just stand here and watch this parade pass us by as so many others have - or we can surge out into the street and take over the whole darn thing. Try this on: Corpus Christi, home of SqueezeFest.
Sheer poetry. I'm thinking oh, say, October - when the blast-furnace heat of summer has relented and the locals are up for lederhosen and bratwurst, sombreros and Coronas, and phalanxes of accordionists as far as the eye can see.
The opening is there - but only for an instant. Will we seize the moment? You decide.
(Brooks Peterson can be reached by phone at 886-3772, or by e-mail at petersonb@caller.com)
Brooks Peterson
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