Por Amour. A Boisean in the Basque Country

It takes specific cultures, specific upbringings and a specific taste in music to love the one specific instrument I am writing about today.

It isn’t particularly the coolest instrument  (don’t be offended if you play it, I wish I did) to play and you don’t tend to hear it being played by bands with songs topping the music charts.  Come to think about it, I don’t know anyone who has won a Grammy with the accordion in decades, or ever!

But for me, and I am going to assume for many people with the same cultural background, the piano accordion – or the push button “Triki” is one of the best instruments around!

A small sample of music in Mungia

How can you not LOVE the accordion?  It is beautiful and the sounds it makes can turn any foul mood to a happy one in no time.

I am going to venture to say what where I come from, my home country, the accordion does not get the respect it deserves, not like it does where I am now!

You may be laughing a little as you read this or even better, you may be thinking about a festival or gathering you recently attended where the sounds of the accordion filled the air – it certainly has where I am now, specifically in Mungia.

If you have heard, read, visited or studied the Basque Country, you probably did not do any of those in Mungia.  It is not a vacation hotspot and there is no specific architecture that graces the covers of magazines.

It is simply a town of about 15,000 that is safe to walk in, clean and very family oriented.   The plaza is always filled with couples having an evening coffee or drink and the children run wild.  What it also seems to have on a frequent basis is music. There is one specific couple who seem to lead the pack in organizing music, and I personally am thankful for their dedication to filling the air with songs that make those they pass, smile a bit more and move with a little more spirit.

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying, I am not living in a Disney movie where everyone is dancing and singing in the streets – but every now and then it feels a little like one as a group of musicians randomly passes by.

Small disclaimer, I love all the instruments shown here – I just decided to write about the under appeciated accordion!!