In Tune with John Crawford
By Grant Crawford
When we’re not feeling too good we generally take a trip to the doctor, or the dentist if toothache is the problem. When an accordion starts sounding unwell the road into Freuchie seems to be a natural remedy. Freuchie is the home village of expert accordion tuner and repair mechanic John Crawford. At the recent Domino Coupler Morino Day organised by the Button Key Club at Windygates, John gave an interesting talk on the qualities and mechanics of the famous Hohner accordion popular with so many players. Such is John’s knowledge of the accordion I thought it would be interesting to find out a little more about background so I arranged to meet with him. I initially thought I would probably spend an hour or so with him. After nearly five hours with him I had still barely scratched the surface of this living encyclopaedia of accordion information.
John was born into a musical family in Kinross, Fife seventy-five years past in November. His father was a fine piper and could also play the fiddle and melodeon and his mother played the piano and his six brothers and sisters also played. John recalls many a musical evening at home when his mother would move all the ornaments out of reach as when his father walked around the room the tassels hanging from his drones would inevitably catch and knock something over. A regular visitor to the musical Sunday evenings was a friend of John’s father who could ‘fair knock a tune’ out of a two-row melodeon namely Jimmy Shand. John has continued his friendship with Sir Jimmy and his family and values it highly.
John’s first introduction to a melodeon was at the age of six when he was confined to bed with German measles. He taught himself to play the melodeon and then at school he was given fiddle lessons for a year. At the annual school concert he was given a solo spot but after the concert the teacher told John’s parents that he would never make anything of it ‘as he didn’t sick to the dots’. Unknown to the audience who had appreciated his fine performance, John had decided to ‘go his own way’ and changed his programme. Although his musical education on the fiddle had ended he continued to play it and he even made his own single string fiddle and he treasures the memories of Sir Jimmy Shand playing it. As John remarks “how many people know that Sir Jimmy could also knock a fair tune out of a fiddle”.
John inherited his fathers love of the pipes and soon was taking lessons on the chanter when he joined the Boys’ Brigade and he recalls sitting around the table with the Pipe Major, who couldn’t read music, learning the tunes by ‘dirling’.
APPRENTICESHIP
On leaving school john got an apprenticeship as an engineer at a garage in Ladybank repairing steam engines and road rollers, and earning the princely sum of 10/- a week. The wages were soon put towards the purchase of his first real accordion, a 48 bass model. Although he was still more interested in the pipes he and his elder brother Jim went out and played at local dances. It was also during his time at the garage that he carried out his first ‘repair’ to an accordion. One of the garage’s main customers was a family by the name of Lovat, who had a travelling fairground. On one of the carousels there was an old steam organ complete with a Wurlitzer accordion. The accordion was unusual in that it had an accordion keyboard on both sides. The keys were operated by a series of levers that were attached to the back of the keyboard but every now and then they would jam. John carried out a repair and also made an interesting discovery about the reed blocks in the process. As accordionists will tell you the reeds have little values on them to stop one side of the reed from sounding on the draw or push of the bellows. Initially john thought this may have been the problem with the non-sounding notes on the accordion until he realised that because there was a constant air supply to the accordion only one reed was required per note sounding unlike the normal two on a conventional accordion.
