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2020 Accordion Babes calendars are on sale. Order your copy now, they’re still hot! Each calendar comes with a copy of the Accordion Babes 2020 CD.
Accordion Babes 2020 – Women Who Dare
Meet the 2020 Accordion Babes and hear samples of their music below… these songs are offered on the 2020 Accordion Babes Album. The calendar is 12″ x 12″ and comes with a CD with one song from each Accordion Babe.
JANUARY
LynnMarie
www.lynnmarie.net
CD track 11: “Trio 12” — LynnMarie
LynnMarie is a five-time grammy-nominated pioneer of modern polka music. The musical blending of her traditional Slovenian roots with country, folk and pop has garnered her worldwide recognition as a polka innovator. Her high-energy button accordion playing and her engaging stage presence have wowed fans, critics, and media alike. Jay Leno, host of The Tonight Show referred to LynnMarie as “the Dixie Chick of Polka”, and Rolling Stone Magazine said, “LynnMarie is one soulful polka diva!” LynnMarie has performed and collaborated with many artists, including Willie Nelson, Flaco Jimenez, Dobie Gray, Riders In The Sky, and country music superstar Vince Gill.
In 2018 LynnMarie was inducted into the National Polka Hall of Fame.
Photo: Nora Canfield
FEBRUARY
Mishkin Fitzgerald
CD track 1: “Subtract” — Mishkin Fitzgerald
Mishkin Fitzgerald is best known for her role as lead singer and pianist in the British ‘orchestral punk-rock’ band, Birdeatsbaby. As a solo performer she plays darkly tinged ballads and melancholic alt-pop tunes. Daughter of a church minister and a maths teacher, she was influenced heavily by classical piano music and opera, and then later by alternative artists such as Nick Cave, Patti Smith and Kate Bush. She has created a sound that is distinctive, fragile and unapologetic. Her debut album Present Company was produced by Forbes Coleman of Stereophonics fame, and her second album Seraphim is widely acclaimed in the UK and Europe. More recently she has been running her own independent music events under the banner of “Indie Noir Presents” in London, Brighton & Oxford.
Photo: Scott Chalmers
MARCH
Susan Hwang
lusterlit.com
susanhwanglalala.com
CD track 13: “She’s A Witch” — Susan Hwang
Susan Hwang is the founder, co-producer and host of The Bushwick Book Club. She’s a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has toured internationally performing music and theater. Her duo with songwriter/producer Charlie Nieland is called Lusterlit, and they refuse to play anything but songs about books.
She plays accordions because they are pretty and lighter than pianos (barely). She plays drums because it’s healthy for a girl to hit things.
Photo: Brandon Perdomo
APRIL
Renée de la Prade
rebellovers.com
squeezeboxgoddess.com
accordionpinupcalendar.com
CD track 04: “Take Me Down” — Renée de la Prade
Renée plays folk and rock music on Irish button accordion, fusing many rhythmic styles into a foot- stomping show that sends out good vibrations wherever she goes. Based in Hamburg, Germany, and Oakland, CA, she sings in four languages, plays zydeco like a monster and tours solo, also with the following groups: Rebel Lovers (with husband Ingo Bräuning), Shipcats, Culann’s Hounds, and the Accordion Babes Revue; and formerly with Americana trio Whiskey & Women.
Renée moonlights as a baritone ukulele player and accordion repair tech; and edits the Accordion Babes Pin-Up Calendar.
Photo: Julie Nagel
Photo assistant: Ingo Bräuning
Shoes by Al’s Attire
MAY
Calvaleigh Rasmussen
jocosebird.bandcamp.com
CD track 09: “Belgian Minors” — traditional
Calvaleigh is California born and bred, but aspires to even greater origins. She began playing accordion at the age of 16 at the behest of her father, because “Every girl should play the accordion.” She plays archaic dance music from countries around the Island, the Continent, and the Colonies. She’s a regular performer at the Renaissance Faire and the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, with the Pipe & Bowl Morris, the Newcastle English Country Dancers, as well as “The Bruno Band,” “The Newcastle Waites,” and the “Thrupenny Uprights.”
Additionally she plays in the duo “Viadeyra,” along with some solo work.
Calvaleigh is also a drummer, a massage therapist, gardener, and multi-media artist.
Photo: Tanya Anguita
Additional credits: Thanks to Pipe & Bowl Morris for props and Kent Rasmussen Winery for location.
