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[Gary P Chapin]

"Parky" has been an influence here too. Met him ..

Yes, his work with the House Band really effected me.  Probably the first English player I really noticed.  I met him also, at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis.  Very very nice guy.  The first person to explain the quint system to me ... that's how long ago that was.

[Frank Lee]

Jim Catterall contributed a lengthy article on playing for Morris to The Ring Journal.  Packed with wisdom, it should be published as an addendum to Bacon's 'Black Book', and certainly read by every Morris musician. 
I had the luck to have a 1:1 workshop with Parky, when we both got the wrong venue for the event.  The other 20 punters were waiting impatiently in a room upstairs!

[boxcall]

My Grandfather gave Me a Hohner 1040 I never heard him play but was told that he did play a little.
I would bang on that thing for hours never really playing anything. My poor parents! that box sat on the shelf for years but it keep calling me to play so I finally decided to try and learn a couple easy tunes upper octave only lower notes where badly out of tune which i was able to do ,so I thought maybe I should take some lessons and get a new box to learn on. i got a Johnny Connolly cd Loved his playing then meet my teacher John (Jack) Conroy (who has the same last name as my Grandmother who grew up in Connermara)  Jack gave me some cds to listen to John J kimmel , John Gannon , Johnny O'Halloran , Paul Brock whew I was beginning to think you had to be named john to be any good at this. Also Joe Derrane and Jerry O'Brien I saw Joe live at a concert But at the time I didn't realize I was in the presents of a melodeon master. I loved all the different styles of playing. Jack most of all has inspired me and with his patience as a teacher given me the confidence to keep at it even when early on i was doubting that i had any music ability. I still have a long way to go but that push that he gave me I feel was so important and can only hope someday to be good enough to help someone else. I would also like to thank this forum for all its support!!
Michael

[pgroff]

Michael (boxcall),

Thank you for appreciating and mentioning your teacher, my friend Jack Conroy.  I hope you and I have a chance to meet someday to compare notes on some of those tunes!  I've had too many music teachers to mention here (over a few decades of playing many instruments and many styles) but Jack Conroy continues to inspire me since I met him, especially the last couple of years when I have been playing more box than concertina.  As I wrote in another thread recently, I wish Jack could be encouraged to make a recording so that his music can be heard more widely.  He carries on the rare melodeon, D/C#, and flute traditions of the musicians he met as a young man in greater Boston's Irish and Irish-American community and the music he learned with Jerry O'Brien and the Dudley St. bands and clubs . . . but when he was stationed in Europe for many years he made visits to Ireland, to hear the music of musicians like Willie Clancy and John Kelly, and has continued to add selectively to his repertoire down to this day. He hasn't taught many students -- the B/C style is so much more popular in recent years, especially in the CCE-sponsored classes -- so you had a very rare opportunity to learn from him!

PG

[oggiesnr]

Lots of players have influenced me over the years but in terms of "the most" there are but two -

Peter Arrowsmith.  He was the musician for Lincoln Morris Men back when I started dancing in the early 1970's.  He played a Paolo B/C/C# and sold me my first ever concertina (a G/D East German effort). From that and his encouragement came my love of squeezeboxes and my transition from dancer to musician.

Pat Neely.  Pat was a fiddle player from the Glens of Antrim who lived in Humberston when I knew him.  He taught me to love a tune and play for the dance and his enthusiam was infectious.   I once saw him play for a Feis, six hours, five tunes, all immaculate "the last dancer deserves as good as the first dancer".  On the way home he was still "have you heard this one?" and he'd whistle it, beating time on the steering wheel.

Both these fine gentleman are dead these many years but without them my life and playing would have been so much the poorer.

Steve

[Gromit]

Box players
Sharon Shannon seeing her play at Doolin made me want to buy a box
Michael McCauley after watching him play for hours at sessions at Willie week
Charlie Harris/Darren Breslin/Danny O'Mahoney/Debbie Garvey

Just as important

fiddle & fluters
Liz Carroll/Mike McGoldrick/Brian Finnegan/Martin Hayes/Marcus Hernon/MacDara Ó Raghallaigh/Austin Dawe

[Stiamh]

I like what mory and Frank Lee said to the effect that every player is an inspiration or an influence to some extent, or teaches you something no matter who they are. I used to give a similar answer when asked who were my influences on the fiddle, my first instrument.

But I probably wouldn't have taken up the box at all were it not for heady memories of playing alongside the late Simon Melia. And Simon got me listening to Jackie Daly, way back in the early 1980s. Jackie was such a breath of fresh air in the Irish music world at a time when accordions were almost always big, slushy wet red juggernauts that were generally not much fun to listen to and even less fun to play with. 

[Bobtheboat]

As some of the others have mentioned, I think probably all the box players I've heard have influenced me. However our Mr Spiers probably started the ball rolling. My biggest inspiration is the master, Stephane Delicq. The drive to practice and learn is always reinvigorated when I listen to his perfect playing and fabulous music and one day.....one day. Bob.

[Steve_freereeder]

I like what mory and Frank Lee said to the effect that every player is an inspiration or an influence to some extent, or teaches you something no matter who they are.

Yes, I totally agree. Even when teaching beginners, sometimes someone asks a question which suddenly puts your own playing in a different light.

In sort of vague chronological order:
John Kirkpatrick
When I acquired my first battered Pokerwork in 1983, someone introduced me to recordings of John Kirkpatrick and I was completely hooked. With the energy and rhythm in his playing on both melodeon and anglo, JK has to be the No.1 inspiration for me. His ideas of playing for dancing have sustained me ever since.

