Button Box Breakdown: Old Time Music on the Cajun Accordion

Button Box Breakdown is an understated and unpretentious instrumental album performed with charm and plenty of musical dexterity. Peter Croft was born in Edinburgh and grew up on the coast of Suffolk. This gave him an interest initially in British folk traditions and the melodeon. He discovered American old-time mountain music – most of which was originally played on the fiddle but he easily translated it to the melodeon. Eventually he switched from the two-row melodeon to the Cajun single-row accordion.

This new recording collects some of his favourite old-time dance tunes: Louisiana two-steps, Blue Ridge Mountain clogging songs and Texas waltzes. Croft has reunited with two friends from his days living in Cambridge in the 80s: flatpick bluegrass guitarist Mark Jones and versatile fiddle player Hazel Fairbairn. Their musical skills fit together perfectly and all three trade melody lines. Particularly striking are the melancholic solo fiddle piece, ‘Creole Blues’, their trio version of Leo Soileau's ‘Port Arthur Blues’, and Bill Monroe's ‘Scotland’. The nature of the accordion means that the tunes mostly take on a Cajun lilt even when not originating from Louisiana – something that is greatly to the album's advantage.