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cd cover Kip Peltoniemi
Minnesota Tango
$15.99

Kip presents "music from the Finnish triangle," a place that, judging from the music herein, is full of life, beauty and danger in equal measure. Produced by Arto Järvelä and featuing an all-star cast of Finnish and American musicians, he presents gentle dance tunes, charming polkas, bizarre original songs and energetic instrumentals.

Listen to "Two Polkas" (Real Audio)

MP3 samples:
Kan-"Tele" Schottische
Minnestoa Tango
Quiet Polska
Accordions from Hell
(©2001 K. Peltoniemi, used with his permission)

Bio:
Kip Peltoniemi was raised in the Finnish Triangle, a hot bed of rural Finnish culture and button accordion music located in northern Minnesota. Sadly, Kip is the last of the old-time Finnish-American button accordionists from the "Triangle." Efforts to re-introduce button accordionists by the Department of Natural Resources have failed, so you better see Kip while you have the chance.

Kip first learned button accordion on his great uncle's knee. Since the button accordion is a very physical instrument, this meant that Kip was knocked on the floor everytime his uncle extended the bellows. Undeterred and missing a few teeth, the young lad kept at it, practicing in his grandpa's barn in front of a Jersey herd whenever he got a chance. The herd's lactative capacity increased until finally his grandpa made him quit playing, because he couldn't keep up with the milk flow. Fossilized heaps of cottage cheese remain behind the old Peltoniemi barn to this day as evidence of Kip's appeal to bovine audiences. Craving the attention once given by Jersies, Kip began playing for humans out of desparation. After years of obscurity, he was discovered by Finnish researchers in 1991. This led to a number of his tunes being recorded by Pinnin Pojat, a top folk duo made up of Arto Järvelä and Kimmo Pohjonen. Kip also began teaching his style of playing at the Kaustinen Folk Music Institute (1993) and the Sibelius Academy (1995 and 1999). In June, 2001, a solo album of his songs and instrumentals, "Minnesota Tango," was released on Texicalli Records of Helsinki. Guest musicians on this recording come from such illustrious groups as JPP, Värttinä, Zetaboo, Tallari, and the Progmatics.

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