(upbeat music) - [Shirley] Meet the sometimes unsuspecting participants who build community through songs.

- Some know that they're gonna be singing, and some don't.

- [Shirley] Polka musicians aren't the only ones interested in playing the accordion.

- It's like really fun.

(accordion music) - And the musical act that tours the country in their custom-made, eco-friendly bus.

(upbeat music) Thanks for tuning in.

Our show tonight is all about music.

We begin with a few community choirs in our region.

This year, we highlighted two of them, the Fishtown Choir, where anyone can join, and the Anna Crusis Feminist Choir, which has been around for 50 years.

(choir singing) - I'm Miriam Davidson.

I'm the Artistic Director of Anna Crusis Feminist Choir in Philadelphia.

(choir singing) Our founder, Catherine Roma, wanted to create a choral program for women's voices that spoke to American history through the eyes of women.

And over time, Anna became a place where women wanted to mix music and politics and feminism.

And so Cathy had a mission to create a body of music by, for, and about women.

One, two.

We have grown to expand our voices to include singers who identify as non-binary, or gender fluid or trans.

And for us, social justice is always changing.

And so we are doing our best to learn and be informed and grow as our community needs to grow.

Choir consists of folks from ages 18 to 80.

And that's one of the things that people talk about as being so special about us, is that they get a chance to hang out with people who are a lot older, or a lot younger than they are, and to bring a sense of worldview that might be different than theirs, depending on what generation you're in.

It's become a really special part of the choir.

(choir singing) - When I got to Philadelphia, I found this feminist choir, and it just felt like the perfect fit for me.

Here's this choir that aligns with my values.

They have a very varied repertoire, and I was just really excited to become a part of it.

- I just think that there's such value in having a community where you're creating things, and you're able to express yourselves with other people.

And singing is one of my favorite ways to express myself.

So being able to do that here is really special to me, yeah.

- Being in this choir is a transformative experience for everyone, number one.

I think being at an Anna concert is a transforming experience also.

Because the energy and the vibrancy and the love and the care and the commitment and passion to social justice just oozes off of everyone, and you can't help but be infected and connected to it.

(choir singing) Art brings people together.

♪ We are sending you love ♪ ♪ I made a lot of mistakes ♪ ♪ I made a lot of mistakes ♪ Exactly.

Sounds so beautiful when we all sing it together.

But we only all sing it together the first time.

So everybody sings that.

♪ I made a lot of mistakes ♪ And then if you're - - I had this idea of doing a community choir.

I asked my good friend, Melissa Schepers, if she would do it with me.

We do this every few weeks, every month or so, where we just go to different venues and bars in the city, teach people songs and then perform them.

Hey, everybody!

- [Audience] Hi!

- Welcome to Fishtown Choir.

Thanks for coming.

- And a lot of people have come and been like, "Where's the choir?"

And they don't realize that they're the choir.

So it's really fun when we have people come, and some know that they're gonna be singing, and some don't.

And it just ends in a really nice community night of song.

- [Speaker] It's a long one.

- [Brian] The first one we did, we had between 80 or 90 people that just showed up, not knowing what they were getting into.

We didn't tell 'em what songs they were singing.

When someone walks into here, sometimes they don't know what to expect.

- [Melissa] They mingle, come to the bar, get a drink, and then usually like half an hour later, or an hour later, we'll start.

Sometimes we do a warmup.

- [Brian] But there's no sheet music.

We hand them a lyric sheet at the door, first, say 45 minutes.

Melissa will teach them all the parts, the three part harmonies, the arrangements.

(choir singing) (choir singing continues) - What songs already have existing harmony, so then it's easier for people to sing that because they learn in their, it's familiar to them, 'cause they've heard it in the song already.

- Some people are professional singers that come.

But a lot of people that sang in choir in high school.

And there's people like me, that were never allowed to be in choir.

And by the end, everybody's singing.

And for the most part they all sound pretty good.

- Tonight is Sufjan Stevens.

So that's really popular to some people.

(choir singing) It's all popular music.

We don't do anything obscure.

(choir singing) - [Brian] We did a fundraiser for them at Lutheran Settlement House.

Was a great organization in the Fishtown neighborhood, where we did Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

And that was really nice, and a lot of crying at the end of that one.

- [Melissa] Yeah.

- [Brian] So... ♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪ - [Melissa] It's always fun when Brian and I share suggestions, 'cause I am 27 and he's - - [Brian] 44.

- [Melissa] 44.

- [Brian] It's a fun dynamic.

We're like, "Oh, we should do this!"

She goes, "I don't know who that is."

- We're gonna start with a warmup actually, that's on the second side.

Turn over your sheet.

I'm a music teacher here in the Philly school district.

