The Serfs up in Newburyport

Funny thing is that Gary Sredzienski has no idea who the guilty party actually is, the guy who got him started on this crazy quixotic journey, the “accordion god” he saw as a 4-year-old at the Eastern States Exposition. But looking back at it from a distance of more than 40 years later, as he does in “Creek Man: The Unbelievable True Story of the Accordion-Playing Merman,” the stage-play based on his improbable career, Sredzienski figures, well, he might have been a little over-enthusiastic. He was probably just another cookie-cutter Lawrence Welk wannabe dressed up in a shiny monkey suit, his hair combed into a pomp, a glitter vest: a “real accordion geek,” Sredzienski says in his one-man show. But when the guy did the bellows shake, a squeezebox trick that creates a stuttering effect, Sredzienski felt a shiver go up his spine. He knew he had found his calling. Of course, he had no idea that outside his Polish-American enclave in the Connecticut Valley, the accordion was not especially cool, that the phrase "accordion god" could never be used except with a sneer, and even the mere association with the instrument could result in noogies or worse.

Didn’t stop him though. Lessons as an 8-year-old. (You couldn't take lessons until you were 8 years old, for some reason.) Playing in the Hog Hollow Hooters, a vaudeville band whose name didn't cause adolescent giggles back then, for some reason, as a 10-year-old. (“The next youngest player was 70 years old,” he says.) Then came the emotional divorce from his supposed roots, the music most closely associated with the instrument, and his exploration of the actuality of polka (the real deal, a true folk music with dark, minor keys that reveal the turmoil and difficulties of life, not the cheesy, white-bread bastardization of the music popularized by Welk) and the possibilities of the accordion. Then the initially ironic, iconoclastic storming of the University of New Hampshire bastilles with eight examples of the afore-mentioned cheese when the always-hip WUNH was riffing on the “alternative” theme — and instead of getting a couple of laughs, ended up with what has been a two-decade-long gig as host of the Polka Party. (“I’m so sick of doing it,” he says. “I hate polka music so much. Imagine, a thousand years of Polish culture represented by this one song form. That’s just not fair.”) Then, of course, the ultimate challenge: to make people see what a “cool, diverse instrument” the accordion is.

Yeah, he knows. “It’s been a real uphill struggle.” But Sredzienski proves what may seem, to many, counter-intuitive or even a contradiction in terms (the phrase "cool accordion") every time he whips out his ax with the Serfs — the accordion-fronted Seacoast surf band that has been kicking out the alt-jams for, yikes, 20 years and will make its Port premiere this week at the Finch Coffee House. Actually, “surf-rock” is a little too flip a description, but you have to call it something, and no label really sticks. Even Sredzienski is at a loss to explain it, calling it world music, traditional music and surf, a round-peg-square-hold fusion of many styles that refuses to be categorized. Within a Serfs context, that would be ripping through a set that includes traditional music like “Hava Nagila,” and amped-up “covers” of “Flight of the Serfer Bee” and, of course,“Serf City,” tunes from “Cruising the Creek,” the band’s last album. Think Polish wedding meets beach party. It’s not quite right, but gets you into the room.

Actually, the band came together at a Polish wedding. Sredzienski was there, so was a surf/rockabilly band called Beach Cowboys. The two acts fused into the Serfs. The Serfs haven’t recorded in a while. “Cruising the Creek,” their last release, came out six years ago. Sredzienski hopes to get the band back into the studio next year. “It’s been far too long,” he says. But, in the meantime, he’s been doing pretty well with his own catalogue, licensing his music for television and film, including, “Bad News Bears,” Eddie Murphy’s “Meet Dave,” CBS’s series “Love Monkey,” ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money” and NBC's "The Philanthropist." He’s got something coming up on the CBS series “Brothers and Sisters.”

Then there’s the whole swimming — and stage — thing: He’s a swimming nut. Yeah, a Serf in the surf. Five days a week, 12 months. In the dead of winter? And not dip-your-toes-in-the-water-and-call-it-a-day, either. Like a swim to the Isle of Shoals during January. Raised a pile of dough for charity. It’s all laid out in “Creek Man,” written and and performed by Sredzienski and directed by Kent Stephens. The play, which was staged a couple of times in New Hampshire this past summer, was a great experience. Not. He was abused by a team of literary thugs. He would write and they would tear it apart the next day. “It was torture,” says Sredzienski, 47. “I’m no writer. I’ve never even been in a play.” Then there was the schedule, to do two shows a day — up there, alone, no escape, not even a chance to duck into the shadows when someone else takes a solo. “Brutal,” he says. “Being in a band is like a vacation.”