Barry Callaghan
Barry was a very fine melodeon and anglo player in the Sheffield area. He was a musician for several local dance sides, including Lizzie Dripping and when I joined them as a still fairly inexperienced musician, Barry taught me lots of tunes and the discipline and subtleties of actually playing for a real dance side comprised of strong-minded, wilful, energetic and noisy women. Barry was always encouraging to anyone, no matter who they were. He died in 2007 and is sadly missed by many.

Andy Cutting
Andy's exquisite playing is a source of inspiration to many of us, myself included. I remember the first time I saw him - in about 1992, live with Chris Wood at the Crucible Studio in Sheffield. Having been used to playing up and down the rows, I watched and listened to Andy playing all these rich creamy tunes with barely a bellows waggle to be seen, and I thought "How does he do that?" And so I was introduced to the heady heights of cross-row technique, and have striven to master it ever since.

Brian Peters
No-one has mentioned Brian so far, and yet he is one of the very finest players around today. His melodeon and anglo playing is outstanding, and he is also a great teacher. I am fortunate in that he has run small workshop/'masterclass' groups for a few of us in Sheffield, every couple of months or so for the past few years. Brian has taught me a great deal in recent years and I am pleased to be able to publicly thank him in this thread. If you've never heard of Brian, here's a link to his website:
http://www.harbourtownrecords.com/peters.html

Katie Howson and Jeannie Harris
At Witney about 10 years ago, Katie renewed my interest in one-row playing and introduced me to East Anglian music - the music of my roots, and which I had no idea existed until then. Katie's one-row technique is superb and the breadth of her repertoire and knowledge of traditional music from the east of England continues to astound me. Katie's colleague Jeannie Harris is also a very fine one-row player from East Anglia, and the two of them have played wonderful music together on many an occasion. Jeannie is also an excellent teacher and leader of workshops. 

There are many other players who inspire me: Tony Hall, Rees Wesson, Anahata, John Spiers, Saul Rose, Issy Emeney, etc... The list could go on and on, but I will refer back to Frank Lee's and Mory's comment which I quoted at the start, and now will finish by saying a big Thank You to all of you. 

[Prestidigitator]

Oscar Woods, who I used to go and listen to as a teenager in the 60's. He lived about a dozen miles down the road from me in Suffolk, and made me see that the "squeezebox", as most free-reed instruments were then pejoratively called, was a thing of beauty and not a music hall, mother-in-law style joke. I got my first melodeon then.

After that, I lived in Norwich, and ran into Tony Hall, who has been my Melodeon Hero ever since.

JK, of course, from the Albion Band onwards.

In contemporary terms, my first hearing of John Spiers was a revelation.

Since then, I must confess to finding a lot of inspiration in the playing of Melnetters. It's a very long list, but Anahata, Clive Williams, Sandy Shallis, DTN,  Mcgrooger, ukebert, Bill Johnston and Lester B, to name but a few, always command my attention, and I found Ian Dedic's Smiffs recordings fascinating. I love all the new "takes", and there's always something to learn or marvel at.

In short, I find that influence and inspiration is all around me, and the biggest problem is assimilating, using and working it in to my own playing.

[smiley]

and I found Ian Dedic's Smiffs recordings fascinating.

I haven't heard of these recordings before. Are they accessible via the web?

[Lester]

and I found Ian Dedic's Smiffs recordings fascinating.

I haven't heard of these recordings before. Are they accessible via the web?

Let Me Google That For You   

[Prestidigitator]

and I found Ian Dedic's Smiffs recordings fascinating.

I haven't heard of these recordings before. Are they accessible via the web?

They should be here:-

http://www.hammersmithmorris.org.uk/drupal/?q=node/34

They are, and I quote, "played fairly simply at the speed at which we dance". I'm not sure that I agree with the "fairly simply" bit!

[GuyWyatt]

and I found Ian Dedic's Smiffs recordings fascinating.

I haven't heard of these recordings before. Are they accessible via the web?

Oh yes, have a look at "Music Library" on their public website.  Most if not all of the morris tunes there are by Ian.

Go to http://www.hammersmithmorris.org.uk/drupal/?q=node/34

The Smiffs, if you don't know, are of course The World-famous Hammersmith Morris Men.


Cheers
Guy

[GuyWyatt]

Crikey, a veritable hail of responses there.

[GuyWyatt]

And when you delve into those tunes don't miss out the "Odds and Sods" section.  It includes Ian leading a 140 piece military brass band, and on another occasion him playing with Bellowhead, on both occasions with the team dancing.  Both absolutely belting.

[strad]

Who inspired me to get a box? No-one - just fancied learning one. Who's inspired me since? All I've met who play the buttons.

Nigel

[Bearded_Wonder]

When I first started playing, John Spiers was my main inspiration to start squeezing. A year on, he still is, but having heard different artists such as Andy Cutting and John Kirkpatrick, i've tried to emulate their styles of playing :)

[Cooper]

I wish there were so many good players in Holland,...since you all were mostly influenced by fellow countrymen i cant say the same.

I think the one player who influenced me most was Ronan Robert. Bruno LeTron should be on that list as well. Andy Cutting would be on it as well. Pignol and later Milleret.

:-)
W

[smiley]

Let Me Google That For You   

Thanks Lester - very nifty; and thanks to Ian for being so Dedicated