Tommy Quinn, I wanted to thank you for creating the Cajun accordion discussion page. I did not know it was you. Another unsung hero! I wish more Cajun musicians would come here, especially the professional accordion or fiddle players. They're either unaware of the bravenet, or they are avoiding it on purpose. I saw Jaime Bearb (Cajun fiddle, accordion, and vocalist) on here once trying to sell an accordion. He was in and out like a fart in the wind, didn't have much to say. Just trying to make a buck it seemed. No interest in staying to chat. It would help us all to hear these "big hitter's" input on the matters at hand. I can say for certain that there are a couple generations of Cajun accordion players that have a lot of concerns and gripes. Accordion players that had to start out on their own because they watched older family connected accordion players die off before they took interest in playing themselves. This accordion discussion is a great advantage to help iron out some uncertainties, and also to address the uncertainties yet to come.
Sorry about your left hand. I know an accordion player that lost his left hand pointer finger (he was going to be a fiddle man before the accident. He can play the seconds side, but struggles with them as he's missing the finger that plays the top chord button. He plays the keyboard just fine, I just can't help but to think that his rhythm will suffer over all. But he can tap his feet to make up. That's how fiddle players do it. Timing is kept with the feet and the fiddle matches up to that timing. Accordion players should do it the same way. "You got to learn to play your feet first", that's what my grandfather told me about the Cajun music. In other words, tap yo feet and get into the rhythm and burn those rhythm's into your heart, mind and soul. Very few accordion players both Cajun and non Cajun know this at soul level. If they did know it, we'd all be witnessing much better accordion playing and presentation out there! Keep it real Tommy Quinn. By the way, are you Japanese? You lived in Tokyo you had mentioned. Because that would be a first for me, a real life genuine Japanese Cajun accordion player. You'd be the talk of the jam sessions if you were. Laters, G-Mac..the G is for ganksta mother f@#$%^&. LOL

Big Thanks G-Mac. No, I'm just white trash Irish... -L- Grew up on an Ohio corn farm, moved to California to play music in the '60s, ended up in Japan for 20 years. Long story.

Years ago, there were a lot more "heavy hitters" on my page but the constant bickering by a few turned them off. There is still a nice core group here. Bottom line is that the music is great and so are the Cajun/Creole folks who have played it for a 100 years. I hope the same can be said a 100 years from now.