
On nice Wednesday nights, if you’re lucky, you can find Leah Schinasi, Jordan Hutchinson, and Phil Blank paused somewhere on the streets of Carrboro playing music. Equal parts fiddle, clarinet, and accordion, these three join forces as Gmish to play klezmer in a style that blends the flashier concert customs with the downhome dance traditions.
If you ask Phil, though, mostly “they spend way too much time deciphering the complex language of ornaments, phrasing and rhythm from scratchy 78s.”  The fidelity and passion of the tunes they play thanks to all that time head-scratching and busking on the sidewalks around town pays off with wildly fun shows. But don’t just take my word for it, catch Gmish in full tilt next Thursday, September 30th, at The Nightlight where they’ll be joined by Taraf de Unemployed and Blood Jar Creepers, as well as, folklorist Vincent Joos, who’ll be sharing stories about his recent fieldwork in Romania.
And now just five questions for Gmish’s king of the squeeze-box:

1. If your band were a dance move, what would it be?
A slow draggy dance, with lots of hand movement, shuffling feet, and gazing (what they now call “social
networkingâ€), preferably under a street light.
2. Why did you name the group Gmish (yiddish for mish-mash)?
Leah, the fiddler who thought of it says, “hmm it was a while ago…. I think my idea was that the word
gmish described us as a group, in that we were different people with different histories and backgrounds
(musical and otherwise) coming together to play the same music. Plus it’s just a fun word! “
3. Describe your feelings toward the accordion.
The accordion is the primal ooze of instruments. I have an old beat-up one where you can hear the notes crawl out of it, open their eyes and squint into the sun. It tends to be in the muddled middle of things, sonically and physically. Even motherly maybe? Push!

4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that might really surprise people?
Most of my inspiration comes from local traditions to which I was not “kin†but was lucky enough to experience in raw, unamplified and casual contexts. Seeing my wife sing gospel music from her youth and seeing her relationship to it was a demonstration of the emotional potential of that music and an inspiration for me to never (never never ever) try that myself. Hearing David Long play Bill Monroe style mandolin helped me understand the blunt overpowering punch that can be in traditional music. It is something that doesn’t always come across on recordings and seems to be rapidly fading. I once watched my friend Ben Hartlage listen to the Stanley Brothers and I heard the resolute male humility and regret in Carter’s voice (I was always distracted by Ralph’s part.) I’ve been lucky enough to have dozens of these moments and they really gave me an ear for hearing things in klezmer and other musics from the
same period in history.
5. What did you want to be when you were a kid? (How did that work out?)
When I was a kid, I mostly wanted to be left alone to read, draw and play music. So far so good!
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Scoot over to The Nightlight September 30th to see Gmish in action. And, by all means, give Phil a high five when you see him!