Blame It on Those Darn Accordions

It's amazing what a difference a new instrument can make. When I worked on our last CD, Lawnball, I was using a couple of accordions that were literally falling apart as I played them. (Granted, I tend to get a little heavy handed when the spirit moves me).

Before starting on the upcoming CD, I paid a visit to Michael J Arralde Accordions in Kent, Wash., and picked up a beautiful Da Vinci box with handmade reeds and a real sweet tone. He also went through my customized Giulietti "Rockordion" and made it road-worthy again. The upshot of all of this is that I'm actually having fun laying down my accordion parts and experimenting with lots of sounds. I'm finding that the dry tuning of the Da Vinci is perfect for distortion, flanging and chorus, but also has a wonderful tone when I want a straight accordion sound. I think TDA fans are gonna like this. OK, time to put the headphones back on and crank it up!

Cheers,
Paul