Today's mail brought Marc Savoy's new CD called "Back to the Basics Savoy Style." The playing is rich, soulful and rock steady. It's got a beautiful mix of waltzes and two-steps, with Marc's playing accompanied only by a "choke-style" guitar, no vocals. His signature phrasing is apparent on each song. Because I have some of these tunes in my ear as played by others, Marc's versions startle me into a new sense of where any given song can go. Marc can surprise as much by his simplicity as by his virtuosity. A number of these tunes are on the Al Berard-Jason Frey CD, and it's great to hear their contrasting styles. Both Marc and Jason play accordions in uncommon keys (Marc: E-flat, Jason: D-flat). The different keys bring out different colors. The CD, a heartfelt exposition of the Cajun accordion as only Marc can play it, is a treasure.

Do I understand you correctly? He's playing an e-flat box??!!

The 15 songs are in E-flat or B-flat, played on an E-flat accordion.

Man, that's just cruel for all of us. Let's see, now I have to figure out how much to tweak the pitch to get from E-flat or B-flat to C.

The CD is called, "Back to the Basics Savoy Style". Man, Marc Savoy surely is an awesome player. As you can see below, most of these songs were recorded with an Eb/Bb accordion. For those songs in either Eb or Bb, just use a software program (Amazing Slowdowner, Audacity, Adobe Audition, Cool Edit Pro) to transpose them. If you are using a C/G accordion, lower the pitch 3 semi-tones, and you can play along. Here are the tracks with the keys listed:

01 Amédé's Waltz - Eb
02 Amédé's Two Step - Bb
03 Alton Landreneau Two Step - Eb
04 Valse a Wade Frugé - Eb
05 Two Step a Sidney Fourneroy - C
06 Valse a Hiram Fontenot - Bb
07 Two Step a Will Bolfa - Eb
08 Eunice Two Step - Bb
09 Valse a LJ Hébert - Eb
10 Two Step a Cyprien Landreneau - Eb
11 Two Step a Alphée Bergeron - Eb
12 Valse de L'anse Maigre - Eb
13 Two Step a Bode Frugé - Eb
14 Valse a Cheese Read - Eb
15 Marc's Waltz - C