I Wouldn't Call It a Fetish. Yet.

We all have preferences in the opposite sex. Some women like muscley jock-types, others like men who are tall, dark and handsome and still other women like men in uniform. Pretty typical, eh? Not me. I like accordion players. You heard me right. I dig men who play the accordion. There is something so sexy about men who are a. musicians and b. play an instrument otherwise known as a “squeezebox.” It’s not a fetish, per se… just a preference. Ha.

I am at the 9:30 club with April and a few friends to see Ozomatli. The opening band is on-stage and they are actually pretty decent. They are an Afrobeat band playing big-band funk music. The instrumentation is impressive – they’ve got trumpets, trombones, saxophones and a sweet percussion section. Then all of the sudden the keyboard player pulls out an accordion. ::Swoon:: I get an idea. I ask the girls if anyone has a pen.

I don’t know what came over me – it’s a stunt I might have pulled as a 16 year old (well, let’s be honest, I DID pull a similar stunt when I was 16 and left a note for a musician at Busch Gardens on his music stand). I guess I have a long history of this type of behavior.

After accordion man reads the piece of paper, all of my friends point at me so he knows who wrote him the note. I keep trying to catch his eye but he is in the zone. This might mean that either he isn’t interested or perhaps has a girlfriend. Ah well – still fun to pass a note to a musician while they’re on stage. I’m such a groupie! As soon as he gets off stage he texts me and says “Hello Jamie, I would very much like to take you up on that adult beverage.” Success! It worked!!! I can hardly believe it. My friends are in shock. They can’t comprehend what they’ve witnessed.

Ryan, a.k.a. accordion man, and I grab a drink after the show. He’s a full-time musician and a pretty cool guy. He tells me I made his night (and possibly month) with my note and that it would be gracing his refrigerator when he got home. Says it’s usually the guitar players that get hit on – not the keys player. Ryan is impressed with my gumption. So are my girlfriends. But I have to remind people that it’s not bravery so much as it’s shamelessness.

I am shameless. And rockin’ it. Thanks to my shamelessness, I might have found an accordion-playing beau.