Love at first squeeze
— Amber Lee and the Anomalies, “Accordions Are Leading the Show”
CORVALLIS — You’ve got to give it up for the accordion. The instrument’s weathered culture shifts aplenty over the last 180-plus years, falling in and out of vogue, sometimes considered traditional, old-fashioned, maybe even — gulp — uncool by — ahem — “modern” standards.
But the accordion cares not a whit for passing fancies, producing as always a magnificent litany of imagination-stoking tones (its palette is vast for such a compact creature), taking listeners of any generation — whether they “a-one an’ a-two” to Lawrence Welk’s “wunnerful” bubbles or follow Jenny Conlee through The Decemberists’ wondrously sprawling baroque — on exotic sonic adventures. That is its gift. And its time in the spotlight has come again.
This is due in no small part to the efforts of Renée de la Prade, Amber Lee Baker and a host of other talents in recent times (not to mention the efforts of such local groups as Accordioso, often seen serenading Corvallis’ Old World Deli), all of whom have loosened the accordion’s long-buttressed reputation to reveal its brash attitude, stunning versatility and undeniable sex appeal.
All three attributes are on ample display in the fourth annual Accordion Babes pin-up calendar, a vibrant audiovisual feast concocted and served by de la Prade (Miss October; also of the trio Whiskey & Women and formerly of Culann’s Hounds) to celebrate her fellow musicians and their love for the squeeze. The accompanying CD proffers 13 examples of that passion.
“It’s really easy to sell a calendar with women in sexy outfits,” de la Prade said last week in a telephone interview from Puget Sound, Wash., where she and Baker, touring as the Accordion Babes, were relaxing between dates. “It’s much harder to sell a compilation. But most people who listen to the music fall in love with it. That’s what I love about it.
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