JoeMc (Curator)

It's already Thursday and Karl Blau hasn't put out a new album yet.

Something must be terribly wrong!

Of course, I jest. But if you think I'm kidding about how prolific this fellow is, check out this list of releases from his Kelp Lunacy Advanced Plagiarism Society label that feature him in a primary or supporting role:

The Dark, Magic Sea  ::  The Coconutcracker Suite  ::  Turning Tutu/Turning Leaves  ::  Dunkel Blau  ::  Purple Heart ::  Baby Nettles  ::  Remember Tomorrow  ::  Clothes Your I's  ::  Nature's Got Away  ::  Dubble Dooty Booty  ::  Trust in Sirens ::  It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water ::  Welsh Phantoms and Other Ghosts of Western Europe ::  Sea/Saw  ::  Stereoearrings  ::  If I knew Zen What I Know Now ::  AM ::  Sing Together/Alone Under the Covers  ::  Beer and Chai ::  Flotsam and Jetsam ::  Let It All Out  ::  Sigh Lens  ::  Bread-n-Grease  ::  Trunkal Howl  ::  Free the Bird  ::  Dance Positive ::  Good Lovin' Country and Beyond  ::  In Return from Ghost Country  ::  1,000 Pictures  ::  An Unconscious Pattern  ::  Blue Nomad  ::  Doin' Things the Way They Happen  ::  Dragon Tape  ::  Into the Nada  ::  One Summer Night on Halloran  ::  Purple Shack of 4-Track  ::  Songs to Make a Living ::  Beneath Waves  ::  96 

And these are just his self-released items. I'm not even counting his albums on Knw-Yr-Own records or his last three on K Records, including last year's Zebra. Does Robert Pollard have something to worry about? I should say so.

Happily, this quantity makes for great stylistic variety--sometimes folky, sometimes electronic, sometimes poppy. I'm partial to the pop mode. Back in 2006, Mr. Blau released a swell tune of this type on K Records as a single. It was called "Slow Down, Joe" (fine advice I'm taking to heart, thank you). This song also appeared in slightly different form on the Dark, Magic Sea release, and that's the one I'm spotlighting today. Its propulsive, march-like rhythm and bristly guitar get me every time.

Listen, and then see below for a bit more on the Blau.

One of the all-time great artistes of the accordion was a diminutive Sicilian immigrant with bad eyesight and a bum lip named Pietro Frosini. Although he was barely five feet tall, he stood head-and-shoulders above the players of his day. Even today, among accordionists, he is considered to be one of the greatest players who ever hoisted the instrument. He lived up to his renown as "The Wizard of the Accordion."

What made him so special? Well, technical facility for one thing. The dude could play rings around just about anybody. He wasn't just fast, but flawless, his playing almost liquid in its sure and smooth motion. Not only that, but he was doing it on a chromatic accordion, a beast harder to master than the standard piano accordion. Chromatic accordions rely on a button system instead of a keyboard system, with more complicated fingering patterns and other arm and wrist gymnastics. The buttons are set up on the chromatic scale of half-step intervals instead of the standard major and minor scales most employed by musical instruments. Frosini made playing this challenging instrument sound easy.

Frosini was indeed technically accomplished, but what makes him such a master is that he also had taste. His playing is rarely busy. Take a listen to his version of "Wedding of the Winds" and see if you don't agree, and then read on below for more about the "Wizard of the Accordion."