Art Peterson & Laurie Miller
It was literally a door to door salesman that got Art Peterson
started on accordion when he was 8 years old until his teacher went back to Mexico 2 years later. “The Great Folk Music Scare” came along and he picked up the guitar and banjo, eventually doing tours of Germany and Austria as well as playing the San Diego Folk Festival and coffee houses up and down the state of California. Art was also in a show called “An Evening
with Woody Guthrie” which sold out La Pena Cultural Center in
Berkeley every other month for 2 years. Ed Robbin, a great
story teller and close friend of Woody’s, gave the show its
personal tie to Woody.
Art picked the accordion back up at 35 and began playing in
musical saw icon Charlie Blacklock’s band soon afterwards. A
few years later he was a founding member of Those Darn
Accordions and played with them for over ten years, riding all
the way up to Dick Clark’s American Music Awards, playing with
such luminaries as Dick Contino and “Weird Al” Yankovic, and
singing Macho Man on mic with Drew Carey.
After TDA Art formed “The Polka Cowboys” and “Wildcat
Canyon” and began playing for Western Dancing and Contra
Dancing at many venues around the Bay Area including a once a
month Western Dance at a restaurant in El Sobrante for 18
years.
In 2009 he began playing weekly gigs at The Starry Plough in
Berkeley with “The Lost Hippies” which led him to Laurie
Miller, a top performer, vocalist, drummer and bass player at
the Plough for many years.
You can see their pre-pandemic and current schedule
at: www.artpeterson.com