Start at the part where - I love that this gives me an outlet to just connection right away.

Sometimes when you teach music it's like months and months and then everything leads up to one concert.

And the beautiful thing about this is like, every month is the concert, and everyone who's here wants to be here, and is making beautiful community together.

(gentle music) (choir cheering) - [Melissa] You did it!

- Imagine my surprise when I learned how popular the accordion is.

Yep, the number of people interested in learning how to play the instrument is on the rise.

And the Acme Accordion School in Haddon Tonwship is where you can get lessons.

(screen whooshing) (metronome ticking) - The first patent for an accordion was 1829.

All right, ready?

Bam, ba, bam, ba, one, two, three, four.

(accordion music) (accordion music continues) We have a piano keyboard on one side.

Generally that's mostly for the melodic part of the instrument.

The left hand part of the instrument is normally for the accompanimental side.

And that part in the middle, that's called the bellows.

(accordion music) - [Shirley] Joanna Darrow started playing the accordion when she was seven, here at the Acme Accordion School in Westmont, New Jersey.

Now 77, Joanna runs the school.

- Music education and accordion education are our primary goals.

So we try to give a complete education as far as theory, music history, ear training, and how to play the instrument properly.

(accordion music) Playing the accordion is very personal.

The accordion vibrates.

And you breathe with the breathing of the instrument.

Because it works on air, you literally begin to breathe with the instrument.

And when you're doing that, then you're emitting the emotional end of playing.

- [Shirley] Joanna's students range in age and ability.

Take 10-year-old Nate Smith for example.

He was introduced to the accordion through his school's accordion club.

(accordion music) The fifth grader has only been playing for a year, but he's already showing tremendous potential.

- It has all these different buttons and features.

It's basically like so fun.

And I'm focusing on the music, so it's really fun.

(accordion music) - It was most popular in the early 60s.

And then it went through a lull, and came back quite strongly, and went through another lull.

(accordion music) - [Shirley] But now interest in the accordion is on the rise again.

And Joanna is fielding calls left and right from folks looking to pick up the accordion for the first time, or looking to pick it up again.

Like Ken Reed, who started playing when he was eight.

- The neighbor down the street played his accordion out on his porch all the time, and just fell in love with the instrument.

And then, you go to school, you have a family, you have a job, and you play less and less.

And sat about a 25-year dip.

But I got the bug again.

And I started again about 15 years ago.

(accordion music) And I also learned that my story's very similar to a lot of other people.

They went dormant for a long time, and then in retirement or shortly thereafter, they would pick up again.

- [Joanna] The sound of an accordion is a very round sound.

Some people think of as being a very harsh instrument, but it's the totally opposite.

You need to create the sound and bring the sound out of the instrument.

(accordion music) - An instrument that's withstanding the test of time, making beautiful music along the way.

(accordion music) (accordion music continues) These next stories are about the people who help make beautiful music.

If becoming a recording artist is on your bucket list, Philly's Lil' Drummaboy Recordings can help you with that.

But first, the Community College of Philadelphia's Piano Technician Certificate is hitting the right note with aspiring piano tuners.

(piano music) - Piano tuning and piano restoration is a craft.

Music is an art.

And when the two intersect, the art and the craft, then something happens.

- Students can come here, they can get their Associate's Degree in Music Performance, and also do the piano technician training program and certificate on top of that.

(piano music) There aren't any other Associate Degree programs in the United States that are offering this kind of instruction.

And so what we've done is brought it into the community college platform.

So a number of years ago, we were donated a very old Steinway grand piano, and I was contacted by them, telling me that John is the guy in Philadelphia who can work on the Steinway piano.

And so a number of years later, I needed an instructor to kickstart this program.

And so that's how that relationship started.

(piano music) - I think I'm the only independent Steinway certified piano technician in this area.

These people I've worked for Sigma Sound, and Gamble and Huff.

I rebuilt Mr.

Gamble's piano.

I had a couple stints with Barbara Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, John Mayer, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, I've tuned for several times.

Working with these wonderful people.

I've tuned pianos at every jazz club in Philadelphia, Wells Fargo, the Academy of Music.

So when Live Nation calls me, I'm working for Live Nation.

That's the big guns, and then the smaller venues as well.

And people's homes.

(piano music) We were at a home, they had a Steinway B. And the Steinway B was made especially for Benny Goodman, which for me was one of the highest honors of my life to even be working on Benny Goodman's original piano.

I think the three T's for this type of work are tuning, touch, and tone.

I have three amazing students.

Celeste, Jared, and Jason.

They have various backgrounds, they're all musical, they all have knowledge in sound engineering.

They were all interested in learning about piano technology.

I wanna work with people who are really serious about music, who've got a great attitude.

