Went to the Rhythm and Roots Festival in Charlestown, RI on Sunday. We caught the Fiddle Workshop, the Accordion Workshop, and the Courtbouillon Set. Just a brief rundown on what we saw/heard.
Fiddle Workshop: David Greeley, Kevin Wimmer, and Tara Nevins of Donna the Buffalo. Greeley and Wimmer played some pretty things together; especially interesting was Kevin's demonstration of different seconding styles on a waltz. Tara played some of her hard-driving modal old-time stuff.
Accordion Workshop: Will Savoy, Wayne Toups, Steve Riley, and John Baca from Texmaniacs, on a G/C/F Hohner three row. Wayne had his two key Falcon and Steve had a box with extra keys as he said, for the black notes. I didn't actually understand how that worked, but I bet people on this forum could explain it. I asked Will about his dad's idea about only opening and closing the bellows a few inches (yes, I was brave enough to stand up and ask that during the workshop!). That sparked a discussion amongst the participants ranging from trying to play with one bellows strap closed to who holds the record for breaking reeds. That was fun.
The Courtbouillon set was fabulous, with Savoy on fiddle, Toups on accordion, and Riley on guitar. They did some standards in unusual keys just to see if they could do it. No problem!
Those of you who live in LA get to see/hear this all the time but for me, it was very special, being from the Northeast.

Steve had the accordion with the extra notes at Balfa camp in 2013. Way cool, but 10 buttons is all I can -barely- manage.

Thanks for the report. Sounds like a really fun time.

John in Oregon