JUNE
Debra Peters, the Zy-de-cow-girl
www.debrapetersmusic.com
CD track 05: “One Step Ahead of the Law” — Debra Peters
“Austin,Texas’ Debra Peters wears many hats as a bandleader, entertainer, recording artist, singer/songwriter, session musician, music teacher and entrepreneur. As a professional accordionist/pianist and vocalist for nearly 3 decades, Debra Peters has been recognized for what few women in the business have been able to accomplish. In addition, a hearty tip of the hat to Debra Peters because she has managed her own band for twenty-five years, a very rare feat for a woman in the music industry.” — Christa O’Neill, Accordion Americana
Photo: Angela Marie Tallulah Coneflower
Photo Assistants: Esteban, Jazzy Jo and Jewel Jordan
Dress & Accessories: Lucy In Disguise
Accordions: Hohner & Excelsior
JULY
Sarah Savoy
sarahsavoy.com
CD track 03: “In the Barn” — Johnny Sonnier
“Sarah is a rollicking, high-spirited lady brimming with passionate energy and a restless appetite for life. Multilingual, multi-instrumental, she approaches motherhood, professional level cooking and button accordion playing with the same hard-working dedication and adventurous spirit. Her larger-than-life voice leads her Paris-based Hell-Raising Hayride band into her own personal take, rich with boogie and verve, on the Cajun music she learned at her famous parents’ knees – a modern sound that still feels like it’s straight out of Goldband Records.” — Yves Dorémieux
Photo: Celia Pernot
Additional credits: Phil Van Roy’s Tattoo Ranch in Versailles, FR, and Savoy Music Center for handmade accordions
AUGUST
Wendy Fitz
todossantostheband.com
CD track 08: “Western Train of Thought” — Wendy Fitz
Pianist and vocalist Wendy Fitz is a true veteran of the San Francisco bay area music scene. She studied classical piano as a child, and later turned to rock-n-roll as a teenager in the 60’s. Wendy is at home playing many styles including R & B, rock, traditional country, western swing and jazz. She’s influenced by the piano styles of professor Longhair and Floyd Kramer, and jazzers like Bill Evansand Keith Jarrett. As a songwriter, she’s inspired by Carole King, Bonnie Raitt, Bessie Smith, Patsy Cline and Peggy Lee. Wendy plays a weekly jazz gig at Sorella Caffe in her hometown of Fairfax, California. She’s a founding member of popular Americana roots band, Todos Santos, where she is featured on vocals and accordion. She collaborates with Rough Country, Loaded Ponies, WTJ2, Fitz & Pieces, and many other bands.
Photo: Judy West
Additional credits: shot on location at El Faro Beach Club Todos Santos BCS, MX
SEPTEMBER
Skyler Fell
accordionapocalypse.com
CD track 02: “Life is Excellent” — Dan Abbott
Skyler Fell is the proprietress and head repair technician at The Accordion Apocalypse Repair Shop. Skyler sings from her soul & rocks the piano accordion for Joshua Tree’s own time traveling musical rampage, Tumbleweed Timemachine.
Photo: Flip Cassidy
Additional credits: Skyler’s horse Miss Fiona Starfire
OCTOBER
Aurelia Anne Cohen
accordionpinupcalendar.com
CD track 10: “In My Arms” — Aurelia Anne Cohen
Aurelia Anne Cohen is a Performance Artist, Aerialist, Song Writer, Accordionist, Model, Actress, Freak, Director, Designer, Instructor and Event/Fitness Consultant.
Originally from Tucson Arizona, Aurelia trained in Classical Ballet, Folk Dance and Theater in her youth. At 14 years of age, she discovered the aerial arts and soon entered the world of Professional Physical Theater, Spectacle and Circus Arts. She began traveling, teaching and performing internationally in 2006 and hasn’t stopped, from the Southwest deserts to the Pacific Northwest, to Europe and around the globe. In her limited free time, she enjoys working with her horse, sewing, tinkering with Violetta, her ’66 Volvo, and baking pies.
Photo: Thaddeous Hi k
Additional credits: Thanks to Brad Rice at The Boatwright, Freeland WA
NOVEMBER
Ms. Natasha Enquist
www.natashaenquist.com
CD track 12: “The Anniversary Song” (Danube Waves) — Ion Ivanovici
Miss Natasha Enquist is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, based somewhere in a space-time travel continuum between Berlin, Germany and the Pacific Northwest of Canada. Touching on her Slavic roots, “The Anniversary Song” has been a song that means a lot to her and her love for story-telling through song. Treating the accordion as a human-powered synthesizer, MNE is bridging the gap between electronic pop music and the accordion, with her dreamy, dark, romantic “electro-accordion chanteuse” style.
Photo: Magnus Arrevad
Additional Credits: Thank you to the photographer Magnus Arrevad, and Benedetta Baiocchi for styling this shoot, jewelry by Perlensaüe; on location in Berlin, Germany in the stairwell of the apartment building where my dearly missed friends Phil Stein and Fayez Samara once resided.
DECEMBER
Meredith Pangrace
maurarogers.com
CD track 06: “Anything at All” — Maura Rogers & The Bellows
Meredith grew up listening to eastern European accordion music at family gatherings in Cleveland, Ohio. Her love of the instrument and it’s nostalgic sound led her to pick one up and
start playing along to folk and rock songs with friends. As her interest grew, she found a singer-songwriter that welcomed her with open arms, and is now the “Bellows” in Maura Roger and the Bellows. MR&B play regularly in Cleveland and around the country promoting their albums and the accordion’s place in female-fronted rock and roll.
Photo: Beth Segal
COVER BABE
Joana Reis
facebook.com/joanareisbaile
CD track 07: “Ausência de Ti” — Joana Reis
Joana comes from Portugal and began playing chromatic accordion when she was 12 years old. There was an accordion in her home when she was a child and she used to pretend that it was a typewriter. From these humble beginnings she grew up to become an enchanting international artist, and has been performing, touring, and recording for the last 20 years.
Joana plays, sings and composes Portuguese popular songs and fado music.
Photo: Jennifer Hewitt
Additional credits: sponsored by Dino Baffetti Portugal