WAR
Unfortunately war came and John joined the REME. It was however in the post-war years whilst stationed in the Black Forrest area of Germany that John added to his knowledge of the mechanics and maintenance of accordions. John was in charge of an army vehicle park and among the helpers were a few German PoWs. Although they were not meant to fraternise, John formed a friendship with one of the PoW’s who lived close by. On a Sunday after church service Sergeant Crawford would sneak away for a few hours with his newfound friend, who shared a love of the accordion, to visit the German soldier’s family at Trossinger. The father was an accordion repairer whop had worked for Hohner. During his visits to the old mans workshop John picked up his craft although there were language difficulties. He still recalls how the workshop was split into different areas depending on what type of work had to be carried out. There was a bench for tuning reeds and another bench for carrying out casing repairs. John acknowledges the amount of information passed on to him and fondly recalls how the man would show him how to repair the different faults to accordions from carefully waxing and pinning reeds to the actual tuning of reeds. John points out that the positioning of the pin or over or under use of wax can greatly affect the response and sound of a reed. The old gent even made his own special tools for certain jobs, a practice John has to continue today. John still has some of the tools made for him and he particularly treasures a tuning fork the old man made for him with a hacksaw from a piece of bright steel. What is the connection between an accordion and a car battery? One of the tricks john learned was how to fix a problem with the keyboard axle (the rod running the length of the accordion on which the keys pivot) using a car battery – the full technique is a closely guarded secret. The German family were called Krat and John wonders if there are connections with the family who now run the accordion company of a similar name. The company is spelt Kratt, with a double ‘t’ and as they are also based in Trossinger, John is sure there must be a connection.
John worked with the B(ritish) A(rmy) O(n the) Rhine Vehicle Inspectorate while in the REME and fondly remembers two little trips, one to Italy and the other to Gibraltar, he had to make on official business. He was sent out on each occasion to sort out a problem the troops were having with new Bedford trucks. The troops knew there was still fuel left in the tanks but they couldn’t get the lorries started so Sergeant Crawford was dispatched to sort out the problem. The solution? Simple! Lift the driver’s seat and turn a switch for the reserve fuel tank. If someone had just bothered to read the manual john wouldn’t have had to make one trip, let alone two. As John says “perhaps the fact that the manual was also kept in the same ‘secret’ compartment under the driver’s seat helped as no-one knew where to look except the mechanics who had been given training by Bedford”.
During quiet spells at the motor depot John spent his time getting to know the workings of the machine shop, teaching himself the art of using lathes and milling machines. John still has a beautiful brass scale model of a Morris 8 gearbox, which he made during his free time in the army, and to this day he enjoys making models. A fine scale model of a ‘Glasgow cart’ is on show with every minute detail faithfully reproduced to full working order. His masterpiece though was a fully working model of an agricultural baler, which his daughter Anita now possesses. His woodworking and metal working skills are still put to use in the accordion repair business and when you examine a hand-made reed block you can really appreciate the craftsman’s skill John possesses.
BOXES
After the 48 bass accordion John’s next purchase was a Hohner Verdi 3 from Forbes of Dundee. The box had previously been owned by George McKelvie who went on to play with the Shand Band. That accordion had a bit of history as it had been smuggled out of Hohner’s factory at the outbreak of war in 1939 by Louis Cabrelli. Louis was an Italian who worked for Hohner and escaped to Britain and john still maintains that Cabrelli was one of the best players he has ever heard playing Italian classic such as ‘Waves of the Danube’. Incidentally the Verdi cost £27 and with the £2/5- change John purchased a 2CC diesel engine from a model shop and using some scrap aluminium built a little racing car, which he and his brothers got hours of pleasure from playing with in the street. “In those days there weren’t many cars around so we attached one end of a length of string to the car and the other to a nail hammered into the road and just let the car spin until it ran out of fuel”. Perhaps hammering the nail into the road surface was to be of significance as John later worked as Fleet Maintenance Manager for Tarmac Construction, the road builders.
After the Verdi John purchased a Hohner Morino IVM. It was straight tuned and John’s father did not like the sound of the accordion so before long it was sold on and replaced with a new Ranco Supervox. This led to John’s long association with Ranco. Although he is currently playing a Classique 37/96 model it has had the ‘Crawford touch’ applied with a few custom changes. All the reeds have been replaced with Ranco reeds and the 16’ (bassoon) reeds have been taken out of the tone chamber and swapped with the 8’ (clarinet) reeds. This process involved John making a new reed block. John handed me his prototype reedblock and on inspecting this work of art lovingly created I asked him how long it had taken him to make “Three or four hours one Sunday morning” he replied. One of the accordions he was working on at the time of the interview was a conversion of another Classique for someone who had heard John’s own box and fancied having it changed to the same configuration.
