Background.
Andy was of German/Scots descent and spent his life in South East Queensland living at different times at Oakey, Peranga, Roma, Wallangarra and for the last forty years in Warwick. He was at different times a railway fireman, a main roads worker, and worked on the building of the wall at Leslie Dam near Warwick. He visited Brisbane regularly through the seventies and eighties, scouring antique and junk shops for instrument and records. He visited his sister Rene and her family, his lifelong friend Elva Fagermo at Spring Hill and other friends he had around Brisbane.
He was a multi faceted man whose interests were wide and varied. His practical and bush skills were notable and he was a collecter of many things. Including musical instruments, old bottles and he fossicked for gemstones, was a skilled cutter and stone polisher and he developed a keen sense of natural history along the way. He was meticulous and fatidious about anything he did and one could be forgiven for thinking something had been performed by a expert in the field other than an ex railway fireman. He gardened, made preserves - his sauerkraut was a delight - did gemstone cutting and polishing and was a keen observer of politics and history. He also collected 78 RPM records - around about 2000 - and wind up gramaphones which he repaired patiently and also restored antique furniture. He educated himself to the end by reading widely on many subjects.
His father played button accordion and Andy started on the mouth organ first and then the button accordion. He had no formal music training and learned tunes from other bush players and his Father, still playing many of these tunes until he died. He learned music from his 78 records. He progressed from the single row style developing a smooth and elaborate cross rowing technique on the two and three row accordion. He also taught himself to play the piano accordion, anglo-concertina, and in later years, fiddle. He had great patience skills at repairing as well as playing all of these instruments.
Over the years he opened up his place to visitors to record his 78 records and for music sessions. His generousity was legendary and he helped many to get a start on music. Though without any of his own he was warm and generous to children. No sooner would a child sit down and show interest in the accordion then Andy would have them pumping out a scale and their first tune. He taught a number of locals, young and old, to play the accordion who may never be known in the folk scene or outside their own local community but who remember him with great affection. He had some money and two of his prized concertinas stolen in the eighties dampening his enthusiasm to a large degree but not slowing him down completely.
Andy was an enigma in that he was part observer and part participant. On one hand he was a genuine part of the tradition and on the other, a revivalist of music and traditions passed. Andy never pushed his own barrow, always quietly humble about his own ability and role as a player. While others would be jockeying for positions on the musical ladder he would be inconspicuously among the crowd. He remained in awe and enthusiastic of the wonder of music, and in particular, the accordion, until the end.
Andy Grant and Russell Mackay - Teneriffe Brisbane 1983
Andy's Music
Andy accordion playing was originally inspired by the single-row button accordion style of his father. He was not a player for dancing, although he understood the basic dances and the tunes that worked for them. He was born in 1919 at the end of the first world war and it the music he played reflected that period and later.
Of German descent on his mothers side he remembered the german speakers in his family and some older musicians, such as accordion players Fritz Schick from his younger days in the Peranga area near Toowoomba and Bert Bretz from Warwick.
His music grew from his fathers tunes through to music from his 78rpm collections as he was drawn back to accordion again in his years in Warwick. He always made the point that we younger players should understand that although radio music had begun to dominate in the 1930s that the 78rpm and cylinder phase preceded that by almost thirty years. By his own admission he diverted away from the more 'modern' 78s recorded in the electronic recording period from the late 1930s onwards that included modern country and western, jazz bands and popular music.
Drawing by Lib Conrick
During the 1980s he was still having sessions with other players and was visited by newer players from around the country who soaked up his hospitality and learned music with him and he loved the interest. He was a regular in Brisbane where he stayed at Newmarket with his sister, Rene, where he scoured the antique and second-hand shops for instruments and 78rpm records. He would visit our house often and spend the day talking and playing with whoever was there and discussing and giving advice on instrument repairs, history and many other subjects.
Cathy Duffy and myself visited him many times in Warwick and recorded him on a number of occasions. He played tunes his father played and tunes he had picked up and learned from his records and other players. He played schottisches, barndances, waltzes, mazurkas, and polkas, marches, varsoviannas, and popular tunes of all types. He loved the Carter Family, Narmour and Smith, Jimmy Rodgers and recording artists of that era that preceded the electronic period of Hank Williams and the modern country music artists.
Andy Grant was found dead at his home in Warwick on Sunday, November 14th,1999, one day after his 80th birthday. He died peacefully in his bed and was buried in Warwick cemetary alongside other members of his family. Until he died he regularly went on bus trips to to Clubs where he would flutter on the pokies and socialise. He walked daily to town for shopping and kept fit by regularly doing early morning walks and whenever anyone would stay with him he would have them out walking with him. He is missed by his many friends.
There are two tunes from Andy on our Mp3 Audio page.
Photos and text by Lionel O'Keefe 2006