Decatur shop keeps rare accordions alive and playing
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Accordionology founder Jack Brantley (left) and sales and service manager Kyle Turner. Photo: Thomas Wheatley/Axios
In the downstairs workshop of a Decatur bungalow, Jack Brantley and Kyle Turner keep accordions from across the country bellowing and droning.
Why it matters: Brantley and Turner run Accordionology, a two-person, appointment-only business with decades of combined experience repairing and restoring the niche instruments.
- "We are the only full-service accordion shop in the entire Southeast," Brantley, who lives upstairs with his wife and dogs, told Axios.
- "There are a couple of folks who do repairs in their woodshed. But in terms of having new Italian instruments and a full selection — this is it."
Catch up quick: 25 years ago, a friend gifted Brantley, who co-founded two start-up technology businesses and fixed and built guitars on the side, an accordion.
- He promptly disassembled and reassembled the instrument and was fascinated by its complexity and quirkiness.
The business grew by word of mouth. Around 2023, a friend introduced Brantley to Turner, a trained pianist who loved an accordion's vibrating sound and surprising accessibility.
Zoom in: An accordion can hold more than 500 reeds, which are fixed in place with beeswax that can stick for 30 to 50 years.
- Tuning an accordion requires Brantley and Turner to make tiny scratches on each reed to raise and lower the pitch. Done correctly, the instrument can stay in tune for decades.
In the weeds: Repairing the bellows, the expandable chamber that sends air passing over the reeds, is kind of like performing surgery on paper lungs.
- The duo uses bright lights in dark rooms to find microscopic holes where air escapes and source specialized accordion parts from from Castelfidardo, Italy, considered the "international capital of accordion builders."
The big picture: Their work trays are full of handmade tools, actual dental scrapers and a stethoscope to find leaks and tears. It's not the kind of work that AI could quickly render obsolete.
- People from across the region come to drop off the fragile instruments, many of which are family heirlooms dating back to the 1950s. Others ship them.
- That decade is when the instrument made famous by the vaudeville era experienced a resurgence before getting sidelined by the guitar.
- They currently are repairing more than 25 accordions. Repair prices depend on the instrument's condition, and restorations can run from $300 to $3,000.
Upstairs is a showroom featuring diatonic accordions, piano accordions and concertinas dating back to the 19th century. The store sells imported accordions from Italy and France, and regularly restores older accordions for resale.
Zoom out: Atlanta is home to one of the Southeast's few accordion clubs and players like Atlanta Braves organist Matthew Kaminski and George Voorhees, a teenage rising talent.
What's next: Brantley, Turner and others will celebrate World Accordion Day on May 2 — around the same date that the instrument was patented in 1829 — at Waller's Coffee near Decatur.
- The free event includes performances, a jam session, a mini-accordion museum, food and drinks and more.