I just read the nwitimes.com article that's archived here about the role of the accordion in traditional and folk music. As I read it, I recollected something that might point out just how important the accordion was to immigrants coming to this country via Ellis Island and such early in the last century. I have an old photograph of my grandfather (on my father's side) that was taken when my dad was about 10 years old or so; he's 85 now. It shows my grandfather, his wife, and their eight kids. My grandfather and his wife came from Poland sometime around 1910 or so, if I'm not mistaken.

Anyway, they were dirt poor, not the least reason being they had so many kids, and had very few possessions. One possession that my grandfather did have was his accordion. This one particular photograph is the only picture they ever had taken professionally, with the whole family together (photos were very expensive). If you look at the photo, the kids are all crying because they've just been yelled at and probably smacked around to get them to stay still for the photo; Grandma looks supremely unhappy, what with a life full of toil and poverty and with all those kids; and Granddad looks like the mean old coot he was--you can tell that he's just waiting for the photo to be shot so that he can sneak back to the bar for a few whiskeys with his pals.

But what makes the photo interesting is that, right in the middle of the family photo, Granddad is wearing his accordion. It's a big model of some sort and it's very conspicuous in the photo. In fact, it seems to hold the place of honor in the photo, right smack in the middle. To Granddad, his accordion meant as much or more to him than the rest of the family. A prized possession.

I guess you don't get any more mainstream than that.

If you're interested, you can see the photo at

emdee.ath.cx/zski/html/smallhtml6/595s.html

Cool picture, Sam, and an interesting story behind it.