These three really know what they wanna do, and it's gonna be wonderful to pass the torch.

I've had a very fruitful, wonderful career.

It's still going on.

I want them to have a wonderful career too.

- I am an audio engineer by trade.

Being able to go out and do these house calls and experience what the work is like, day-to-day, with John has been really fascinating.

- Well, I actually have a Bachelor's in Musicology.

My main instrument is piano.

This program is implementing the everyday occurrences that you'll see within the industry of piano tuning and rebuilding and reconditioning, which is really interesting.

- It is amazing to have an instructor like John.

He has all the answers and all the knowledge up there.

And so it's great to be able to learn from him, because he is so good and he's tuned for everybody.

Big stars, you name it.

We're lucky to have him as a teacher.

- I couldn't be happier knowing that they're taking on something that I've spent 44 years doing.

And they're serious about it, and also know that they would do a great job.

(upbeat music) - I'm Samori Coles, founder and CEO of Lil' Drummaboy Recordings.

We're located right in the heart of Philadelphia.

Lil' Drummaboy Recordings is a full service recording studio.

So we record, mix, master all different types of music, as well as audio books and podcasts.

And we also have a school where we teach audio engineering, music production, and the music business too.

Independent artists out there.

I moved from Omaha, fall of '97.

And my mom wanted me to come back home.

She sent me an envelope with some pictures in it.

When I opened the envelope, the first picture was me on my first drum set.

And I just looked at that picture, I said, "Lil' Drummaboy."

And it stuck.

♪ Love how that lil' feature I'm stylin ♪ - People who wanna be artists, who have a passion for music, for songwriting, maybe they've always wanted to do it.

They can definitely come to Lil' Drummaboy Recordings.

We have professional engineers, producers on staff, and we make it such a painless process.

So if you're working that nine-to-five job, and you're like, "I always wanted to make music," maybe it's a little too late.

Lil' Drummaboy is definitely the place for you.

Our students that come in, they range from absolute beginners.

They don't have any gear, to folks who've been doing it a while at home.

Maybe they've invested in a bunch of gear, and they don't really know how to use it and optimize it.

So students when they come in, they're gonna be paired with an instructor.

And these are one-on-one classes.

We meet them exactly where they are, and we have structured programming.

And we have a curriculum that's been developed over the past almost 25 years.

We work with artists of different genres.

Whether it's hip-hop, pop, singer-songwriter, R&B, rock.

And we will record them, and give them that major label quality, on an independent budget.

For those artists that don't have music, we do have an in-house production team, so we can make those original beats for you.

We also have a network of musicians.

So even if a person just writes music and they don't have any connections, when they come to Lil' Drummaboy, we can definitely help them get their music produced.

- All right, I got an idea where we can put in there.

We could put like after I say "Shot my shot," like I'm actually call it - - For our students, it's a project-based program.

So as they're learning, they are mixing real recordings, if they're in our audio engineering program.

If they're production students, they're producing their own music.

So our students are definitely creating as they learn.

Our oldest student is 74 years old.

We really work with a lot of people who work nine-to-five jobs.

Our manager at our studio, his name is Mike Moore, Mike makes beats, he is an audio engineer, records a lot of the sessions.

- When they come in the door, I'm very, very open with them.

I wanna find out what their goals are, what are they trying to accomplish, and that way I know how to navigate that session.

I wanna make sure that I'm managing the session in a way to where it can officially and quickly get done.

After interacting with them, figuring out what they're trying to do, I get them in a booth.

♪ Spin around when they see - ♪ - Caleb is an amazing, amazing performer.

He has a theater background.

And when we get him on a microphone, you're not just getting an artist who wants to record vocals over an instrumental, you're getting an artist who wants to deliver a performance.

♪ No hurt not too close I need abidin' ♪ - Some people come here, they've never ever been on a microphone before, you know?

So, and that's always interesting for me.

So I always give them tips and notes on how they can deliver so that they're comfortable.

And after a while, then it becomes like second nature.

It's a magical experience.

Lil' Drummaboy Recordings really is the hub for creatives.

We believe that we have a incredible education component here that's not just about teaching you the craft or just, it's not about just teach you a specific skillset.

But it's about putting you on a pathway to where you can be self-sufficient in your journey.

- No matter the age, no matter what you do in life, it's never too late to pursue your career in music and the arts.

(upbeat music) - Singer, songwriter, and musician Harrikiri is living out his passion for making music.

He rediscovered his love for it when the world came to a halt.

(screen whooshing) (upbeat music) When Harry Simmons puts on his sunglasses, he transforms into Harrikiri.

Harrikiri is the 68-year-old's alter ego.

- When I'm performing, I'm Harrikiri.

So when I'm performing, I just do my thing and enjoy myself.