In John’s little workshop he has his own little tools, many as previously indicated being self-made, along with an array of files, some of which are diamond coated and quite expensive. He has a set of bellows for tuning reeds and a Paterson Chromatic Electronic Tuner. John still ‘uses the lugs’ for tuning and adds that the electronic tuner is a ‘time saver’. I noticed a small electronic hand drill, but John, unlike some tuners, uses this purely for buffing reeds clean. On top of his workbench there are little storage drawers containing reeds and other spares for all makes of accordions. John even has an immense knowledge of reeds explaining that “Shand Morino reeds can be identified by a little dot on them”. An interesting point on reeds came up after the Domino Coupler Day. One owner with a rather rare VM approached John for some advice regarding restoration of the instrument. The owner had been advised that the original Morino reeds had been replaced with ‘inferior’ reeds from a Hohner Artiste five-row accordion. The reason given for this explanation were that all the reeds were stamped ‘Artiste’. Luckily John knew this was not the case and that the ‘Artiste’ reeds were actually the original reeds and explained that these reeds were in fact the finest reeds available.
FINE PLAYER
Apart from being one of the finest tuners around John is, of course, also a first class player. He won the coveted All Scotland Accordion Championship at Perth in 1960 playing the march ‘Jim McBay’s Welcome’, the strathspey ‘Maggie Cameron’ and the reel ‘the Marchioness of Tullybardine’. The adjudicators that day were Ian Powrie and Bobby MacLeod. 1960 proved to be a successful year in the competition ring for john as he also won events held at Gretna and Dumfries. “I was working on the morning of the Dumfries competition” he recalls, “but when I got home my wife, Elizabeth, asked if I fancied going down just to listen? We got into the car and after a journey of several hours we arrived in Dumfries. The first person I met was the late Albie Tedham, the fiddler from Langholm. Albie had won the Fiddle championship at Perth and he suggested that we should enter the Duet competition. Although the pair of us had never played together we found a quiet space and after a quick run through some tunes entered and won. Incidentally john was never out of the top three when competing and fondly recalls the camaraderie with fellow competitors such as Douglas Muir and Jimmy Blue.
BROADCASTING
On the broadcasting front he broadcast with the East Neuk Band along with David Smith also on accordion, Brian Ness on fiddle, Tommy Gathered on drums, Robert Taylor on bass (and vocals) and long standing friend Bill Wean on piano. John recalls doing a broadcast from the famous Coldside Studio in Dundee, 2 the studio was in the Coldside Library, the books being at one end and the studio at the other end of the same room. During a live broadcast someone entered the library and when the door opened this almighty draft blew the music off the stands and all around the studio. Producer James Sloggie and several of the crew were running around frantically trying to gather up the music. On another occasion Robert Taylor was to do a few songs so had to lay his bass down and move to another microphone” continues john “ halfway through a song, Bernard Sumner, the BBC’s official accompanist, who was in the studio to accompany another artiste, picked up the bass and started waltzing around the studio with it. Bernard was a great source of hilarity and I also recall him sitting down at the piano beside Bill Wean, mid-set, and playing harmonies” muses John.
John also recalls in those days that you would do a live broadcast and then go to play at a dance elsewhere later the same night. On one occasion he recalls having to play at a dance in the Assembly Rooms, Dumfries after a broadcast and on the way home the band’s Ford car got stuck in a swollen ford and they had to put all the equipment on the roof of the car and push it out of the water. And just to compound the misery, john had to get home to Fife to start work at 7am the following morning.
John also broadcast with his own ‘Highlandaires’ with Bill Ewan on piano and James Kinnear on drums and also broadcast on a radio programme called ‘For Your Entertainment’ as well as making a few appearance on television.
