New accordion business at home in Petaluma

From polka to punk, accordions have made their way into a wide range of musical genres, earning a resounding spot in the heritage of communities around the world.

The accordion has also made a mark on Petaluma, where the instrument has played into the city’s history for decades. Tapping into the tradition, Skyler Fell, who moved her Accordion Apocalypse Repair Shop business into the city this May, has become one of the latest players in Petaluma’s squeeze box scene.

Fell, 35, repairs and sells accordions in her Bodega Avenue shop, where she also preaches the gospel of the accordion with workshops and classes. The shop, marked with a handmade sign, is stocked full of intricately inlaid accordions, vintage cases and tools of the trade.

Fell, who plays in Oakland-based act “Thee Hobo Gobbelins,” plans to hold monthly jams on the porch of the shop and is hosting a stage at this year’s Cotati Accordion Festival.

The Washington native, who has a background in metalwork, said she’d long been fascinated with the musical versatility of the accordion and felt drawn to the instrument because of her Ukrainian heritage. She’d said just returned from a European venture where she’d been juggling fire and playing accordion in the streets when she came across a broken accordion that would launch her into her future career.

“I landed at my friend’s warehouse where an accordion had fallen off really big speaker stacks and it was broken, and so I decided that was my next calling – I would put the accordion back together and repair it and play,” she said.

She was trained by renowned accordion craftsmen and repair technicians Vincent Cirelli and Boaz Rubin, where she learned the tricks of the trade. She opened her shop in 2005 and got to work repairing accordions, and now trains interns of her own.

“It just feels so good to be able to help people with their beautiful vintage instruments – I do a lot of antique restorations for family heirlooms and work with professional musicians to beginning accordion players helping to spark and inspire creativity,” she said.

After spending more than a decade operating the only accordion shop in San Francisco, she decided to make the move to Petaluma to allow her to be closer to horses, another one of her interests. She trains equines and plays accordion on horseback, and recently rode and performed in the Penngrove Fourth of July parade, she said.

She said she didn’t have any reservations in moving her business to Petaluma, and in her first few months in the city, she’s been welcomed with open arms.

“There were a bunch of people at the grand opening of the store, and I really felt the community support and love,” she said. “I’ve gotten a really good reaction from folks in the area, all of the local accordionists have called me and welcomed me.”

The city’s accordion scene has roots tracing back to the Italian dairy farmers who populated the early Petaluma, according to Steve Albini, an acclaimed accordionist who serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the Petaluma-based Accordion Club of the Redwoods.

Albini, now a globe-trotting musician at 51, received his early lessons from Guido Boccaleoni, whose East Washington Street studio served as the training ground for many local musicians. He recalled the early days of the accordion club in the mid-1990s, when the group, which amassed hundreds of members at its high point, would meet at Volpi’s Ristorante and Bar, which still remains a local spot to soak in accordion music.

The club continues to meet monthly at a new venue, and he credited the organization as well as the Cotati Accordion Festival as some of the reasons the accordion has remained a prominent in Petaluma, though he admitted the once-booming instrument has seen dips in popularity across some generations.

But, the accordion has limitless potential, he said, adding that he’s seeing a “resurgence” with modern musicians once again bringing it to the forefront.

“It started to have a more negative reputation, and people associated it with polka or Lawrence Welk, but people didn’t realize and understand that the accordion is used countless types of music… I think maybe because it was seen as like your parents or grandparents instrument, it wasn’t cool,” he said. “What’s happened now is that ... a lot of young people that come up to me haven’t seen accordions and don’t have preconceived notions, and a lot more people are appreciating it because we’ve kind of moved beyond that generation.”

The Aug. 20-Aug. 21 Cotati Accordion Festival, now in its 26th year, showcases the range of the accordion, blending the traditional with the new with acts ranging from Cajun/Zydeco band “The Wild Catahoulas” to folk act “Vagabondage” to the “Steve Balich Polka Band.”

The fundraiser attracts as many as 5,000 people each year, according to producer Linda Conner, who said that many festival goers come armed with their own accordions.

“It’s such a joyous event,” she said.

Fell, among those championing the accordion for the modern age, says she sees a bright future for the instrument in Sonoma County, pointing to local bands such as Oddjob Ensemble, a Santa Rosa-based act that’s bringing the accordion to local venues, Rivertown Revival and the longstanding accordion festival as indicators of the thriving scene in Petaluma and beyond.

(Contact Hannah Beausang at hannah.beausang@arguscourier.com.)