♪ Reach and enters ear, occupies my brain ♪ - [Shirley] For a long time though, Harry's passion for music took a backseat to work, family, and the daily grind of life.

That is, until COVID hit.

- And I found myself sitting on the couch you're sitting on right now.

It's like, "Where do we go from here?

How am I going to take hold of my life and maintain mental and physical stability?"

So I made a promise to myself that I would do three things.

Cook.

I decided to walk five, six miles daily.

And pick up the bass guitar and start writing songs.

And all three things I do to this day, and it has really given me purpose.

Yeah, so I started writing songs, found a producer, and now we're 25-plus songs later.

- [Shirley] Over the summer, Harry performed during West Philly Porch Fest.

(crowd cheering) Porch Fest is a DIY music festival, where musicians play free shows on porches.

- Porch Fest went over very well, I must say.

- [Shirley] Harry sang to a much younger audience.

We're talking at least three generations, feeding off the energy of Harry's music.

- It's been pretty amazing, I have to say.

It sounds dramatic, but it kind of has enriched my life.

I'm very creative, so I like to be among people that are creative and these are the Gen Z-ers, and the Millennials.

So yeah, so it's been very inspiring.

- [Shirley] Harry's songs are catchy.

♪ You've always been my sun ♪ - [Shirley] But he's not trying to be music's next superstar.

What he really wants is to be an example, to other folks his age.

- I want to inspire people.

We all have a passion for something, but it's tough sometimes to get off that couch and get cracking.

- [Shirley] He's proof that it's never too late to find what excites you and to go for it.

♪ Throw back to the 80s ♪ ♪ When love was a flash in the pan with paintings ♪ - Finally tonight, the musical group, April Mae, and the June Bugs, who are on a mission to entertain and promote eco-friendly transportation.

(screen whooshing) - April Mae and the June Bugs.

Roots, baby, roots!

♪ Better get your luggage packed ♪ ♪ I'll meet you by the railroad track ♪ ♪ Jump and jive and swing ♪ ♪ Everybody's jumping down to Palm Spring ♪ We were inspired to get the bus and convert it to run on waste vegetable oil by Pete Seeger.

We learned about this technology at his Clearwater Festival.

(jaunty music) And at this festival they have a sustainable living area, and we saw Mercedes-Benz coming in on diesel and then leaving at the end of the weekend running on fry oil from the vendors.

And we were so inspired by that.

(jaunty music) - I was thinking this is definitely something that we could do.

And we like to be a part of helping out in the environment.

(jaunty music) The first step is to get the kit.

These kits are exclusive for diesel engines.

We have a 7.3 power stroke, E 350 Ford short bus.

The engine starts on diesel.

We run the engine however long it takes for the temperature to rise to 250 degrees.

When that happens, a green light goes on, and then you run on vegetable oil.

(jaunty music) We have to find places that will give us oil.

- We were really blessed that a friend of ours, Lucretia Sulimay, had the diner in Fishtown.

Sulimay's has become our favorite place to pick up oil, because they cook amazing food and they cook really clean.

So the oil we pick up is very clean, which is important.

It takes less processing from us.

(jaunty music) - [Dave] These oil containers are usually four to five gallon little containers.

How I process them when I take 'em back is I just go through a screen, take out any of the frying debris, nice clean oil, and pour it through.

Also, there's filtration systems that's in the bus, that's fuel filters, and as well as filters that are collecting the oil through our transfer pump.

That's the process.

(jaunty music) - The most recent Southern tour we did with the vegetable oil required us to go to New Orleans to play the New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festival.

(jaunty music) Depending on the oil that you're burning, and what was cooked in the oil, the people behind you are gonna have the benefit of smelling food.

If you picked up funnel cake oil, they're gonna get funnel cake aromatherapy.

If you picked up french fry oil, they're gonna have a craving for french fries, perhaps.

So it's gonna smell like whatever they were cooking the food in, which is kind of fun.

This next tune is a bit of a hybrid.

We have a song that we perform called "Grease It Up and Go."

It pays homage to our little bus outside, that runs on waste vegetable oil.

She's a hybrid too.

♪ We got a bus outside when it's time to cruise ♪ ♪ You know the ol' gas pump give us the blues ♪ ♪ Grease it up and go ♪ Some of the verses are from early jug band in the 1930s.

And then we wrote some verses that are specific to the Boogie Bus and running on waste vegetable oil, so that we get to also share with people that we're running on vegetable oil during the musical performance through song, which is fun.

(jaunty music) - [Dave] It feels fabulous, it feels empowering.

It feels like that you're giving back to the Earth, and to society as well.

(jaunty music) (jaunty music continues) - And that is our show.

Have a good night, everyone!

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)