
A local musician is helping SeehaferNews.com celebrate National Accordion Awareness Month.
Lloyd Gosz’s Dad, Romy Gosz, entertained countless audiences decades ago with the Romy Gosz Orchestra and the proverbial apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Lloyd said it is “just great” that there is a month dedicated to his instrument of choice.
He joked with us saying “The state bird is the robin, the state dance is the polka, and the state drink is milk…and I think the accordion should be the state instrument.”
Gosz has been playing the portable wind instrument with a small keyboard for 65-years. While he is quite talented with the instrument, he said “I don’t consider myself the best accordion player in town but I get by.”
Lloyd tells SeehaferNews.com he got his start with Howie Bowe in 1954 when he was just 17 or 18 years old. He recalled a story, saying “Howie came out to [my parent’s] tavern one day…He had this accordion along. It was $500 at that time. My dad traded in one of his old trumpets he had laying around the house as a down payment, and then Howie took the rest out of my salary each week. When we played he took so much out for the accordion.”
He still plays out at nursing homes and has provided music in church at masses & for services for many years.
In explaining the joyful nature of the instrument, Lloyd Gosz says “polkas are happy music. When my parents had a dance hall we would have 500 people in that dance hall, but there never were any fights of anything after the dance.”
Musicians like John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen & Paul Simon all have recorded hit songs with the accordion playing a supporting role.
Gosz says, “I always say a musician is a musician is a musician, and my dad always said it’s a curse and it’s a blessing. I’m glad musicians are using other instruments.”