Art Form: Finnish American accordion playing

Location(s): Mass City (Ontonagon County)

Art Moilanen

Art Moilanen with his piano accordion; photo by Al Kamuda

Les Raber, on the left, and Art Moilanen get together for tunes at the music jamboree held every year in Aura

Michigan's western Upper Peninsula (UP) is home to the nation's largest concentration of Finnish Americans and is locally referred to as "the sauna belt." Art Moilanen was the dean of Finnish-American piano accordionists in this region.

Art Moilanen (1916-2005) lived in Mass City most of his life. He was a logger and tavern keeper, while all the time playing the accordion. He began to "fool around" with his brother's accordion in 1930 and to imitate what he had been hearing from first-generation Finnish-American farmers and lumberjacks, and he "picked up alotta these Finn songs from a record that we had on an old phonograph at home." (1) He played ever since. His musical repertoire embraced Finnish-American, country western, and regional dance tunes, reflecting influence of other local ethnic musics, the media, and the UP environment. Two significant influences were Viola Turpeinen, an accordionist and icon in Finnish-American culture, and Frankie Yankovic, "the Polka King." Because of Viola Turpeinen, Art acquired a piano accordion and learned her style and her songs, a style he played until his death. Art also played "a pretty good polka," some of which he attributed to Frankie Yankovic. One of Art's specialties was parodies of pop songs in English. The lyrics are UP or Finnish-American specific and often are about locals; they are expressions of regional values and attitudes or Art's assessment of situations. Art was something of a cultural mediator, communicating both Finnish-American and UP culture values and history to outsiders through the medium of his songs.

Art's musicianship was acknowledged by many. He received Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship awards in 1991 and 1992 to teach piano accordion and Finnish-American music. He played at music festivals throughout the Great Lakes region and in Finland, for ethnic dances in the region, at local bars, and participated in music and cultural conservation workshops. In 1987 he participated in the Smithsonian Institute's American Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. and the Festival of Michigan Folklife in East Lansing. He was featured on recordings of traditional music of the Upper Peninsula by James Leary and in the film Tradition Bearers (1983) by Michael Loukinen. In 1990 Art received the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts which is the nation's highest honor for folk and traditional artists. Even as late as 2002, just a few years before his passing, Art said, "After 70 years of music, why quit now!" (2)

(1) Moilanen, Art. Quoted in James Leary, "Reading the 'Newspaper Dress': An Expos? of Art Moilanen's Musical Traditions," in C. Kurt Dewhurst and Yvonne Lockwood, eds. Michigan Folklife Reader, East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press.

(2) Moilanen, Art. Personal communication with Yvonne Lockwood, 2002.