Published by American Accordion Press
Limited First Edition, signed & numbered, $35
Coffee Table format, 128 pages, hardbound, 380+ photos
Available June 2022

Accordionist and chief melody-maker for the band Three for Silver hails from the woods of North Carolina. Sertain sings compellingly in at least a dozen languages, from Greek to Tajik, and sometimes even in English.

Her distinctive pure tones, haunting pathos, and calm demeanor are a natural foil to the madness of Warford. Three For Silver is an aggressively original band that is impervious to easy description. PR people often use phrases like Mythic Americana, Doomfolk, or Apocalypso. Some of those are pretty good, but they still just feel like the desperate necessities of someone forced to fill out a  form box labelled "Genre".

​Three For Silver features one-of-a-kind instruments you've never seen playing styles mixed in ways you've never heard. Perhaps it is pop music from an exceptionally dark parallel dimension. The band has hit the road since 2013, and their monomaniacal devotion has already led them all over the USA and the world, from Accordion Festivals in Vienna to Modern Music Expos in Russia, and even partnering with the US State Department for ongoing cultural exchange tours to countries thirsty for truly original American music.

Q:  What inspired you to start playing the accordion?  

A:  I was playing melodica in a klezmer band, hitchhiking through Mexico in 2007(8?). In the jungles of Palenque the intense humidity really took a toll on that little instrument and the reeds ultimately molded and corroded beyond repair.  We had a show that coming Friday so the violinist of the band went out and bought me a little Parrot accordion. I just started by playing my melodica parts on the keyboard and it grew from there. By the end of the tour I was completely in love with the accordion, even though I never really set out with the clear intention of being an accordionist. When I got back to the states that year I signed up for the Mendocino Balkan camp. I attended Raif Hyseni’s Albanian accordion workshop there. I think everyone in the class had been playing at least 7 years or more and Id only started in the past 6 months. I was in way over my head with that class, but I recorded the whole thing and over the next year just listened to in on repeat all the time. I basically taught myself how to play the accordion from that recording of Raif’s class. 
Over all, the accordion was more like an event that happened to me and consequently shaped the better part of the last 2 decades. 
 

Q:  You have played Balkan music with the bands Macaulay Balkan and Underscore Orkestra. What got you interested in this style of music? 

A: So, I first really became aware of Balkan music before I ever picked up an accordion. In the early 2000s I was living in Asheville NC and my social circle was going through an evolution. There began to be a lot of crossover with this sort of anarcho-acoustic-folk-punks. I moved into an old dilapidated mansion in the historic district with about 9 other people, most of which all played some kind of instrument, mostly violins and accordions, and all the time were just raging to bands like Taraf de Haidouks , Fanfare Ciocalaria, Csokolom, and watching movies like Underground, Black Cat White Cat, Baraka, Gaidjo Dilo. I was playing guitar mostly at that point and was really into early 1920s-30s New Orleans jazz, but was immediately in love with this eastern European music, really fascinated by the accordion, but not seeking out how to play one. I had one friend in this house who was particularly inspiring though.  We were both obsessed with this same kinds of music. She would practice accordion by the fire at night, was learning all these amazing, heart -wrenching klezmer songs with one of the violinists that also lived with us. I would fall asleep listening to them play this music almost every night.  This all was like a foreshadow for my future.  About a year later I had moved from NC, was staying with friends in Oakland and trying to figure out what was my next move.  I randomly ended up going to a festival in Cougar WA.  Several of the ex-housemates from Asheville were there amid an extended family version of the scene Id been living with there. So many wonderful weirdos playing epically beautiful music on wacky instruments. This festival was really when my path trajectory started to shift. I joined the Underscore Orkestra….literally ran away with the circus! I fell in love with a swing-manouche guitarist playing on a trapeze, then jumped on the big green vegetable oil powered school bus and started playing Balkan, Klezmer and Swing manouche on the melodica. This is when the above Mexico story happened and I actually began to play and perform with accordion. Everyone in that group all seemed to share an uncompromising love of the sound of Balkan music and wanted to learn as many songs as possible. We also all shared this deep necessity to keep moving. Going on adventures and playing music was, and very much still is , the be-all end-all of the life. 
After about 9 years with Underscore, touring the US in a variety of busses, and multiple hitchhiking adventures through eastern and Western Europe, I started my current band Three for Silver with Lucas Warford. He had been in Underscore as well for a time and here we had begun to write music together. I really wanted to have a band that played more original compositions and he and I shared a good musical chemistry and had a lot of the same goals. It was a natural transition. Underscore relocated to Ireland and Three for Silver began to home base out of Portland OR. Lucas and I started the band Macaulay Balkan as a side project because we both really missed playing the more traditional tunes, even though we didn’t want to prioritize that style in our main project. It was a really fun band, that unfortunately got left by the wayside as Three for Silvers schedule became more and more rigorous.  

