Accordion Babes 2023 Pin-Up Calendar
The 2023 Accordion Babes Calendar – An Instrument Beyond Time.
The calendar is 12″ x 12″ and comes with a CD with one song from each Accordion Babe.
Pre-order now!
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JANUARY
Susan Hwang
susanhwanglalala.com
CD track 07: “Museum Correspondence” –
Music written by Susan Hwang
Lyrics from the poem “Museum Correspondence HINKA’ISTA” by Beth Piatote
Susan Hwang tells stories and makes things that are usually collapsible, like songs and times. Her instruments take up space (accordion, Janggu—traditional Korean drum, piano) but other physical objects she can’t play, wear or eat intimidate her. She’s a performing and recording artist and the founder and host of The Bushwick Book Club.
Susan plays accordions because they’re pretty and lighter than pianos (barely). She plays drums because it’s healthy for a girl to hit things.
Photo: Bob Krasner
FEBRUARY
Renée de la Prade & Leslie Jackson
squeezeboxgoddess.com
mudfest.net
CD track 01: “Leslie Got A French Press” — Renée de la Prade
These two feisty women share the love of music and the love of the written word. Both are powerhouse musicians, dancers, and indie publishers from the San Francisco Bay area.
Between them they play about ten different instruments, and round out the sound with some killer footwork, too!
Here they’re at their sexy best, dressed up like magic cowgirls and getting ready to bust out some serious zydeco grooves; Renée with her rocking Irish-Cajun button box and Leslie with her washboard.
Photo: Pat Johnson
MARCH
Serena Della Monica
serenadellamonica.com
facebook.com/leninfe.dellatammorra
CD track 03: “Femmena comm’ a ‘mme” Serena Della Monica / Le Ninfe della Tammorra
Musician, teacher and composer, she lives in Vietri sul Mare, a beautiful town on the Amalfi Coast (Salerno – Italy).
Expert in traditional music of Southern Italy, she makes concerts with diatonic and chromatic accordion with an all-female ethno-folk group “Le Ninfe della Tammorra”.They play the traditional Campania music with its strong presence of frame drums; and combine it with pop and rock music for an upbeat, high-energy sound.
Photo: Matteo Carbone
APRIL
Sapo
sapoooo.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/Sapozmuzic/
CD track 12: “Para simpatic@s” — Sapo
A picked-it-up-in-the-street kind of musician, Sapo likes to tell stories with her songs and spoken word pieces, in French, English, Spanish and German. She studied theatre and film-making in her early days. Now based in Montreal, she works as an accordion repairwoman (Melodona), and as a hypnotherapist.
Photo: Rafi Leuwenkroon
MAY
Calvaleigh Rasmussen
www.ailisanewhall.com
CD track 13: “Barbara Allen/Plant En Cao” – Calvaleigh Rasmussen
Calvaleigh is a recent California transplant to Minnesota. She plays dance music from across Europe and some of the Americas.
Calvaleigh also plays piano, gaita, and field drum, usually while wearing funny clothes.
She loves to do massage, hike, kayak, shovel snow, travel for music, play with fiber, garden, and wrangle her two ridiculous Australian Shepherds, Ivy and Bastian.
Photo: Chris Murrary, Vesper Boudoir
JUNE
Jeanne Velonis
jeannevelonis.bandcamp.com
bachtopus.com
CD track 11 • Schenectady • Jeanne Velonis
Jeanne Velonis was raised by friendly walruses in Franz Josef Land. She built her first accordion out of toothpicks and duct tape.
These days she is often seen driving around with her accordions in her flaming van.
Her first album, New York Dronescape, came out in 2020, and her next, You’d Say Anything to a Butterfly, should be out any second. She is a member of the Bachtopus Accordion Ensemble.