COMPOSER
John is also a fine composer and among his many known tunes are ‘Bill Ewan’s Reel’, ‘The Bruntley Reel’, ‘Ian’s Reel’ (composed for friend and bandleader Ian McCallum) and a fine march ‘Freuchie’s March to Lords’ written to commemorate the success of the village cricket team. Jimmy Blue also recorded a tune entitled ‘Crawford’s Reel’ but John explained “that it was actually a tune called the ‘Fair Maid of Perth’ with two additional parts, composed by myself.”
Although John had cut a record for Thistle Records back in the 1970’s it was not until 1998 that the real John Crawford was to be heard at his best. His ‘Piping on the Box’ CD, complete with Crawford tartan design, was released on Thane Records (TRCD9803) showing that when it comes to pipe music John has few equals.
John’s daughter, Anita, was also an excellent player but unfortunately had to stop playing due to back problems.
Ask John for his opinion of the music scene today and he will tell you that “technically the youngsters are first class but unfortunately they all sound the same. They play too fast and try to be competitive, trying to outdo each other. Unfortunately there are very few of the young bands with a distinctive sound but at least the music is safe for a few more generations” he continues.
Away from the music scene John’s hobbies include model making and “messing around with anything mechanical” (he even built his own sit-on petrol lawnmower) and apart from the pipes, has also inherited his fathers love of vehicles. John is regularly invited to adjudicate at vintage car and truck rallies. Musically he enjoys all types of music with the exception of heavy rock and the highlight of the week is BBC Scotland’s Pipeline programme, featuring the best of pipe music.
After nearly five hours in John’s company I had to take my leave but still feeling that I had barely scratched the surface. Anyone who has had the pleasure of talking to John, combined with Elizabeth’s fine home baking, will confirm that Bruntley Place is a little bit of heaven on earth. As I was leaving the ‘phone rang yet again with someone seeking advice on purchasing a new accordion. Such is John’s knowledge that he was able to tell the caller about the number of folds in the bellows compared to another instrument and advise on what specification to choose.
When it comes to accordions, playing, tuning, repairing or just general knowledge of the instrument, John Crawford has few equals, and the number of bandleaders who turn to him for advice is proof enough.
This article appeared in the December 2000 / January 2001 issue of the B&F
John was born into a musical family in Kinross, Fife seventy-five years past in November. His father was a fine piper and could also play the fiddle and melodeon and his mother played the piano and his six brothers and sisters also played. John recalls many a musical evening at home when his mother would move all the ornaments out of reach as when his father walked around the room the tassels hanging from his drones would inevitably catch and knock something over. A regular visitor to the musical Sunday evenings was a friend of John’s father who could ‘fair knock a tune’ out of a two-row melodeon namely Jimmy Shand. John has continued his friendship with Sir Jimmy and his family and values it highly.
John’s first introduction to a melodeon was at the age of six when he was confined to bed with German measles. He taught himself to play the melodeon and then at school he was given fiddle lessons for a year. At the annual school concert he was given a solo spot but after the concert the teacher told John’s parents that he would never make anything of it ‘as he didn’t sick to the dots’. Unknown to the audience who had appreciated his fine performance, John had decided to ‘go his own way’ and changed his programme. Although his musical education on the fiddle had ended he continued to play it and he even made his own single string fiddle and he treasures the memories of Sir Jimmy Shand playing it. As John remarks “how many people know that Sir Jimmy could also knock a fair tune out of a fiddle”.
John inherited his fathers love of the pipes and soon was taking lessons on the chanter when he joined the Boys’ Brigade and he recalls sitting around the table with the Pipe Major, who couldn’t read music, learning the tunes by ‘dirling’.
