Soliciting SqueezeBox Music

[Waldo]

KNOBBY; If this post violates any forum rules/laws, please delete and I'll go some other route!

In order to promote our shared obsession, and for general fun, I have decided to accept a position on our local NPR (KSJD) radio station as a DJ. The show, of course, would be about anything/all things accordion. The shows format will feature a specific genre, artist, accordion type, time period or any other grouping I can devise as time goes by. I have inventoried my collection of accordion containing tunes, and while I have enough to create several shows (1 hour long, to begin with), my collection mostly consists of what I like, and stuff I have encountered along the way. Unfortunately, I'm woefully short on variety. To that end, I am soliciting here, copies of accordion tunes from you'all's librarys. In order to respect copyrights and the efforts of composers and musicians, credits for tunes should be included.
While CD's are preferable, any format is acceptable (Email attachments included). Alternative "donations" can be referrals to resources, artists, record labels, contact info or even your own compositions/recordings. Credit will always be mentioned on air, as well as on the website's play lists.
Stuff I'm looking for: Klezmer, Gipsy Jazz, Orchestral, Musette, Big Band, Russian, Rock, Gospel, Cajan, Swamp, Mexican Border, Polka, Golden Age, Female Musicians, Comedy, Vaudeville, TV Features, Junior Players, South American, African, "Eastern" (Stuff with 1/4 pitch scales), CBA, DBA, Melodeons , Garmons, Concertina, Bandions and anything else you may have (thus the "SqueezeBox" moniker).
Emails can be sent to: waldoweirdo@startmail.com (Please advise here if your email is rejected)
CD's and other correspondence can be sent directly to: Waldo Weir, P.O. Box 575, Dolores, CO 81323.

AccordionUprising; Perhaps, with your experience, you can provide some valuable advise on this subject. You can PM me at the above email address if preferred.

THANKS in advance for everyone's efforts
I will advise when I get my slot as the program will be broadcast on the internet.

Press on....
Waldo

 

[Tom]

That's super cool Waldo, hope it goes well! Sorry I can't help with music, as I listen almost exclusively on youtube or spotify. Definetly post the link here for your show!

 

[JeffJetton]

Flagging @AccordionUprising to make sure he sees this.

 

[Waldo]

Thanks Jeff.

 

[JerryPH]

Hi Waldo, for sure post the link to the show here if at all possible!

 

[Waldo]

I will, I promise.

 

[Gonk]

Hi Waldo,

I will send some favorites your way!

I'd like to humbly suggest you reconsider using the term "Gypsy Jazz." I realize many people still use it, but the exonym "Gypsy" is complicated and problematic. It is a slur in many contexts, and highly charged in many countries. The root of the word is "Egypt," a misattributed origin of the Roma people. "Jazz Manouche" or "Hot Club" is a good term for the style started by Django Reinhardt, since he was of the Manouche (Manuš / Sinti) clan of Roma in France. Especially if the music is being played by non-Romani musicians, I would go with "Hot Club."

Same goes for terms like "Gypsy Folk." If you refer to Taraf de Haidouks (Taraful Haiducilor), a good term would be "Romanian-Romani Music," as in, music by Romani from the country of Romania. (Unrelated cognates.) A broader term might be "Balkan Romani Folk Music."

In my opinion: if you're putting yourself out there on the radio, best to err on the side of respect!

Same goes for "African" -- you will probably want more specificity there. E.g. Lesotho. Ditto for "Eastern" and "South American."

 

[Dingo40]

Phew!
A good heads-up, Gonk
The road of life is positively strewn with land-mines and pitfalls!

 

[AccordionUprising]

Flagging @AccordionUprising to make sure he sees this.

Thanks Jeff, I did miss that.

Um, I suppose I could share a bit. I got most things from asking artists directly, or buying things myself. It's always a bit of a gray area they whole mass-download without the artist's permission thing. Plus, getting all the information about the recordings is hard if all you have is bare mp3 files or whatever.

