There are some pictures of Walter and his band from Grassroots. See links above.

It's funny Walter plays Falcon accordions and not Martins.

/Gunnar

Because there's live recordings available of all artists from Floydfest, see link above. There's for instance Balfa Toujours and Charivari. Also check out the Rockridge Brothers if you're into Old-time Appalachian music. They are just great.

/Gunnar

I've got a couple of photos of Walter from his Breaux Bridge gig over Memorial Day Weekend of this year:

http://www.mosquitogumbo.com/pics_memday06.htm

Also, there's one of Jr. Martin (with the late, U.J. in the background).

The thing is about Falcon and Martin accordions is, for the most part, Randy and Jr. collaborate a lot on the building of accordions. Randy in particular, gets a lot of advice and parts from Jr. They are both very close friends and often talk smack about each other as so many accordion builders in competition with each other do.

I know I've mentioned this before, but my Falcon 4-stop Bb (green one) is by far the best box I own, in terms of feel and functionality. I also have a Martin C (white one), which runs a very close second.

Two other things that makes my Falcon Bb an exceptional instrument is the fact that Jr. re-tuned it wet from Randy's original wet tuning and re-installed the internal mic -- a superior mic from the one Randy installed back in 1993. I play more zydeco than Cajun music and you'll note that there's no LA zydeco musicians that I know of playing Falcons. Randy makes a superior "Cajun" box, specially designed for Cajun-style players.

Back in '93, I was the first person to convince Randy to install an internal mic. He was totally against doing so -- it's kinda like going to a hard-core rockabilly barber shop and asking for a perm. But, with a little begging, Randy did it for me. But Jr. was the one who instructed him how (and where) to do it. All my Falcons have internals installed by Randy and I don't know if he's ever done that for anyone else to date. Perhaps Tara Nivens of Donna The Buffalo is another?

I jest like me dat internal sound and the action of the Falcons.

The long and short of all this is, if you own a Louisiana (or East Texas) box, you've got the best there is. Cosmetics such as color, engraving and wood-type is simply gold-plating, IMHO. It fun to look at, but if the box fits your hands and allows you to express yourself with ease, then that's the one for you. I've never played a "Golden Triangle" box I didn't like. They are all truly magic when in capable hands.

R!CK

The issue is also that the whole band has a unique sound , real dance hall and that not much of this music has been re-released on cd. I'm thinking about Sidney Brown's Goldband recordings , I'm thinking about the brilliant LP of Jay Pelsia, Nathan Menard & the Musical Cajuns , of Joe Bonsall and Robert Bertrand. So much of this music only exists on cassette or LP and we should be finding inspiration from it but it is less accessable.

I had a rare opportunity to get on stage with Walter on fiddle, Jr. Martin on steel, Chevy Foreman on bass at the Poussiere Club in Breaux Bridge one night. It was awesome, I don't think they're too many out there that know Walter can play a fiddle as well and as smooth as he is on the accordion. It was a blast !

If it helps, you can order the Nathan Menard album Cajun Swing from the Smithsonian Folkways site above

Select format custom CD

For Sidney Brown Goldbands, I guess you could lobby Swallow Records to put it on CD. You may check with some of the British labels as he might appear on compilations they lease from time to time.

Thanks! I ordered the Jay Pelsia cd from folkways.