Las Vegas accordion club keeps traditional music alive
It’s an unmistakable instrument, a sound familiar to anyone who recalls "The Lawrence Welk Show." The Las Vegas Accordion Club is keeping that sound alive.
Club members play for free at various venues around the valley, including churches and assisted living and adult day care facilities. Some members play solo at Oktoberfest and Fourth of July events.
"We all play what we like as individuals, and we all have our own style," said club member Dave Maher.
This day, April 21, they each took turns at the mic at The Mad Greek Cafe, 8565 W. Sahara Ave.
Betty Guthrie was one of the first up, smiling at the Saturday lunch crowd of about three dozen diners as she played familiar songs and polkas. The sound was amplified, causing the wait staff to bend near patrons’ mouths to take orders.
Guthrie is one of 11 children.
"I was born near where Lawrence Welk lived," she said when her set was finished. "(We) lived in Hazen, N.D., he lived in Strasburg. My brother knew the Welks, and so that’s how he got started playing the accordion … and it (was picked up by) the rest of us."
She started playing the accordion in 1994 but played piano before that, so it was an easy transition. She said she prefers the accordion.
"It’s more fun, harder and more challenging," she said.
Club member Mike Goldwasser said he likes playing show tunes. He learned the instrument as a teen, then quit and began again after his children were grown. He said the accordion makes an appearance now and then in today’s culture: It is used in Marc Anthony songs, he said, and Neil Diamond’s band includes an accordion player.
"If you listen to ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ they cheat," he said. "They’ve got an organ that sounds like an accordion. It’s got a switch on it. So when they do tangos and such, it sounds like an accordion, but they don’t have one in their band."
The loosely knit group began in September 2004, finding players through a newspaper ad. There are now about a dozen members, including two females.
"These two women cannot read a single note of music but can really play a mean accordion," Maher said.
Other current and prospective club members include Etta Baykara, Ron Guerra, Margaret Cantwell, Walter Piotrowski, Larry Peterson, Odie Odenbrett, Mitch Clark, Chuck Bacino, Roman Possedi and Joe Cairo, who has played professionally at The Venetian and Maggiano’s.
Jim Kerr is the club’s newest member, having recently relocated from Virginia.
They play a variety of music from the basic polkas such as "Beer Barrel," "Pennsylvania" and "Clarinet," to waltzes such as "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You."
More traditional show tunes include "Get Me to the Church on Time" and "Over the Rainbow." Maher said classical music could even be played on the accordion.
The accordion is like a piano on the right hand side but with 41 keys. The left side has buttons for the bass. They weigh about 30 pounds, although women often opt for a shorter, 17-pound version with fewer keys.
Clark of The Lakes plans to join the club because it’s "a fun group." He’s been playing the accordion for about 17 years. He said his generation, the baby boomers, was the last to remember "The Lawrence Welk Show." The show so influenced his parents, he said, that they named him after the "Sing Along with Mitch" portion.
"It’s a dying instrument," he said. "The kids now days don’t even know it exists."
Indeed members of the Las Vegas Accordion Club are not teenagers, with members’ ages ranging from 63 to 84. Phil Galvan and his wife, Cynthia, of The Lakes were at the restaurant to have souvlaki and had no idea the accordion players would be there.
"Is it something older people would like? Yes. Do we get this on a lot of Holland America cruises? Yes. Do we get it a lot when we go to foreign countries? Yes," he said. "So, like I said, it’s not my kind of music, but I could sit and listen to it. It’s good."
The club does not charge fees or dues. It is always looking for new members. For more information, call 360-5546 or 871-6075.
Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.
Las Vegas Accordion ClubThe Las Vegas Accordion Club is looking for new members. Membership is free. For more information, call 360-5546 or 871-6075. .