Q: Your main and most current project Three for Silver has been described as Mythic Americana, Doomfolk, and Apocalypso.  You guys have been together 9 years and have created 5 full length albums. How do you think your sound has evolved over the years?

A: Yes, the question of “what genre is Three for Silver” is one who’s answer seems to be constantly evolving.  In the earlier days our sound was definitely more pulling from some straight forward traditional styles, though we never intended to be technically traditional in our performance. The desire to create a more theatrical show, with a very strong emotional arch has been a prevailing intention for this band. The sound has certainly evolved as we hone that intention down more and more. We keep developing our repertoire to remain versatile, so we can play a wide variety of venues, but still maintain this Three for Silver sound that sonically describes the world that we are trying to create. When you come to a Three for Silver show now Id like to think that its a bit more transportive than in earlier years when we were just playing one song after another. We love to create blocks of time where songs are medlied together into these 15 min arcs. We still include folk tunes from the musical cultures that have lended so much inspiration to us, and like to put a lot of energy into doing justice to the emotive quality of these songs. I think the evolution of Three for Silver has grown in intensity and atmosphere to create a more sophisticated transformation of energy into sound. 

Q: What is the best advice you have received about playing music? 

A: The best advice for playing music I have received was probably to just book shows, even if your not feeling ready to perform. Its so easy to put off booking yourself or promoting yourself because you think you need more rehearsals or to expand your repertoire or your website isn’t ready.  If you go ahead and book those shows you have a definite deadline and its amazing how fast that set list fills out. It think its good advice if your battling procrastination. It can help give yourself that extra gumption to start getting out there and playing.  
The other great advice I've gotten is to just say “yes” to everything. Especially when your just starting out. Someone wants you to come play at some random place or for some weird event, just say yes. You don’t know what that will lead to. I can’t say how many times I've met some crucial contact for a future gig, or made an amazing personal connection from situations like this. Just this past week we were asked to play at a random backyard bbq in Dachau Bavaria. We had no idea what to expect and it turned out to be so fun, amazing people, tons of new fans, super lucrative, when it would have just been a boring day off. So, just say yes.

Q: Three for Silver is about to tour Germany, Austria, and Czechia.  You've partnered in the past with the US State department for cultural exchange tours. What are these tours like and is this part of one of those tours? 

Born in 1988, fourth generation Joey Petosa III follows in his forefather's footsteps. After graduating from University of Washington in 2010, Joey joined the family business after years of learning the trade on weekends and in between athletic events. Having played accordion since he was 5 years old, like those before him, Joey appreciated the historical significance of his family's business as it was always a substantial part of his life. After college, he devoted himself to optimizing the family business in a new and modern era while continuing to perfect the production of all petosa accordions.

Q:  You are 4th generation Vice President of a 100 year old accordion company; what was it like growing up in this family tradition? What was your grandfather, Joe Petosa Sr. like?  