Photo: Ellen Crane
JULY
Ginny Mac
n0rth.bandcamp.comn0rth.bandcamp.com
CD track 02: “I Don’t Have To Act Right (I Do What I Want)” – Ginny Mac & Mike Dillon
Hailing from Fort Worth, TX, Ginny Mac fronts a dynamic group that brings a fresh and exciting twist to vocal and instrumental stylings in the Country & Western Swing, Americana, Hot Jazz, and International music genres.
Ginny has toured with Asleep At The Wheel, Brave Combo, Mike Dillon, The Texas Playboys (under the direction of Tommy Allsup & Leon Rausch), and many other artists.
She endorses Scandalli Accordions based in Castelfidardo, Italy.
Photo: Tyler Germaine
AUGUST
Amber Lee Baker
shipcats.com
facebook.com/shipcats/
CD track 08: “Whiskey Dick” – Amber Lee Baker
Singer-songwriter Amber Lee Baker has been creating sassy, sexy folk-cabaret music since the early 2000s and has been a contributor to the Accordion Babe Revolution since 2009. Amber has toured the US and Europe, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
When she isn’t playing accordion and singing songs, she’s an architect working to solve the housing crisis in California.
Photo: Nicholas Reseburg
SEPTEMBER
Jamie Maschler
www.jamiemaschler.com
CD track 05: “Balsa da Neblina” – Foleada
“Jamie Maschler knows the versatility of the accordion better than most. She has played the instrument since she was four and spent years perfecting and competing. Talents like her seem to be increasingly valuable.“ – The Atlantic
Based out of Seattle, WA Jamie is a musician, music director, and educator.
She is co-founder of the Brazilian bands Foleada, En Canto, and the accordion duo Creosote.
Photo: Kate Morrow
OCTOBER
Nicole Akkordeon
katacaza.wixsite.com/accordeoniste
CD track 10: “Raus damit” – Nicole Akkordeon
Born in south of Germany, growing up with accordion orchestras and polka music, Nicole found her way into the rocky and punky Celtic Folk Scene,
playing with bands like Cromdale or Mr. Irish Bastard.
She spend the last years touring with the irish punk legends “The Mahones” and went stagediving with her accordion.
During Corona she got involved with “The Fiddling Lads” and started to play and record her own ideas going back to a little bit of crazy polka.
Photo: Kerstin Wagner-Kruse
Location guide: Sabine Pfeiffer
NOVEMBER
Jet Black Pearl
jetblackpearl.com
CD track 06: “American Dream” – Jet Black Pearl
Jet Black Pearl has performed on more than a thousand stages all over the world. Her smartly wacky songs sound like a mad hatter’s European party with a funky attitude.
Before your very eyes, she creates grooves and loops of flute, plastic bottles, rubber pigs, vocal percussion and harmonies, while squeezing her accordion.
She also might do a little dance for you.
But watch your own feet… they’re already wiggling!
Photo: Miri Stebivka
DECEMBER
Aurelia Cohen
thebarnswallows.com
intuitive-compass.com
flamchen.com
aureliacohen.com
CD track 09: “Heroes Unsung” – Intuitive Compass
“She sings real good ‘n all, but those arms though!”
Air enthusiast, daredevil, occasional pretzel, pyrotechnics dabbler, composer & word smith, plays music accordionly…the world is her jungle gym so the sky’s just the beginning what will she do next? Available for booking world wide with The Barn Swallows, her newest musical ensemble and Flam Chen, Pyrotechnic Theater company!
Photo: Sequoia Photography www.sequoiaphotography.com
COVER BABE
Sunniva Brynnel
sunnivabrynnel.com
CD track 04: “To Copenhagen with Love” – Night Tree – Sunniva Brynnel
Sunniva Brynnel is a Swedish accordionist, vocalist and composer within improvised music, folk music, devotional music and more.
Sunniva comes from a lineage of seven generations of female musicians, and she tours and records internationally.
She has a Master’s in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory, Boston, as well as a BA in Jazz Composition from Leeds College of Music, England.
Photo: Zita M. Photography