Photo by Richard Lautens, Toronto Star.

I’m not the only accordion guy in town, and I’m glad to see some younger folks taking up the instrument. Here’s an excerpt from a Toronto Star article titled Squeezing Life Into His ‘Hood:

Ronen Segall uses his bright red accordion to inject life into his Huntley St. home near Bloor and Sherbourne Sts.

The 25-year-old is an information technology employee by day, but come the weekend he’s an accordion-squeezing entertainer. French favourites are always a crowd pleaser, he finds.

Segall played the piano for years but he was looking for a more portable way to share his love of music. He picked up his 48 bass-button piano accordion in Kensington Market about a year and a half ago.

He admits it takes a sense of humour to walk the streets with an accordion. But he is a social guy.

“I like talking with people. I think this breaks the ice.”

Segall can be hired to play events but doesn’t play for money on the street.

To earn cash as a busker, you need to crank out the show tunes, he explains, and he prefers songs from movies such as Amelie and the Oscar-winning tune “Falling Slowly” from the film Once.

Segall likes to play music on a stone bench in front of his home. “I think it adds a nice atmosphere to the street.” When he plays it’s common for people to stop, start a conversation and occasionally dance. “Old folks love to dance,” and a French tune is almost guaranteed to get them stepping, Segall says.

You can catch Ronen at the corner of Bloor and Brunswick on weekends or at Crêpes A GoGo in Yorkville. I salute him with a filet mignon on a flaming sword for his keeping the accordion alive!

[Thanks to vinyl demon for pointing me to this story!]