Dee Langley, 2000: My Viking Song (Sweden)

Wish our Metro Transit had some style!

http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/outdoor/world-accordion-championship-the-accordion-bus-8892155/
The Outdoor Advert titled THE ACCORDION BUS was done by Uncle Grey Oslo advertising agency for product: World Accordion Championship (brand: Norwegian Accordion Association) in Norway. It was released in the Oct 2006.

A bendy bus in London from the bus company Arriva. The bus has been wrapped for the Camden Irish Music Festival.

Dee Langley,2000: Bulgarian Dance

United States Artists Projects

Help!!

 

Time is running out and I need your help at United States Artists Projects!

Please watch this video and then visit
http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/ (USA Projects)

Search term 'langley" and help me realize this dream.

Tax deductible and good Karma!  Thank you!

My kinda guy!

Kimmo Pohjonen and his accordion

http://www.focusmagazine.fi/focus/57919/

Wish I had been on vacation.......

EDT Folk Orchestra 2011, photo by Stefan Iwaskewvcz
Near to Far: Tim O'Keefe, Jim Parker, Scott Keever, Dee Langley, Katrina Mundinger, Kim Salisbury

.......I certainly haven't been either far from home or relaxed!  This is a picture of the show "Then and Now" opening tonight at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis presented by Ethnic Dance Theatre. One of the hallmarks of performing with the EDT Folk Orchestra is that you have to be willing to try new things in music.  Note that I'm playing a large frame drum way....look almost to the back of the photo.

Ethnic Dance Theatre presents THEN and NOW, its 37th Annual Spring Concert Series featuring the music and dance of Bosnia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Iran, Norway, Sweden, and Turkey at the Ritz Theater in NE Minneapolis.

One of the most compelling elements of a people's identity is its folk culture. EDT is known for the authenticity it brings to interpreting ethnic music and dance for the stage, and is respected for its work in promoting ethnic music, dance, and costume as art. The first half of the show--THEN--demonstrates our signature performance style at its best.

Seeing Double? Like Rollerblades and Accordions?

You Think You Know What and Accordion Can Do.......

Something Completely Unrelated to Accordions

Minnesota has snow, lots of it.  Minnesota has cold, severe and long-lasting.  Minnesota also has people like me who will decorate for holidays to keep the depressing darkness of winter away, hence one window of my spring display in one south window of our Minneapolis home. Any excuse for a party, I say!

Laps, Chairs and Behind the Bar at Walker Ethnic Fest

from Natalie's cell phone: Dee and new friend

Last month I promised to publish some pictures from the Walker, Minnesota Ethnic Fest.  Here's my absolute favorite, it should be titled 'How to Play the Accordion While Sitting on a Lap of Someone You Do Not Know'. The answer is, smile!


OBI has told stories both in person and on the radio of our night in Walker at the American Legion Post sitting on laps, standing on chairs and performing behind the bar.

from Legion website: Katrina on chair

We think the fine folks in northern Minnesota enjoying pull-tabs, beer, great food and good friends didn't quite know what to do with us in our costumes playing Balkan music until we let it be known we'd take beer as a tip for playing.  In a flash we had never-ending pitchers of excellent beer and a whole room of new friends. During one rousing Albanian tune Katrina played her solo standing on a chair to cheers from the crowd.

from Legion website: OBI behind the bar

And just in case you think Katrina and I were the only ones having all the fun here's a picture of OBI behind performing behind the bar while the Post Commander took this picture and made a video of us to be shown on the Legion Post's big screen TVs throughout the year. Hmmm.....I think Colleen (violin) was sitting on the edge of the sink.

I have one thing to say about the evening........Spencer-Ross American Legion Post 134 in Walker, Minnesota you are the BEST!

Life in 'Heaven'

The cast of  'Heaven' April 2011, the musicians are in the lower left corner.

One might ask where I've been for the last month.  The answer? In 'Heaven', the premiere of a new stage work presented at the Guthrie Theater by the Flying Foot Forum and directed by Joe Chvala.

It was an amazing story set in Bosnia during the war (ca. 1995).

Ethnic Fest in Walker, Minnesota

When you are a musician there are all kinds of experiences to share. OBI (Orkestar Bez Ime) found more surprises than usual in Walker, Minnesota during Ethnic Days last year.  It was such a fun experience that we are delighted to be asked back for another party...um...I mean show!

This poster is from last year, I took it from the Facebook event page created for the new weekend in 2011, September 10 & 11.

