WOW!

This accordion is absolutely fantastic! And its not just me who thinks that. At the jam where this beauty was getting broken in Cory McCauley also had his way with her. He and I later were talking outside away from the group, and he was telling me what a great box my friend had just purchased from Bryan. And the two of us are not judging based on looks, anyone can see that the box is beautiful. What he and are so impressed with is the playability, reaction, feel, sound etc., I'm telling you, I was so impressed with these elements. And to have a master the likes of Cory say the same thing I was already thinking tells you something. These accordions are the real deal.

I'll have to double check the story with Jason, but I think the wood came from a cherry tree at his grandmother house which was struck by lighting exactly one year (or x number of years) from the day his grandmother had died. It's something like that.

Well let me tell you the story about this wood. It was a wild cherry tree in my Great Aunt Virgie's cow pasture. She lived sort of in a little community called Indian Village between Iowa and Kinder, LA. We used to play in that tree as kids. After a rain we would go sit under it and watch the skunks and armadillos come out and root around in the field. It got struck by lightning one day, and it split the tree literally all the way to the ground, and as I remember, half the tree was actually laying on the ground, but it never died. When my Aunt Virgie passed away, the tree finally started to die. My mom said it stayed alive just as long as Aunt Virgie was living. Well my Pawpaw and my uncle went cut it down before it started to rot away and the bugs got to it and took it to the saw mill and made lumber out of it, because it was such pretty wood. Its been sitting in my Pawpaw's shed ever since. Now, I'm not really an accordion payer(yet), but after I met Bryan last year at the Balfa Fest, and played some of the other accordions he built, I knew, thats what that old tree had to be, was one of his accordions. And well I haven't put it down since I got it. I wake up early before I go to work to play it, I come home from work on my lunch break to play it, I play it during commercials while watching TV a night... I even play it while sitting on the toilette LOL!....every chance I get I play it! My right thumb started turning blue and my left wrist and hand is throbbing I have played it so much these past few days.

Thanks again Bryan, I love it, and from what I have heard and read about it, everybody else does too. You definitely should be proud, I know I am. Keep that wood cause Im starting to save up for a "D"

You sure got a good one there Jason. I have Bryans #3 and man... it's a thing to play for sure. 'Twixt it and my Acadian, they don't give me much rest.

Ain't it something how a tree can get tied to a persons life? Very similar story about a pecan tree and my Great Grandma. She planted it when she built the house she lived almost her whole life in. It got split by lightning and both it and her died at the same time.

John in Oregon