Don’t tell my husband but I have a wicked crush on Walter Kühr, owner of the Main Squeeze Accordion Shop in New York City. During a quick weekend visit with a dear friend, not only did I see Priscilla the Musical (kick ass good!)— I was also able, at long last, to visit the famous lower east side accordion shop that I had heretofore only admired online.

In a word…Wunderbar!

I was in accordion heaven. I hung out at the shop for nearly two hours. It’s this wonderful narrow little space lined with new and used accordions, CDs, sheet music, framed photos and accordion memorabilia. It also has Walter Kühr, the owner of the shop since he opened it 20 years ago. He kept telling me that he needed to wash and paint the floor–he even showed me the paint color he had selected. He said that he didn’t have time for a video interview. But I wouldn’t exactly leave and he never kicked me out.

He also ended up playing five different squeezeboxes for me…each one masterfully. Watch him play and listen to some snippets of our conversation on this little video I took with my iPhone. But please concentrate on what he says (and plays) and ignore anything that escapes out of my mouth as I sound like a babbling, star-struck idiot. Note: I don’t have any idea who Rambling Jack Elliot is, but I sincerely thought I did at the time. Oy.

We talked about accordions (shocker!); Hamburg (a city where we both had lived); his mother (he showed me a postcard of her playing accordion as a young girl in Germany); Richmond (yes, he has actually swum in the James River); and about the 14-piece all-female, all-accordion orchestra he conducts. Seriously. And yes, I bought one of their CDs—it’s amazing. I encourage all of you to buy one too. Then go buy one for all your accordion-loving friends—both of them. Buy individual songs or the entire CD here.

I also intended to take a video of the store itself but because of a design flaw on the iPhone 4 video interface (would you fix that already, Apple?), I ended up taking a blurry still. Lucky for you, I found a much better video tour already on YouTube.

Go visit Walter and his shop the next time you’re in New York. I certainly plan to return. And if you’re really living right, the Main Squeeze Orchestra might be performing somewhere in the city and you can experience them as well. Check them out.

Vielen dank, Walter Kühr! Bis dann.