Thanks, Steve.

I took up the D/G box when I was living in the San Francisco
bay area. There were a couple of other players there, but they
pretty much played straight 'in-and-out' style on 'Pokerworks'
very much like your basic Morris dance accompanist.

I was playing piano accordion at the time, but was invited by
Simon Spalding to join his merry band at 'Paddy Wests School
For Sailors' at Dickens Faire. The piano accordion was declared
an anachronism, and I never could get 'round it very well-- the
12-bass was too inflexible, and the 48- and 120-bass too
cumbersome. This in spite of being a ragtime pianist. So I
forced myself over to a cheap button-box that I had, as my
English concertina was both too quiet and too difficult to
pick things up on spur-of-the-moment.

While struggling with 'Harvest Home' I discovered the row-cross;
promptly went out and 'upgraded' to a Pokerwork' from my 'faux
Pokerwork from E. Germany.' Tons of other 'discoveries' followed;
I learned minor keys by playing Brian Boru's March.

Shortly after that, a Castagnari 'Tommy' followed me home from a
business trip that took me past the Button Box when it was still in
Rich Morse's attic in Sunderland, MA.

There is a mathematical elegance to the tonal relationships
inherent in the D/G (or other fourths-tuned) box. I hadn't
really realized how magical the 'circle of fifths' was, in
spite of proper music-theory training, until seeing it at work
on this particular instrument. It's the very egalitarianism
of NOT having 'black keys and white keys' which helps this
realization along.

If you REALLY want inspiration, find a recording somewhere of
our Mr. Martin Ellison's medley of his own compositions, 'For
A Small Fee/Laughing Joan and Crying Jenny' (have I got that
right, Martin?). On it, he explores the three natural keys of
the D/G box, and all of its gaits, and tops the whole thing off
with a 'bellows shake.' It's a composition which is just as
charming on a 'basic' Pokerwork as on a Saltarelle Nuage, although
I think it sounds a bit sterile when I play it on my rather
dry 'Tommy.'

That was the piece that, when I'd got round all of the standard
stuff, from 'Harvest Home' to 'Road to Lisdoonvarna' sent me right
back to the old grind-stone, trying to figure out 'how he made
THAT noise.' I don't play it anywhere near as well as our Martin,
but I can play it, and it pleases me immensely to do so. And even
with my botch-job of it, folks are impressed, I think.

The recording I got it from was 'English Melodeon Players' on
the old Free Reed label. You must find a copy. Tony Hall is on
there as well, playing 'Flowers of Edinburgh' on an impossibly
clicky old box, and making it sound like a masterpiece. As is Roger
Watson, author of the above-mentioned text. A host of other
masters of the box, as well.

God I love this instrument!