It has become a tradition for accordion enthusiasts to visit Kungsbacka Dragspelsgala, an annual accordion concert organized and sponsored by Karlssons Musik, a large family owned accordion sales/repair business in Äskebackavägen, Sweden.

The as usual big and expectant audience, received a concert program of huge variation and high quality. The Lars Karlsson Band started the concert where Lars Karlsson and his very colorful musicians presented a outstandingly varied program, from the fiery “Tango el Tungo” and swingy “Swing the Thing” to a very delicate melody in “Anjas Song”. The awesome guitarist Thomas Andersson got to shine well above the usual for the Jimi Hendrix “Red House” and Lars Karlsson showed his spectacular virtuosity in ”Julenissens Verkstad”.

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Then the legendary Gothenburg musician Bernt Andersson demonstrated his width and experience in different music styles. Bernt Andersson is a frequently hired studio musician with decades of experience. This evening he showed his personal way to interpret Argentinian tango as he performed ”Oblivion” by Astor Piazzolla and ”Tango Danzarin” by Julian Plaza.

From our neighboring country Norway, we have Kristina Farstad Bjørdal & Jorun Marie Kvernberg on accordion and violin. They performed a very varied and advanced concert program with much inspiration and focus on folkloristic style music. Among others we got to hear music by Oluf Mulvig and Sven Nyhus. We also got to hear a brilliant violin solo in “Häxritten” by Erik Öst and accordion solo in “Fredag den trettonde” by Arnstein Johansen. Their program was finished with a brilliant ”Chicago-mazurka” by Erik Öst.

David Munnelly from Ireland is a phenomenon on diatonic accordion and masters his instrument to perfection. He charmed the audience with traditional music from Ireland and we also got to hear some of his own exciting compositions with inspiration from folklore melodies and chants. Here he showed how the diatonic accordion can be used by a true virtuoso. He mastered his instrument to demonstrate what is really possible plus he also played very emotionally and with a glint in his eyes when flirting with the audience with his music.

A huge thank you to Karlssons Musik that put so much time and effort into keeping this accordion gala concert series going every year! Now we can look forward to next year’s concert and I’m sure that everybody in the audience this evening, will stand in line to get tickets for next year’s concert.