Dear Friends,

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

We ended the club’s year of 2013 on a high note with a very well-attended ACR Christmas Dinner Dance. The food for this occasion came from Lombardi Catering right here in Petaluma and we all were very pleased with the dinners they prepared for our event. That dinner was greatly complemented by the excellent Pinot Noir and Zinfandel wines which were generously provided by Marcucci Winery – thanks again to Cheri and Phillip Marcucci. The evening was crowned by the dance music of the Steve Balich Band. It was obvious that everyone there was having a great time. We plan on continuing with similar social events in the coming year, and are looking forward to ever larger turnouts.

I was particularly happy to see Stanko Pecavar and his lovely wife Maria at the Christmas event. We are all very thankful for the excellent recovery he has made from his recent serious accident. Stanko, it’s great to have you back! Come play for a meeting soon.

I have been in touch by telephone with George Simko from Texas and he tells me that he will be here to play for our January meeting. George always has a good presentation for us and is always warmly received. Bring some of your friends the the meeting to hear him play and say hello.

I am happy to report that we had several new members join our club last year and I welcome all of them to our family. One of our new members is Guy Richards, a very talented and accomplished musician and a real crowd pleaser whether his is playing on the accordion or on the piano. Hopefully he will come play one of his request performances for us again soon.

Speaking of musicians coming to entertain us, our February meeting will welcome Joe Domitrowich to offer us his latest solo performance for winter 2014. I assume that Joe will by playing his Concerto electronic accordion next month, but then I have seen him play a Petosa a time or two as well. Whatever he plays we’ll be happy to have him here.

We will be putting on a Gumbo feed courtesy of Chef Kris Nelson before the February meeting so come and have a good meal of gumbo, sour dough bread and salad at 6:30 PM and stay to hear Joe’s music. Dinner will be a $5 donation at the door. I’m sure we’ll lose money at that price, but we’re all here to have fun.

See you at the next meeting.

Tony Mustaro

President
Accordion Club of the Redwoods

We wish to thank ACR Charter member Phillip Marcucci and his wife, Cheri for their generosity by donating their Fava Bros. Zinfandel wine from the Marcucci Farms to our recent Christmas Dinner/Dance. The wine was of top quality and received many praises. It complimented a delicious dinner.

http://www.marcuccifarms.com/video60.html

Arthur Seebach

I’ll let Arthur tell you this in his own words, I played  ……and poorly the following: “Pride of Petravore”, “Orange Rogue- Irish Dance”, and “Ships A Sailing”. I started  with a group of people in San Anselmo aprox.  4 years ago (the leader Jim English and Jennifer, who  have since moved to Ireland).  We were  playing  different tunes,  mostly I got introduced to Irish –  Scottish – Gaelic music. Totally new music  for me at the time, I started learning  them on my old friend,  the acoustic guitar. A  prior car accident at the time when I started to play Irish music severed the ligaments to my  little finger and the ring finger in my left hand . I  was struggling more and more,  playing the guitar at the time and finally had to stop. At that time  at an estate sale I bought my old Hohner accordion. Jim English played different instruments and also repaired and played  the accordion.  His influence and his help to repair my just bought accordion got me  to where I am today. At that time years back,  I had also joined up with  musicians at the ST. Isabella church in Terra Linda and I still play there .  (now with the accordion and I struggle there a lot playing the Irish rhythm,  because of my um- pah pah  upbringing or getting reintroduced to um-pah pah…… you know where !!!) In the past I also have had the opportunity to play with the owner and their friends at the  “Accordion Apocalypse “ store in San Francisco..

Guy Richards

What can you say about this Guy! He is Juliard trained and a showman un matched. His play list, well, it was request, from you and me. And he knew all of them! He along with Arthur became members this month!

WOW!!

Robert Lunceford, Accordionist | Christiane Lelaure, Vocalist | and Al Haas, Guitar and vocals

Close your eyes and let the music of La Guinguette transport you into the heart of Paris, or perhaps a small town or village in southern Italy. Enchanting melodies made famous by the likes of Edith Piaf, Fabrizio De André, Lucienne Delyle, and Jacques Brel are woven into an embroidery of accordion, guitar, and vocals, performed in the original French and Italian languages.

ACR Band Update

The ACR Band will have its next meeting on January 20th 2014, 6:30 before the ACR general meeting. All levels of players are welcome. It helps if you can read sheet music. Bring an accordion and a good measure of enthusiasm. If you would like to play in the band, please contact Steve Balich at 707-874-3494.

Coming Events

Saturday March 22nd 2014 click form below to see flyer
ACR Spring Fling (Price and menu to be determined)