APPRENTICESHIP
On leaving school john got an apprenticeship as an engineer at a garage in Ladybank repairing steam engines and road rollers, and earning the princely sum of 10/- a week. The wages were soon put towards the purchase of his first real accordion, a 48 bass model. Although he was still more interested in the pipes he and his elder brother Jim went out and played at local dances. It was also during his time at the garage that he carried out his first ‘repair’ to an accordion. One of the garage’s main customers was a family by the name of Lovat, who had a travelling fairground. On one of the carousels there was an old steam organ complete with a Wurlitzer accordion. The accordion was unusual in that it had an accordion keyboard on both sides. The keys were operated by a series of levers that were attached to the back of the keyboard but every now and then they would jam. John carried out a repair and also made an interesting discovery about the reed blocks in the process. As accordionists will tell you the reeds have little values on them to stop one side of the reed from sounding on the draw or push of the bellows. Initially john thought this may have been the problem with the non-sounding notes on the accordion until he realised that because there was a constant air supply to the accordion only one reed was required per note sounding unlike the normal two on a conventional accordion.
WAR
Unfortunately war came and John joined the REME. It was however in the post-war years whilst stationed in the Black Forrest area of Germany that John added to his knowledge of the mechanics and maintenance of accordions. John was in charge of an army vehicle park and among the helpers were a few German PoWs. Although they were not meant to fraternise, John formed a friendship with one of the PoW’s who lived close by. On a Sunday after church service Sergeant Crawford would sneak away for a few hours with his newfound friend, who shared a love of the accordion, to visit the German soldier’s family at Trossinger. The father was an accordion repairer whop had worked for Hohner. During his visits to the old mans workshop John picked up his craft although there were language difficulties. He still recalls how the workshop was split into different areas depending on what type of work had to be carried out. There was a bench for tuning reeds and another bench for carrying out casing repairs. John acknowledges the amount of information passed on to him and fondly recalls how the man would show him how to repair the different faults to accordions from carefully waxing and pinning reeds to the actual tuning of reeds. John points out that the positioning of the pin or over or under use of wax can greatly affect the response and sound of a reed. The old gent even made his own special tools for certain jobs, a practice John has to continue today. John still has some of the tools made for him and he particularly treasures a tuning fork the old man made for him with a hacksaw from a piece of bright steel. What is the connection between an accordion and a car battery? One of the tricks john learned was how to fix a problem with the keyboard axle (the rod running the length of the accordion on which the keys pivot) using a car battery – the full technique is a closely guarded secret. The German family were called Krat and John wonders if there are connections with the family who now run the accordion company of a similar name. The company is spelt Kratt, with a double ‘t’ and as they are also based in Trossinger, John is sure there must be a connection.
John worked with the B(ritish) A(rmy) O(n the) Rhine Vehicle Inspectorate while in the REME and fondly remembers two little trips, one to Italy and the other to Gibraltar, he had to make on official business. He was sent out on each occasion to sort out a problem the troops were having with new Bedford trucks. The troops knew there was still fuel left in the tanks but they couldn’t get the lorries started so Sergeant Crawford was dispatched to sort out the problem. The solution? Simple! Lift the driver’s seat and turn a switch for the reserve fuel tank. If someone had just bothered to read the manual john wouldn’t have had to make one trip, let alone two. As John says “perhaps the fact that the manual was also kept in the same ‘secret’ compartment under the driver’s seat helped as no-one knew where to look except the mechanics who had been given training by Bedford”.
During quiet spells at the motor depot John spent his time getting to know the workings of the machine shop, teaching himself the art of using lathes and milling machines. John still has a beautiful brass scale model of a Morris 8 gearbox, which he made during his free time in the army, and to this day he enjoys making models. A fine scale model of a ‘Glasgow cart’ is on show with every minute detail faithfully reproduced to full working order. His masterpiece though was a fully working model of an agricultural baler, which his daughter Anita now possesses. His woodworking and metal working skills are still put to use in the accordion repair business and when you examine a hand-made reed block you can really appreciate the craftsman’s skill John possesses.
