Ralph died September 2013. This is what he wrote:
I started playing the Diatonic button accordion in 1996 after attending Joe Smiell's Button Box Camp in the high Sierras at age 69, I am now 82 and continue to enjoy playing although I have acquired a slight "familial tremor" to my hands. This doesn't really bother me most of the time, only sometimes playing solo at the Accordion Club. Since acquiring a dv Canon ZR850 video camera I've been taping friends who are in our Accordion Club of the Redwoods and with their permission. We have some very Professional and talented performers besides amateurs as myself. I've had trouble with my Canon ZR 850 and am using a new JVC- Everio gzmg-330. Mattinata Di Matteo is the first group I've been trying it out with and wish i could get a sharper picture. Will take all advice, if it's civil! My beautiful wife, Ann & I have been happily married for 48 yrs. (48 on July 1, 2009).Hometown: /Albany, Troy, N.Y. Area now live in Windsor, CA