Everyone knows accordions have buttons. But most people in Butler County have never heard of an accordion with only buttons.

Musician Nic Landon, a Butler resident and 2003 Seneca Valley graduate, said he tried his hand at playing the concertina — a smaller, round version of the accordion — and a few people gave him their keyboard accordions over the years.

“I never really made peace with either,” he said.

In search of a musical challenge during the long lockdown days of the coronavirus pandemic, the New Orleans native decided to take a shot at an instrument heavily used in Zydeco and Cajun music that enthralled him as a young child: the button accordion.

“I was always attracted to the buttons,” Landon said. “Being born in New Orleans, the Cajun and Zydeco bands, they all use, almost without exception, the very small button accordions that typically only have 10 buttons.”

He explained that with keyboard accordions, the user can push any note and the note stays the same as they push in or pull out the bellows, but with a button accordion, the notes can differ depending on the movement of the bellows.

“This creates a lot of rhythmic aspects and creates a sort of jerking sound that I like,” Landon said.

His entire musical career has been in stringed instruments, but he committed to learning the button accordion during lockdown.

“Music is like a language. Once you learn one (instrument), you can see the relationships,” Landon said. “Going to the button accordion was like trying to learn Japanese.”

Landon noticed there were precious few books in English on playing the button accordion, so he turned to Ron Pivovar, a legend and master of the button box accordion.

Pivovar recommended Landon figure out how to play songs he already knows on his new instrument.

“I spent about a year learning how to play a lot of the fiddle tunes I know on the banjo and guitar,” Landon said. “I probably wrote out 200 different arrangements.”

He said because his 21-button, melodeon button accordion has only two scales, it is impossible to play all the notes he could play on a guitar or banjo.

“You have to make a decision on what notes to play and what notes to leave out,” Landon said. “You can’t play every note the fiddler might play.”

Feeling confident about his squeezing skills, Landon took his talent to Sharon, Mercer County, over Memorial Day weekend, where he performed with his button accordion at the National Button Accordion Festival.

“It was my first time performing there, but I attended it five years ago and that’s when I first realized ‘I can do this. There’s people who I can learn from.’”

Landon noticed the books on the instrument written in English are almost all specific to England’s “Morris” style, which is traditional folk music and dance of the British Isles.

So he decided to write his own book, and “How to Play the Button Accordion and Songbook” was born.

In addition to instructions on playing the instrument, the music for 40 songs are included in the book.

“Almost all of the music in this book is old American Appalachian fiddle tunes and some folk songs,” Landon said. “A lot of them come from Pennsylvania, specifically Western Pennsylvania.”

He said two renowned fiddlers in the early 1900s, Sarah Armstrong and Irvin Yaugher, hailed from Westmoreland County.

In the 1920s and ’30s, Samuel Baird collected fiddle and fife tunes to document how the instruments were played in Pennsylvania.

“One of the big places he went was Westmoreland County,” Landon said.

Among the songs in Landon’s book that would be familiar to Armstrong and Yaugher are “Soldier’s Joy,” “Maggots in the Sheep’s Hide” and “The Snouts and Ears of America.”

Landon said the most recognizable folk tune in his book is “Arkansas Traveler,” which is recognized as “The Baby Bumblebee Song” these days.

He said the target for his book are musicians who are enjoying the current renewed interest in American folk music.

“But it’s button accordion specific,” Landon said. “This is very much my interpretation of American fiddle tunes for the button accordion.”

Landon self-published about 100 copies of the book through Mechling Book Binding on Evans Road, and sent an email to his favorite publisher, Centerstream Publishing, of California, about his creation.

To his astonishment, the company’s owner called him.

“His advice to me was to send him a copy,” Landon said. “I received a tremendous amount of help from Mechling Book Binding in Butler (Township).”

Centerstream then offered to publish 150 copies of the book, which will come out in October.

The book will be distributed through Hal Leonard, whom Landon called one of the world’s largest publishers and distributors of sheet music.

“How to Play the Button Accordion and Songbook” will be available for purchase on Amazon and at May’s Music Shoppe in Butler, where Landon serves as a guitar and banjo teacher when he’s not pursuing his career in social work.

“Nic is such an eclectic guy,” said Josh May, owner of the shop his late grandparents started 97 years ago. “He was born 110 years too late.”

Because Landon loves banjo and guitar and prefers old bluegrass, jazz and folk music, May is not surprised he picked up the button accordion.

“He’s definitely well-rounded,” May said of Landon’s musical skill.

May said eight to 10 people per year bring in an old accordion that belonged to a spouse or grandparent, offering to sell it to the shop.

“You go way back, and there were more kids playing accordion than guitar at one time,” May said. “Nic’s the type of guy who carries on that little forgotten instrument.”

He will stock Landon’s book and send it to anyone who stops in or orders a copy.

“It’s so nice to see someone as young as Nic try to keep instruments or styles of music alive,” May said.