A History of Blues Accordion | Accordion Americana
▻https://accordionamericana.com/2013/09/02/a-history-of-blues-accordion
The accordion reached its peak popularity with African American musicians between the end of Reconstruction (1865-1877) and the early twentieth century. Clarence Tross, a West Virginian musician, reported that it was ”mostly the colored man” playing accordions in that period, and a contemporary from coastal Virginia remembered that accordions were ”the only kind of music we had back then.” In Mississippi, some of the earliest ensembles playing blues used accordions, and one accordionist, Walter ”Pat” Rhodes, was among the earliest Delta blues singers to make records.
As the first mass-produced instrument marketed to rural blacks, the accordion served as the precursor to the mass marketing of guitars that fueled the growth of rural blues. Even so, few early blues musicians played accordions and by the mid-1930s a number of factors combined to bring about the demise of its use in almost any popular black music. With the emergence of zydeco—the blues-influenced music of the French-speaking African American population of southwest Louisiana—in the late 1950s a new bluesy accordion sound emerged. Zydeco showcased accordion virtuosity the way blues bands featured the electric guitar. In the hands of master accordionist Clifton Chenier, the accordion achieved unprecedented credibility as a blues instrument.
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