Central Wisconsin Concertina Festival - Photos and Videos

I meant to put a note up about the concertina festival, but it seems I've forgotten until now!

At any rate, it was a good time, and I got to see one really stellar young fellow blister the keys, as well as meeting the one and only Dan Gruetzmacher and a new friend in Gaylen Haas who has some skill with the concertina as well..

A photo of the stage setup - each group would fill a 30 minute slot, adjusted on the fly on a whiteboard by the stage



And of Gaylen Haas with a Star concertina he was trying out and another young player with a neat octagonal model



There were probably 10-20 or so people who brought instruments from their collections or from their store to show, trade, buy and sell. One thing about concertina players, they are prone to collecting instruments. It doesn't help that so many concertinas are very unique, and so many antique ones floating around... I almost bit on an antique model that had a bit of leaking and was a bit smaller so you had to do more arm action, but it had such a nice mellow sound and was only $250... but I resisted!

And some videos I uploaded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA3R0yiTrNI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzWh3F02u5o

I'll also note that Gaylen Haas has a free jazz concertina "cd" (tracks available for downloading on his site), with such standard jazz tunes as "Misty", "Lady Be Good", "Laura", as well as others.