Most artists are very willing to share download links if you ask. We started our Accordion Noir show in 2006, just as Myspace hit, and it was amazing to open the internet and be able to ask people to send us CD's and they did! Now we can save everybody money and almost instantly get downloads, which may not be quite as cool, but I've gotten used to it, and the burden on artists is so much less it feels pretty good.
One easy recommendation I can give is to look through my Bandcamp Collection and Wishlist. Most of those are accordion records (and a few strays). It's easy to contact acts there and tell them who you are and what you're doing and ask for a download, or even for a CD if you want. Be mindful that bands are really suffering and it's punishing them for playing them on your show to expecting them to pay postage. Maybe they've got extras, but I tell them it's not expected, and very few have taken me up on the offer.
My collection: (I think you can see this?)

accordion-bruce's collection | Bandcamp

Vancouver, British Columbia • Folk • 384 collection items • 31 followers

bandcamp.com

 

[AccordionUprising]

I

Thanks Jeff, I did miss that.

Um, I suppose I could share a bit. I got most things from asking artists directly, or buying things myself. It's always a bit of a gray area they whole mass-download without the artist's permission thing. Plus, getting all the information about the recordings is hard if all you have is bare mp3 files or whatever.

Most artists are very willing to share download links if you ask. We started our Accordion Noir show in 2006, just as Myspace hit, and it was amazing to open the internet and be able to ask people to send us CD's and they did! Now we can save everybody money and almost instantly get downloads, which may not be quite as cool, but I've gotten used to it, and the burden on artists is so much less it feels pretty good.
One easy recommendation I can give is to look through my Bandcamp Collection and Wishlist. Most of those are accordion records (and a few strays). It's easy to contact acts there and tell them who you are and what you're doing and ask for a download, or even for a CD if you want. Be mindful that bands are really suffering and it's punishing them for playing them on your show to expecting them to pay postage. Maybe they've got extras, but I tell them it's not expected, and very few have taken me up on the offer.
My collection: (I think you can see this?)

accordion-bruce's collection | Bandcamp

Vancouver, British Columbia • Folk • 384 collection items • 31 followers

bandcamp.com

Also. We've got sixteen years of links to artist's websites on our podcast playlists. We do our best to include information on every song.
https://accordionuprising.wordpress.com/

My experience has been that once we got started, very quickly our "Play this on next week's show" file grew much, much faster than we could play things. The list is currently Eleven Days long. So we have 264 shows worth of choice material lined up. Not just extra songs we would never play – this is the good stuff we really want to get to sometime.

If you enjoy connecting with artists and getting new music, it's a fun project that doesn't ever really end.

Do contact me if I can help somehow.

Bruce Triggs
Accordion Revolution: A People’s History of the Accordion (author)
Accordion Noir, CFRO, Co-op Radio, 100.5 FM
2020 Accordion Emoji Influencer!
Vancouver, BC, Canada

AccordionNoir.org
AccordionRevolution.com
accordion.noir@gmail.com

 

[AccordionUprising]

Thanks Jeff, I did miss that.

You'll see on our podcast site that our playlists share basic info on the artists we play. I store most/all of my music in my laptop database so it's easy to export each week. Thank goodness, because my handwriting has become increasingly illegible with a disability. So it outputs:

* Band Name – "Song Title" – Album Title (Year) – Where They're From – Contact info
* Vagabond Opera – ‟Rumeneye, Rumeneye” – Vagabond Opera (2006) – Portland, Oregon, USA – http://vagabondopera.com/

That's pretty neat. If you happen to use iTunes, it might be able to use some of that metadata and the scripts I customized to import and export it.

 

[Waldo]

Gonk;
Thank you for the advise. I admire your expertise on the matter. One of my "problems" regarding this project is getting down to the sort of regional details you elucidated upon. Generalizing a geographic area (African, South American, etc.) or genre is often the only way I know to "specify" a style. I will be far outside my wheelhouse on many aspects of this project, so I do appreciate any and all input. My only objective here is to encourage those who may be enthusiasts of a local genre to provide insight into musicians/groups/styles (as you mentioned some of in your post) that I can pursue. It is difficult to not offend someone these days. I have often referred to myself as a gypsy, as I have wandered the world, and I even had a girlfriend who's name was Gipsy....however, point taken.