BOXES
After the 48 bass accordion John’s next purchase was a Hohner Verdi 3 from Forbes of Dundee. The box had previously been owned by George McKelvie who went on to play with the Shand Band. That accordion had a bit of history as it had been smuggled out of Hohner’s factory at the outbreak of war in 1939 by Louis Cabrelli. Louis was an Italian who worked for Hohner and escaped to Britain and john still maintains that Cabrelli was one of the best players he has ever heard playing Italian classic such as ‘Waves of the Danube’. Incidentally the Verdi cost £27 and with the £2/5- change John purchased a 2CC diesel engine from a model shop and using some scrap aluminium built a little racing car, which he and his brothers got hours of pleasure from playing with in the street. “In those days there weren’t many cars around so we attached one end of a length of string to the car and the other to a nail hammered into the road and just let the car spin until it ran out of fuel”. Perhaps hammering the nail into the road surface was to be of significance as John later worked as Fleet Maintenance Manager for Tarmac Construction, the road builders.
After the Verdi John purchased a Hohner Morino IVM. It was straight tuned and John’s father did not like the sound of the accordion so before long it was sold on and replaced with a new Ranco Supervox. This led to John’s long association with Ranco. Although he is currently playing a Classique 37/96 model it has had the ‘Crawford touch’ applied with a few custom changes. All the reeds have been replaced with Ranco reeds and the 16’ (bassoon) reeds have been taken out of the tone chamber and swapped with the 8’ (clarinet) reeds. This process involved John making a new reed block. John handed me his prototype reedblock and on inspecting this work of art lovingly created I asked him how long it had taken him to make “Three or four hours one Sunday morning” he replied. One of the accordions he was working on at the time of the interview was a conversion of another Classique for someone who had heard John’s own box and fancied having it changed to the same configuration.
In John’s little workshop he has his own little tools, many as previously indicated being self-made, along with an array of files, some of which are diamond coated and quite expensive. He has a set of bellows for tuning reeds and a Paterson Chromatic Electronic Tuner. John still ‘uses the lugs’ for tuning and adds that the electronic tuner is a ‘time saver’. I noticed a small electronic hand drill, but John, unlike some tuners, uses this purely for buffing reeds clean. On top of his workbench there are little storage drawers containing reeds and other spares for all makes of accordions. John even has an immense knowledge of reeds explaining that “Shand Morino reeds can be identified by a little dot on them”. An interesting point on reeds came up after the Domino Coupler Day. One owner with a rather rare VM approached John for some advice regarding restoration of the instrument. The owner had been advised that the original Morino reeds had been replaced with ‘inferior’ reeds from a Hohner Artiste five-row accordion. The reason given for this explanation were that all the reeds were stamped ‘Artiste’. Luckily John knew this was not the case and that the ‘Artiste’ reeds were actually the original reeds and explained that these reeds were in fact the finest reeds available.
FINE PLAYER
Apart from being one of the finest tuners around John is, of course, also a first class player. He won the coveted All Scotland Accordion Championship at Perth in 1960 playing the march ‘Jim McBay’s Welcome’, the strathspey ‘Maggie Cameron’ and the reel ‘the Marchioness of Tullybardine’. The adjudicators that day were Ian Powrie and Bobby MacLeod. 1960 proved to be a successful year in the competition ring for john as he also won events held at Gretna and Dumfries. “I was working on the morning of the Dumfries competition” he recalls, “but when I got home my wife, Elizabeth, asked if I fancied going down just to listen? We got into the car and after a journey of several hours we arrived in Dumfries. The first person I met was the late Albie Tedham, the fiddler from Langholm. Albie had won the Fiddle championship at Perth and he suggested that we should enter the Duet competition. Although the pair of us had never played together we found a quiet space and after a quick run through some tunes entered and won. Incidentally john was never out of the top three when competing and fondly recalls the camaraderie with fellow competitors such as Douglas Muir and Jimmy Blue.