This folk festival has special meaning for me because my maternal grandfather was born in Walker around 1880. Although he left that area to come to Minneapolis early in his life,the Leech Lake area of Minnesota has a nice 'coming home' feeling for me.  And...these folks know how to party! Pictures to follow.

Squeezer in Folk Art:: Door County Folk Festival

Last year while OBI (Orkestar Bez Ime) was playing at Door County Folk Festival a delightful woman gave our friend Julie Hughes (Do Zore) a drawing of our two bands and dancers.  Thanks, Mary Prince, for sharing your gift with us!

by Mary Prince - Folk Artist

Potent Accordion

Yesterday Wild Hollow performed at the Waconia Library in Carver County, Minnesota for the 'Live at the Library!' Concert Series.  The road trip was wonderful, the attendance was great. When we walked through the library door a big, "Hi, Dee!" greeted us and soon the same librarian handed me these two posted articles.  I was a little surprised to see that, even though Wild Hollow is a balanced classical group that plays string quartet material, they focused on the accordion alone.

Waconia Patriot

Carver County News

Thanks to the good folk of Carver County that were so excited to hear classical accordion, but also to my performance partners, Colleen Bertsch (violin) and Katrina Mundinger (clarinet) who have dedicated their talent to becoming proficient at working with the accordion. And also deepest appreciation to Phil Nusbaum who headed these library concerts.

Best Handheld Recorder for Accordions

This is the Tascam DR1, my choice in hand held recorders. You could get more and pay more, but for economy and service this electronic device is superb. An accordion recorded with the Tascam DR 1 sounds like an accordion and not a pseudo distorted tin-like replication Alvin and the Chipmunks may have produced. It's well worth it's weight in acorns.

Trending: Accordions

http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/

Look closely at this new advertisement for the Minnesota Orchestra promoting their Classical Season Sampler Concert.  It's a trendy piece of art depicting downtown Minneapolis and our Orchestra Hall on Nicollet Mall.

Look closer.

In the right lower corner is an accordionist who is not dressed like a clown, in rags, or surrounded by angels with harps looking smug (per Gary Larson's 'Welcome to Heaven' cartoon posted on August 22, 2008). The trend is accordions, big or small, classical or folk. I'm happy, accordion is trendy.

Guthrie Theater Production

When this show opens in a couple of weeks I'll be part of the live music.  It's an amazing production.

The text on this advertisement from the Guthrie Theater reads:

"Heaven is a mind-bending dance theater epic that follows an American war photographer on an odyssey through war-torn Bosnia in the early 1990's. Set to a hard-driving Balkan score, the dance and music fly through the realms of pop, rap, rock, percussion, and opera mixed with traditional and contemporary Balkan styles. The story is heart-wrenching and suspenseful, but surprisingly hopeful. It blasts off at the frenetic pace of a battle, stopping along the way to look at the humanity behind the suffering. It is a story of survival, hope, understanding, forgiveness and even beauty in the face some of the most horrific events the late 20th century has seen."

Life Should Not Only be Lived - but Celebrated!

artwork by Amy Rice, amyrice.com

This is the birthday card I got from one of my Rogarian (Orkestar Bez Ime) band mates . The text on the cover of the card says

"She always believed life should not only be lived - but celebrated!"

Inside the card reads

"Happy Birthday! Laugh * Dance * Celebrate"

How true!

In Rogaria we believe in 'birthday seasons' not just one day, the celebrations go on for weeks whenever we see each other until the last present is given, last glass of wine drunk, and everyone has had a chance to party. And give each other a hug.  I love Rogaria (www.rogaria.com) and my five band mates who celebrate life there with me.

Thanks, Amy Rice, for capturing a very special side of my life with your art!

Curious About Accordions

Dee's Left Hand
photo by Shelly Campbell

When new students come to take instruction I love to ask about their musical past. It helps me form a lesson plan when I know whether they have studied before and if they have, which instrument.

It's not uncommon for adults who had music lessons as children to pick up their studies once again. It's also not uncommon to have young people decide the accordion is fascinating and ask their parents to find them a teacher.

The most common student for me right now are people in their twenties who have either studied other instruments, are playing in a band that wants to add the sound of the accordion or who enjoy popular bands like Gogol Bordello, Devotchka or Beirut all of which use accordion in their groups.

Their challenge will be to learn how to use the bellows efficiently and what the heck all those little buttons on the left side (right side as you look at it) do. Left hand technique and bellow technique make the difference between a person who plays an accordion like a keyboard and an accordionist.

One Day in the Life of Sonya

Just couldn't resist one more slow loris YouTube video..........