So, it was already almost too good to be true. I happened to be in Manhattan for the 50th birthday of one of my best friends. Gary could have been born any old day, but he happened to have been born on November 4, which placed me in the Big Apple the very same weekend my fav band Golem was playing at the Union Pool in Brooklyn (see previous post).

Are you kidding me? What are the odds?

If that wasn’t enough–and believe me, it was– I arrived to find that not one but TWO fab bands were playing that night and that the opening band featured…just wait…an accordion player.

Are you kidding me?

It gets better.

The opening band was good. Kick. Ass. Good. The Japanese Gypsy Rock band Kagero, founded and led by Kaz Fujimoto, (yeah–I had never heard of Japanese Gypsy rock either but it rocks) is now one of my favorites. Their bass player Rob (a super nice guy) gave me one of their CDs, which remains in high rotation during my work commute. Too bad my office is only 3.5 miles from my house.

I’d be hard pressed to say which songs are my favorites because I like them all–seriously. But I can’t get the words to My Daddy is a Thief out of my head and I also dig My Little Bonita and 2 +1 Is Almost 5. You can sample some songs from their website or you can watch some of their performance right now to see if you dig them as much as I do.

I was so distracted from such a great night of music, in fact, that I left the bar with a Japanese Gypsy groove in my head and hopped on the subway without my driver’s license AND my credit card. The bartender had it. I was running a tab. Oops. I remembered with a bolt at 7a.m. the next morning while staring at the ceiling of my room in the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott.

Of course the bar didn’t open until 5p.m. and my train back to Richmond left at 3. But props to Union Pool for keeping my cards safe and big props to my friend Gary who rode the subway BACK to Brooklyn from Manhattan the next day to retrieve them for me. I’ve got good friends.

Annette Ezekiel Kogan is the reason I play accordion.

Jump back four years when Joe and I ended up at Capital Ale House in downtown Richmond for Oktoberfest. I wanted a beer, a pretzel and the chance to tap my toes while pudgy German men in lederhosen played some OomPahPah music. It was fun. The beer was cold, the pretzel was salty, and I love me some polka.

Feeling rather satisfied, we were headed out the door when some random bar patron told us a kickass band named Golem was playing next and that we should probably stay. We did.

Wow. The band AND the accordion player blew me away. Blew. Me. Away. After a lifetime of admiring and appreciating the accordion from afar, I went home and told Joe I wanted one of my own.

He got me one. I’ve been squeezing and squawking ever since.

Flash forward to this past weekend in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at a great little club called Union Pool. I already happened to be in NY for the 50th birthday of a dear friend of mine. His fabulous party was Friday, and Golem was playing in Brooklyn the very next night. I couldn’t believe my luck.

I dragged my friend with me to Union Pool and now Golem is one of his fav bands as well. Although, to my knowledge, he has not run out to buy a squeeze box…not yet.

Check out Annette’s rockin’ 5’ frame shredding the accordion that night (random fact: she happens to be playing a Main Squeeze accordion, purchased in SoHo from accordion great Walter Kuhr–See blog post of June 2).

If you liked that song, and of course you did, then check out their encore when the crowd demanded more and more and more.

Annette, and everyone in Golem, is super cool, which by extension makes the accordion super cool. Seriously. She said so. Just listen.

If you read my blog then you’ve heard the name Barry Bless once or twice or ten times. I can’t help it. This blog aims to bring the cool back to the accordion and they don’t come cooler than Barry.

He plays the accordion so beautifully it kinda pisses me off. But I don’t stay angry for long. I’m thankful there is such a kickass ambassador of cool for such a kickass instrument. Keep the faith, Barry.

Check it out for yourselves and tell me if this isn’t fabulous. Lawrence Welk he’s not–not that there’s anything wrong with Lawrence Welk, God bless his bubbly heart.

If you want more of Barry’s playing, and really, who doesn’t, check out the Happy Lucky Combo blog for a schedule of their upcoming gigs. They (as in Barry, along with super talents Pippin Barnett on drums and Dave Yohe on bass) play in Richmond all the time. You have no one to blame but yourself if you don’t go.

P.S. Speaking of accordion ambassadors of cool, you should check out my Tom Waits post if you missed it before.