Bruce;
Thank you for all you put forth above. All your points are well made and I agree with them all.

"Most artists are very willing to share download links if you ask. We started our Accordion Noir show in 2006, just as Myspace hit, and it was amazing to open the internet and be able to ask people to send us CD's and they did! Now we can save everybody money and almost instantly get downloads, which may not be quite as cool, but I've gotten used to it, and the burden on artists is so much less it feels pretty good."

While I am not at all into the various forms of "social media" (excepting the Forum), the above was my anticipated approach to start off. Finding the links to the artists has been a difficult for me (I'm 73 and computer challenged). However, I'm learning.

"One easy recommendation I can give is to look through my Bandcamp Collection and Wishlist."

I will be perusing both locations, many thanks.

" Be mindful that bands are really suffering and it's punishing them for playing them on your show to expecting them to pay postage."

As I devote time and effort to my personal pursuit of music, I can fully appreciate the time/effort others have put into their creative musical genius. There is little else in life that moves me more than music. I have yet to learn the ins & outs of artists recompense for air play of their work. I was under the assumption they received some sort of royalty per play, perhaps my naivety is showing. If they don't, I would hope providing exposure would generate interest and subsequent purchases of their CDs. I, of course, would be willing to pay postage and associated expenses relative to delivery, although I'm not sure how many $15-$20.00 I could afford. Download links would probably work best, but as mentioned above, I still a beginner with all this.

"If you enjoy connecting with artists and getting new music, it's a fun project that doesn't ever really end."

This point was a large factor in my decision to sally forth.

"You'll see on our podcast site that our playlists share basic info on the artists we play."

An essential in my world.

Lastly, I will spend some time looking your site over. Once I have familiarized myself with it, I will surely have some questions. I have been there a number of years ago and had some difficulty accessing some stuff, but I'm better with computers now. There is no point in re-inventing the wheel (record?) so I'm sure I'll be making contact. BTW (heh, heh), thank you for you willingness to assist me, your tips are greatly appreciated. Per my experience with Jeff J., I will be opening a "dropbox" account to facilitate donations/uploads. I will also look into a "Myspace" account, but with all the brouhaha surrounding social media sites these days, I find I value my privacy/personal info, more than ever.

Thanks to all and Press On....
Waldo

 

[AccordionUprising]

No need for a Myspace account. That particular social media closed up shop.

I do recommend opening a bandcamp account. It may be the easiest way to get money to artists today in exchange for music, except for contacting them directly.

Bandcamp

Discover amazing music and directly support the artists who make it.

bandcamp.com

February 3rd is "Bandcamp Friday" when 90%+ of proceeds will go to artists, which is far more than other platforms offer. So I save up and buy from them. They seem good other days too. My accordion-bruce wishlist of accordion artists there keeps growing. And I have a holiday gift card to spend!
In most countries artists get royalties for radio airplay, but in the United States, I believe the songwriters, but maybe not the players do? I'm not sure how it works, but there's been work to make hit more just. Anyways, artists don't make much money, and now, they hardly sell any CDs and records either, so mailing out a CD to promote not selling CDs is asking a lot. I feel guilty doing it. It is a great gift if we're able to buy a few.

I have definitely over the course of the years had to progressively educate myself on various genres of accordion music. I never used to play Cajun and zydeco music or Irish music or Mexican music because I didn't know anything about them. Researching my Accordion Revolution book opened up our show to much more music as I got more acquainted with genres I hadn't felt competent to dip my toes into. I'm still an outsider, trying to admit my ignorance when I need to, but it's nice to feel like I can appreciate and help promote the cultures.

Message me and I'm happy to share some things if you share a dropbox folder link. I think that's how it works. I'm new too.