When Kaya Anderson-Payne was co-coordinator of the Peace-A-Chord a few years ago, she was trying to come up with a good name for the event’s many eager volunteers: Peace-A-Chord-ers? Peace-A-Chordians? Peace-A-Chordions? A great name, especially if you love a pun, and one packed with potential.

So was born an idea that was finally realized this summer past – the Peace-A-Chordions, a rag-tag group of peace-loving accordion players and accordion-player-wannabes, under the direction of Kaya, took to the stage this summer in Bannerman Park as the first act of the Peace-A-Chord. If you haven’t heard an assemblage of accordions (of various kinds, including the bright plastic, one and a half octave variety) playing “Give Peace a Chance,” “Fixin’ to Die” or “Blowin’ in the Wind” with kazoo and fiddle back-up, then you don’t really what you’re missing. Which was, if I can say as one of the wannabes, quite a bit. After a very brief pre-performance rehearsal which included teaching a couple of the performers how to play accordion, the group took to the stage; what we lacked in rehearsal time we more than made up for with enthusiasm and general hilarity. Of course, it didn’t hurt to have some fine and accomplished musicians in the mix!

I don’t know if the audience enjoyed the performances as much as we did – I hope so, though at our worst we might have made listeners value another sort of peace – but the Peace-A-Chordions seem to me an idea whose time has come. Thanks to Kaya for steadfastly holding on to a pun that needed to be lived out, and to the other players – Fergus O’Byrne; Jim Payne; Bob, Malcolm and Fiona Rutherford; Daniel Bursey; Gillian Strong; Tara Bryan; Meghan King; Caroline Clarke (on kazoo); Katie Baggs (on fiddle). What better way to start any festival than with a clutch of accordion players??