Asher is a very accomplished musician from a very young age. Asher started on the accordian and added concertiana as he moves along. He has won the Midest Irish Traditional Music championship on the accordian and now on concertina in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. He is a self described "buttoned" accordian player. Here's from Asher himself about age 9:
Welcome to my Website, I assume you came here because you are interested in the buttoned accordion, well, you came to the right place.
I got my first accordion right before my eighth birthday. Well, it was almost an accordion. It was actually a little red plastic toy melodeon sort of a thing. I saw it in a toy store and fell in love with it the minute I laid eyes on it. I begged my parents to get it for me for Christmas. At first they said "An accordion?!? What for? Don't you want to play guitar, or penny whistle, or something, uhh, nice?" But being known as the unusually persistent kid that I am, I got the accordion! The first thing that I learned to play (well kind of anyway) was deck the halls. Once I had perfected it, my dad helped me along with the ratlin bog by playing it to me on his harmonica.Since I was already a stepdancer, and competing at the Detroit feis, I decided to plunge into my first music competition. I had learned the kesh jig and the ratlin bog to my eight year old perfection. adjudicator Al purcel agreed, and after he stopped laughing, he gave me a gold medal, and told me to come back once I had learned the bucks of orannmore.
Time to get serious.
Justin Manning gave me my first real buttoned accordion. It was a black German accordion similar to a honer. I played that for about a year, until piano accordion player Walter Walsh told me I needed to buy a b.c irish style box. In fact, every time I ran into another Irish accordion player, they told be to get a b.c box. Finally friend and fiddle and accordion player, Mick Gavin put us in touch with Mr. buttoned accordion himself (a.k.a., Billy McComiskey) and he helped me buy my present accordion, the saltarelle Irish bouëbe. The good news was it came the day before the fleadh. The bad news was it came the day before the fleadh, and I did a really stupid thing. I took the challenge of switching fingerings and style completely in one day. Of course it did not work out. I was lucky I could play at all, but I lost to a very good player. I wish I could remember his name.
Today
Since that time, I have been having allot of fun with my box. There have been lots of competitions and allot more to learn. I have gone to west Virginia to meet and study with Billy McComiskey for a week long workshop for the last two summers. Last year I was in an under fifteen ceili band that took a gold medal in the Midwest fleadh.
Now guess what ? I'm branching out. Last summer I got a learners set of uilleann pipes. Watch this site for updates...
Asher performed with the Chieftains at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.