A: Some of my earliest memories in early childhood were spending long days at the Seattle shop.  I was everyone's little helper, going from one department to another bothering my uncles and staff to give me projects.  The highlight of my days there was sitting down for long breakfast and lunches with Grandpa P (Joe) and Grandma (Laurie).  It wasn't long before I found myself spending the majority of my time at the workbench with Julio Bugari, our lead technician and my father, Joe.  I had no idea the extent of which my days spent in the shop, with my father and Julio, would affect my interests later in life and ultimately set the foundation for where we are today.  

My Grandfather, Joe Sr., was a man of profound integrity and wisdom, like many of those from his generation.  He seemed to stand 10 feet tall and was my guru that had all the answers, all the good questions that made me feel like I was the only kid on earth, and all the love that kept me pleading with my father to take me to work with him.  My Grandpa, a former athlete, and I shared our first love of baseball together and would always look forward to our sports talk over a meal.  Even as I write this, I am reminded by these recollections of how deep he helped set my roots in athletics, education and our family business.  I will always treasure the memories with my Grandfather, and I miss him dearly.  
 

Q:  How would you describe the current workplace dynamic working with your father?

A: Every father/son workplace has its challenges, and we are no different.  That said, I am fortunate to have a father that is supportive and encouraging, to say the least.  From the days of my younger self seeing my family business unprepared for a digital age and my father's original, understandable reluctance for serious change, it is fascinating to see how far we have come.  Now I am able to see the beauty in it all; the reluctance kept my crazy ideas in check, while my constant drive for innovation pushed my father to realize new possibilities.  Sort of the way our politics once operated; two separate philosophies on different ends of the spectrum that come together to compete for the best ideas, resulting in the most reasonable and effective solutions.  Thankfully one of our strengths is communication and an abundance of love and respect which has allowed us to grind through tough decisions while putting it 'all on the table'.  It's funny how we have both exchanged some ideals in the process; as the years pass, I find myself becoming more of a traditionalist, making 'safer' decisions while my father is more than ever open to change... evidence that we are still learning and making each other better day in and day out.  

Q: As a business owner, what are your typical responsibilities?

A: We all wear many hats, and my first responsibility is to acknowledge my love and appreciation for our team as a whole and every individual that helps make it a success.  I am merely one piece of the puzzle and if any piece were to go missing, it would be irreplaceable.  

I could list a small book's worth of responsibilities as any business owner can relate to, instead I will simplify by saying that I do everything from designing and implementing new production models, supporting customers across the globe and managing our ecommerce and service facility to cleaning the toilets and taking out the trash... and of course, everything in between.   

Q: Accordions are complex instruments with over 5000 parts on the inside; how long does it take to make an accordion start to finish?  

A: As an artisanal producer, our instruments take longer to produce than the average Italian-made accordion.  Much of that additional production time consists of doing nothing at all; letting our fully cured woods dry and acclimate inside the factory for several additional months, just to be sure it has fully cured and will not change shape after production.  The other time-consuming aspects have to do with our construction practices.  For example, the AM-1100 model has a solid all-walnut keyboard, which is much more painstaking to build than a standard wood key with brass guide, and materials are more scarce.  Another example would be the Artista Pro series; a solid Maplewood cabinet is also more painstaking and requires a substantial degree of precision and care.  Imagine, the solid wood sharps/flats are cut from the same Maple tree as the rest of the accordion, then treble and bass registers, then the grille, and so on.  These are raw wood finishes with only a stain and/or clearcoat, so any imperfections in the wood will be exposed.  All of our chambered accordions are built with a solid mahogany tone chamber, much more costly and time-consuming than plied or aluminum construction.  Our bass mechanics are specially designed for sustainable, quiet action.  Instead of efficiently installing the fulcrum rods with space between, we choose to take the extra steps of chroming our mechanisms and building the fulcrum rods as closed together as possible, resulting in a mechanism that does not move over time and becomes more mechanically noisy.  This is why you can see a 60 year old petosa that needs no bass mechanism work other than cleaning and rake alignment.  I could go on but instead will keep it short and simple. 

Q: You’ve recently designed and created some exciting new models, the AM-950 and a new Petosa line Americana; what developments in the accordion industry led you to develop new models and what needs do these accordions meet?