Guest Performer
Dale Ziech
Featured artist on:
"Cowboy’s Last Ride"
I was born on February 9th 1949 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My family then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I grew up. Every Sunday, my family and I attended the Wisconsin Tabernacle Church where, at the age of four, I first performed during the perennial Christmas concert. I was hooked, in fact my cousin and I fought over the microphone during our entire performance. I started accordion lessons the next year and did so for the next nine years. It was not what I wanted to do but I reluctantly stuck with it. I remember walking to accordion lessons at The North West Conservatory of Music singing “Hound Dog” and playing “Lady of Spain” once I arrived. At age fifteen I insisted on ending my accordion lessons and that Christmas my parents gave me a little Fender guitar. It didn’t take me long to figure out open tuning and later Christmas night my sister and I gave a short concert …a duet.
Milwaukee was in the heart land of America and I grew up in a hard working family during the 1950 and 1960’s. I attended Custer High 1967 , Happy Days High. There were drag races in front of school every day and with a school of over 3,000 students there were three “lunch hours” of fun. Of course with drag races come authority and out there every day were the Principal and the cops chasing the amateur racers.
It was also the days of The Beatles, Stones, Bob Dylan, James Brown to mention a few. In Milwaukee there were two “white” rock and roll radio stations and two “black” R&B stations. I have great memories of driving around in my 1955 Ford with my friends pushing the buttons on the radio; big booming speaker on the dashboard.
I graduated in 1967, the summer of love, right in the middle of the Vietnam “War”.
I made my pilgrimage to California to meet up with a friend out West. We made it back home and in 1969 I was drafted. By that time I had met up with friends who had made it to Vietnam and back and not one gave a good report; far from it. I met witnesses who saw firsthand war crimes by American troops. Fortunately there were other options rather than entering the army or jail for that matter and after my failed application for conscientious objector status I took the good advice from those around me and became an Canadian immigrant.
I moved to Toronto for a year and in the next summer I loaded my bike with my guitar and seventy pounds of gear and peddled up Yonge Street heading west. Near the Manitoba border I blew six bike spokes. Limping through the nearest campsite I met three young Americans on a great journey who were broke. I happened to be losing shoulder room on Canada Highway No. 1 so we joined forces and made our way across Canada.
After many adventures we ended up in Summerland, British Columbia where less than twenty four hours later we were picking apricots in a local orchard. What a beautiful place. This place had the cleanest water I had ever seen and the bluest sky. I was sold and the next year I was working and leasing orchards. An undeniable force had been awakened in me and I was driven to learn how to grow organic food…and that’s exactly what I did for the next forty years.
During that time I played guitar and sang my heart out. I joined musical friends in hootenannies, coffee houses and local halls. It wasn’t until 1990 that I strapped on an accordion again and soon realized what a fabulously configured instrument it is.
My next thought was “ we can drop at least one band member!”
Next step, sell my Lareve guitar, American made Fender guitar and twin Roland amps to go wireless on my 1948, 140 base accordion. I joined together with a base player and conga player to form the “The Squeezeplay,” which then morphed into “Serious Accordion People,” followed by “Modern Accordion Conspiracy.” Almost a decade we played together. During that time I was visualizing the new accordion and it is now manifested into my instrument of choice: the Sandilli Electronic Wireless Accordion; a digital midi interfaceable accordion for the 21st century and beyond. (Contact me for sales information)
While I was working orchards back in Summerland, I met and fell in love with the Earth Mother Donna Denison and we married on the day St. Helens erupted. We moved to her family’s land and cleared six acres. We built a house, had twins, started Little Creek Gardens and Donna started producing the world’s greatest salad dressing “Little Creek Dressing”. As I said before I “dodged” the draft once but I didn’t miss it for a second when my father in law took me down to the local volunteer fire department where I served for twenty six years.
All of these things have helped me find my voice and now is the time to go and share it.