BROADCASTING
On the broadcasting front he broadcast with the East Neuk Band along with David Smith also on accordion, Brian Ness on fiddle, Tommy Gathered on drums, Robert Taylor on bass (and vocals) and long standing friend Bill Wean on piano. John recalls doing a broadcast from the famous Coldside Studio in Dundee, 2 the studio was in the Coldside Library, the books being at one end and the studio at the other end of the same room. During a live broadcast someone entered the library and when the door opened this almighty draft blew the music off the stands and all around the studio. Producer James Sloggie and several of the crew were running around frantically trying to gather up the music. On another occasion Robert Taylor was to do a few songs so had to lay his bass down and move to another microphone” continues john “ halfway through a song, Bernard Sumner, the BBC’s official accompanist, who was in the studio to accompany another artiste, picked up the bass and started waltzing around the studio with it. Bernard was a great source of hilarity and I also recall him sitting down at the piano beside Bill Wean, mid-set, and playing harmonies” muses John.
John also recalls in those days that you would do a live broadcast and then go to play at a dance elsewhere later the same night. On one occasion he recalls having to play at a dance in the Assembly Rooms, Dumfries after a broadcast and on the way home the band’s Ford car got stuck in a swollen ford and they had to put all the equipment on the roof of the car and push it out of the water. And just to compound the misery, john had to get home to Fife to start work at 7am the following morning.
John also broadcast with his own ‘Highlandaires’ with Bill Ewan on piano and James Kinnear on drums and also broadcast on a radio programme called ‘For Your Entertainment’ as well as making a few appearance on television.
COMPOSER
John is also a fine composer and among his many known tunes are ‘Bill Ewan’s Reel’, ‘The Bruntley Reel’, ‘Ian’s Reel’ (composed for friend and bandleader Ian McCallum) and a fine march ‘Freuchie’s March to Lords’ written to commemorate the success of the village cricket team. Jimmy Blue also recorded a tune entitled ‘Crawford’s Reel’ but John explained “that it was actually a tune called the ‘Fair Maid of Perth’ with two additional parts, composed by myself.”
Although John had cut a record for Thistle Records back in the 1970’s it was not until 1998 that the real John Crawford was to be heard at his best. His ‘Piping on the Box’ CD, complete with Crawford tartan design, was released on Thane Records (TRCD9803) showing that when it comes to pipe music John has few equals.
John’s daughter, Anita, was also an excellent player but unfortunately had to stop playing due to back problems.
Ask John for his opinion of the music scene today and he will tell you that “technically the youngsters are first class but unfortunately they all sound the same. They play too fast and try to be competitive, trying to outdo each other. Unfortunately there are very few of the young bands with a distinctive sound but at least the music is safe for a few more generations” he continues.
Away from the music scene John’s hobbies include model making and “messing around with anything mechanical” (he even built his own sit-on petrol lawnmower) and apart from the pipes, has also inherited his fathers love of vehicles. John is regularly invited to adjudicate at vintage car and truck rallies. Musically he enjoys all types of music with the exception of heavy rock and the highlight of the week is BBC Scotland’s Pipeline programme, featuring the best of pipe music.
After nearly five hours in John’s company I had to take my leave but still feeling that I had barely scratched the surface. Anyone who has had the pleasure of talking to John, combined with Elizabeth’s fine home baking, will confirm that Bruntley Place is a little bit of heaven on earth. As I was leaving the ‘phone rang yet again with someone seeking advice on purchasing a new accordion. Such is John’s knowledge that he was able to tell the caller about the number of folds in the bellows compared to another instrument and advise on what specification to choose.
When it comes to accordions, playing, tuning, repairing or just general knowledge of the instrument, John Crawford has few equals, and the number of bandleaders who turn to him for advice is proof enough.
This article appeared in the December 2000 / January 2001 issue of the B&F