A Mad, Mad World

I’m happy to be one of the babes in the new, upcoming Accordion Babes Pin Up Calendar and CD for 2011.

I knew I wanted to go “classic” pin up, black and white, round toe pumps, gams, nice naughty. Photographer John Clayton (claytonshot.com) loved the idea. We shot in his home studio on June 25th in the afternoon. We kept it simple, one outfit, one backdrop so we could concentrate on getting the right twist to the body, the right expression etc. I am particularly fond of his lighting which captures the vintage feel perfectly.

In the process I discovered that there are b&w lovers and those that much prefer color. Do you have a preference?

Ultimately editor Renée de la Prade chose color for the calendar. John gave that color shot what he called a “kodachrome” look. You can see the shot in both b&w and color and the other shots here in our gallery: Mad Mags Does Vintage Pin Up.

The 2011 Accordion Babes Calendar will be available to the public beginning on the weekend of the Cotati Accordion Festival, August 21 & 22. Note: The Mad Maggies play Sunday 8/22 at around 1PM.

Of course I’ll be talking the calendar up once I have them in hand. It’s going to be a real good one judging by the sneak preview I got to see. 13 squeezebox goddesses!

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Lena Horne (1917-2010) – an inspiring singer and performing artist, one of the very best.

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This Sunday Night, April 25th we play Amnesia Bar with Underskore Orchestra.

A seriously good double bill!

Doors 8:00pm
Music starts 9:00pm
$7-10 cover

853 Valencia Street
between 19th and 20th
San Francisco

Underskore Orchestra is a Portland Oregon based band, playing a blend of original and traditional Balkan, Klezmer, Gypsy Jazz and Swing. They have toured U.S., Canada Europe, and Central America. Their newest project, which you’ll get to experience at this show, is RevelMe! — live Balkan/Klezmer/Swing inspired music and dance.

Amnesia Bar, voted best dive bar AND best swanky bar back to back, has a comfortable, music-loving atmosphere, a fancy cool sound system and reasonably priced drinks.

So remember:
local √
great venue √
affordable √
exceptional musicians √

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GDub and I met Stefan Hiss and his band “Hiss” back in 1997 when we were in Germany visiting my sister who is a friend and fan. In fact, Stefan played her wedding 2 years later in 1999. They dished up a rousing night of music and I danced like a wild woman.

We’ve stayed in touch since and whenever we travel to my sister’s home outside of Stuttgart we usually get a visit in with Stefan to talk “music” and swap our current CDs.

Stefan’s latest band is “Los Santos” and he just mailed me their new CD entitled “Blue in Hawaii”. It’s a Western/ Tex-Mex celebration performed by stellar musicians. Instrumentation includes pedal steel, ukulele, dobro, banjo, and of course, accordion – Stefan Hiss is an amazing accordionist!

The fifteen tracks include, “My Wife Thinks Your Dead”, “Rag Mop” and “Deja Que Salga La Luna” plus three Hiss originals, “Blue Hawaii”, “Twisting in the Taiga” and “El Mezquite”.

One of my personal favs on the album is “Johnny Guitar” (a great tune written by Peggy Lee and Victor Young for the 1954 movie). They’ve capture just the right amount of “Out West” surrealism.

And their version of “Rag Mop” swings!

So LISTEN to THIS: “Blue in Hawaii” by Los Santos.
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Los Santos play “Rag Mop”:

Stefan Hiss playing one of his original tunes: “Tanz aus meinem Grab” (Dance on My Grave):

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Weird Al Yankovic is an accordion loving man!

We Accordion Babes get around. Yes we do

Get yours here.

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Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

First things first. We’re still here making music largely because you all come to shows, listen to our tunes, buy swag and generally cheer us on. Thank you!

Please enjoy this free mp3 of our hit “High Seas Lament” as we say good by to 2009.

’09 was good to us, geo-political turmoil and collapsing financial markets aside. We played the most gigs in a year so far. Several of our shows gave us the opportunity to rock very large crowds of revelers. We released our third CD, “Skull & Magpies” to good reviews and garnered radio airplay across the US and in Canada, Australia, UK and Europe. Our online and digital sales have been respectable. We’re still receiving residuals for our 2007 TV show placement. Not bad for an oddball, rowdy folk, roots indie band.

We will begin 2010 in the recording studio working on the first of two CDs planned — a collection of choice vintage tunes. After that we’ll continue our adventures on the high seas in a follow up CD to “Skull and Magpies“. Look for release parties and related excitement. Of course we plan to play as many gigs as we can throughout the Bay Area. And we’re working with a booker to set up mini tours outside of California to expand our circle of friends and fans. Plenty of crazy, good fun ahead.

Wishing you a new year filled with music and love,

Mags

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Good Scientific American article: Why Music Moves Us by Karen Schrock.

“Music is the most direct and mysterious way of conveying and evoking feeling,” Sacks professes. “It is a way of connecting one consciousness to another. I think the nearest thing to telepathy is making music together.”

Yep!

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I love playing music. It’s right up there with making love and dancing. Sometimes I think if all goes to hell in a hand basket and I have to sit on a street corner with my squeeze to make money, I’d do it. And I’d be in very good company

Check out these stellar musicians on a cold street corner in the Hague. Spectacular playing.

History of Busking from Wiki

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A recent Gallup survey by NAMM shows some serious appreciation of music and those who make it.

According to the survey most Americans believe music-making is beneficial for kids and teens. And a striking eighty-five percent who do not play a musical instrument say they wish they had learned to play.

No doubt they heard about our thicker than average corpus callosums.

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