It was a very special episode of The Patio tonight. The musical guest was one Stuart Pearson, who showed himself as an innovator the moment he walked in carrying a guitar, a concertina, and a hurdy gurdy. I don’t believe I’d ever seen a hurdy gurdy played live.
The first part of his set was a patchwork of cover tunes, all sung in a James Taylor/Jim Croce “Denim Troubadour” style. Painful. Odd choices, too. Inevitable Beatles, Taylor, America, etc. And then “Telegram Sam” by T. Rex and “Walk on the Wild Side”, and even more oddly “Femme Fatale”. He completely murdered a few classics like “Ashes to Ashes’, and committed strange grave rapes of the Psych Furs and a few others 80s notables. His Croce/Chapin version of “How Soon Is Now” left us bruised and strangely aroused.
Then, out comes the hurdy gurdy. And, of course, he launches into “When Doves Cry”, followed by “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”. We were flat on the ground. I really don’t remember what else was in that portion of the set.
After a bit more guitaring, out comes the concertina. We were braced for “Lady of Spain” or its moral equivalent, but no such. BOOYAH! We get “Feel Like Makin’ Love”. As we slid beneath the waves, he regaled us with a series of songs using a Slinky as rhythm box, including “Rock On” and then his closer: “Baby Got Back” almost a cappella with only the Slinky as accompaniment.
Hurdy Gurdy Prince:
Bad Company on the Concertina:
Slinkin’ to David Essex:
Slinky EXTREME CLOSEUP:
Be My Blog 
Dude.
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Stuart Pearson is my love potato
I want to have his babies.
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Dude.
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Sounds like fun. I thought a concertina didn’t have keys, just buttons. Isn’t that a regular accordian?
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He was truly glorious!
See, I was thinking it was a concertina because it had keys but not many buttons. I would defer to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about here, though…
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He was truly glorious!
See, I was thinking it was a concertina because it had keys but not many buttons. I would defer to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about here, though…
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per his own description it’s a “toy accordion” which makes sense; it’s just too tiny for a regular one.
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per his own description it’s a “toy accordion” which makes sense; it’s just too tiny for a regular one.
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Sounds like fun. I thought a concertina didn’t have keys, just buttons. Isn’t that a regular accordian?
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Whoa, rock.
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Whoa, rock.
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Ryan says;
He is sincerely sorry that he missed that” and also “anything with a concertina HAD to have been wonderful”.
hmm.
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Ryan says;
He is sincerely sorry that he missed that” and also “anything with a concertina HAD to have been wonderful”.
hmm.
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I just looked up the other hurdy gurdey song
It’s called “Something Stupid”; Sinatra did it.
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I just looked up the other hurdy gurdey song
It’s called “Something Stupid”; Sinatra did it.
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Not that I am one to tell you how to blog…
but you should have used the Steve Buscemi icon 😉
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Re: Not that I am one to tell you how to blog…
you are SO right
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Re: Not that I am one to tell you how to blog…
you are SO right
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Not that I am one to tell you how to blog…
but you should have used the Steve Buscemi icon 😉
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Concertina Lesson
Ok, here’s your concertina lesson for the day. What Stuart -is- playing looks like a small ‘ladies’ model Piano Accordion (piano accordions always have piano keys), not sure of the bass side makeup. What he is -not- playing is a concertina, which is definitely a different thing altogether. Here is the definitive concertina vs. accordion lesson:
– a concertina’s buttons, when pushed, travel -parallel- to the direction of the bellows travel
– an accordion’s buttons, when pushed, travel -perpendicular- to the direction of the bellows travel
This -always- holds true. Now that you have made the gross squeezebox type determination you can move on the the myriad of sub-types. Here’s some:
– accordion: piano (model, size, couplers, bass type, etc.), continental button (# rows, bass type, etc.), diatonic button (# rows, bass type, couplers, etc.), melodeon (1 row, bass type, etc.)
– concertina: english (# buttons, range, etc.), anglo (# buttons, key, range, etc.), duet (style, # buttons, range, etc.), chemnitzer (# buttons, key, range, etc.), bandoneon (# buttons, key, range, etc.)
~dave
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Re: Concertina Lesson
Wow, cool. As you see from the thread I was corrected early on about “concertina”, but now I know way more than before about accordions and accordion-like instruments!
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