JUST THE FACTS, MAN: Gary Sredzienski and the Serfs perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Finch Coffeehouse, located at 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport, MA. Tickets are $15. Tickets are available at Dyno Records, and at the door the night of the show. For more information, about the show, contact Karen by email or at 978-465-5767. More information about the Serfs here. More info about the Finch here.

New season takes flight at Finch Coffeehouse

Finch Coffeehouse is more than just a collection of folkies whooping it up in the basement of a Unitarian church, playing to post-hippie audiences hopped up on so-so coffee and chowing down on brownies that don't have the kick we may or may not remember from the old days. But the venue, does feel like "old Newburyport," says Finch founder and manager Karen Dardinski, recalling, at least in spirit, the sense of community from the fabled old days of the late '70s, when artists hung out and created, when they could afford to live in the city.

The venue is coming off a wildly successful opening season, one that saw, despite the down economy and virtually no budget, mostly sell-out shows that included local favorites like E. J. Ouellette, circuit regulars like Harvey Reid and Joyce Anderson, and suddenly on-fire national acts like the Eilen Jewell Band — a success for which Dardinski, a visual artist who managed the Firehouse Gallery for 15 years and operated a Port catering business, takes absolutely no credit. "It's really been a surprise," she says. "It's been wonderful, every part of it. I've been lucky. I didn't know what I was doing. I'm a caterer. I know how to throw a party, but that's all."]

[When she launched the coffeehouse last year with Sue Ann Pearson, who has since moved on to manage the Lowell Folk Festival, the Finch concept was simple: To keep live music alive — and, with 15 buck tickets, affordable. She looked for a space where expenses would not crush the dream, and she got it from the First Religious Society, for low rent. She lined up Tom Eaton, owner of the Tannery-based Thomas Eaton Recording, to do the sound. “Good sound was crucial,” she says. Then she started contacting performers and offered them a nice space with good sound and short pay and figured they would politely turn her down, but no one did. She did the food herself.

The Finch is familiar, but different. It’s not Me & Thee North or New Moon East, it’s not just usual suspects. Good as they are, how many times, and in how many different venues, are people willing to see, say, Bill Staines or Bob Franke — not to single these guys out, but to point to somewhat ubiquitous faces in a close scene. The sophomore season will open with Les Sampou, a folkie whose sound is infused with a rock and blues vibe, and include shows by The Serfs, accordion-slinger Gary Sredzienski’s surf-rock band, as well as a long-overdue reunion of Roll & Tumble, the Newburyport-based acoustic blues band that kicked up a lot of dust in the late 1990s. They’ll be the opening act for the Justin Quinn Band, an electric blues band. The season will also include local heroes like singer-songwriter Kate Redgate and crowd favorites like Mark Erelli, David Surette and Susie Burke. Other acts on the horizon include the Gibson Brothers, a bluegrass band, and singer-songwriter Tracy Grammer.

The venue, which has acquired non-profit status since opening, is also looking at reaching out into the community: synching up the music program with cash-strapped schools, providing master classes for adults and advanced students — even, some time in the future (“after we get a lot better at this,” says Dardinski), putting together a folk festival.

Ironically, the best memory from the season for Dardinski comes from the New England Troubadour show, featuring Joyce Anderson, Harvey Reid, Dave Surette, Susie Burke, Justin Quinn and Susan Levine — the one concert where they overreached, staging the show upstairs in the church, since they expected big numbers that did not materialize. The image that stays with her is Anderson sawing away on her fiddle, playing with her young child in a papoose, dozing while she played. But it was the feel of the performance that made the show truly memorable: “It felt like jamming on the back porch and that’s what I was looking for,” says Dardinski. “ I wanted to develop a community, and I think we've done it. It feels really good.”

JUST THE FACTS, MAN: Les Sampou opens the second season of the Finch Coffeehouse at 8 p.m. September 18 at the First Religious Society, 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased in advance at Dyno Records, 1 Middle St., Newburyport, or at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m. Coffee, light fare and desserts are available. For more information, log onto finchcoffeehouse.org.]