June is National Accordion Awareness Month

Written by Kathy Anderson. Published in The Westby Times; 6/2016

    The internet can be a wonderful thing! So much information at your fingertips. For example, did you know that June is National Accordion Awareness Month?From the website “Accordions Worldwide: History of the Accordion in Norway,” they tell that the accordion was introduced to rural areas of Norway around 1850, the time that many Norwegians started immigrating to the United States. In Vernon County, this should be a big deal. Accordions  are a major part of folk music and the quality of folk music available in this area is quite outstanding.

     Accordions are instruments that were invented in Italy where, today, the best instruments are still handmade. An accordion can cost anywhere from $100 for a used one to an incredible $30,000 for a Hohner Gola and even more for a Pigini model at $40,000. Myron “Buddy” Rundhaugen, an exceptional and very well-known accordionist in the Westby area, got his first accordion when he was just 9 years old, 70 years ago. It came on the train as a Montgomery Ward catalog purchase. An accordion, a box shaped instrument, is made of  bellows and reeds. It is played by expanding or compressing the bellows at the same time the keys, or buttons, are pressed. Valves open, air flows across the reeds and sound is produced. 

      Buddy is a self-taught musician who can’t read music. “I know where middle C is,’ he said as we were talking at the Old Time Music Show. On Friday, May 13 at the Syttende Mai program, Buddy entertained the audience by playing and singing.   That day Buddy played a piano key accordion, the one from Montgomery Ward, the first of five he now owns. The melody is played with his right hand, the bass with his left and there are 3 major chords in his tunes, C, G and F.  Back in the day, the Avalon Ballroom in La Crosse played an important role in entertainment for the Westby locals where there would be dances every Sunday.  Buddy played in a 5-piece band but now plays alone “whenever anyone asks, I never say no” for anniversaries, birthdays, mostly Norseland and other assisted living places. Buddy plays waltzes and polkas, like “The Green, Green Grass of Home.” He has an unbelievable number of songs memorized.

     Tip Bagstad was MC on Friday, May 13, at this same music show. Tip shared how the Wisconsin Fine Arts Board traveled our state for 2 years to find musicians that most represented authentic folk music. The Norskedalen Trio, Tip, his wife Eleanor and Beatrice Olson, were chosen as one of six Wisconsin groups to appear at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in 1998, where they performed 19 times in two weeks. Beatrice was the accordionist of their group.  Many women have been known for playing the instrument, which can weigh as much as thirty or more pounds. 

     The accordion reached the peak of its popularity in the 1960’s but is rising again these days because rock and roll, Cajun and even jazz bands can incorporate electronic accordions into their music.