u/Honk-Master

If you enjoy Irish music today, you probably owe a massive "thank you" to Ellen O’Byrne DeWitt.

She opened a small shop with her husband, a travel agency/music store where people would gather to hear news from home and buy Irish recordings and instruments. But sourcing good recordings was a monumental struggle as none of the major labels thought there was any money to be made in them. She walked into Columbia Records and convinced them, maybe with a degree of force, to record Irish musicians and produce the music, certain that the recordings would sell. She even put up her own money to guarantee the sales. It worked. Within months, she proved there was a massive market for "the music of home," paving the way for the legendary recordings of the 1920s. Not only did she sell the music to those in her community, she sent it back to Ireland with phonographs to play it!

Later on, her son, Justus Jr., opened his own shop in Boston and teamed up with the master player and teacher Jerry O’Brien (who later taught Joe Derrane). Together, they didn't just sell accordions, they redesigned them.

They worked with the Paolo Soprani factory in Italy to create a "Boston-spec" box with custom tuning. They ordered specific reed setups that were loud, crisp, and perfect for the fast, technical fingering style Jerry was teaching. Unlike players back home in Ireland, these boxes were mostly sold in the D/C# tuning, a Hallmark of the Irish-American style.

While these instruments are incredibly rare, with just a handful surviving, I happen to have one. Above is one of those boxes. This one is a 1950s 4 voice model in D/C#. Against all odds, it traveled away from the east coast to the high desert of Northern Nevada and remained here for the last 50 years. The dry weather was the perfect atmosphere to prevent reeds from rusting and the wood of the box from decaying. Still playable, though it definitely needs its first rewax since it was purchased all those years ago! Lol.

Without Ellen’s grit to get the music recorded, and Justus Jr. and Jerry’s vision for a better instrument, the "Boston Style" of Irish music would certainly look different than it does today.

I've had a Paolo Soprani "O'Byrne DeWitt" box for some time and I have decided it's time to sell, so I posted it on eBay. But, the history of the box is really interesting. Heres a brief summary of the the O'Byrne DeWitt name and the life of this box.

Ellen O’Byrne, a 15 year old immigrant from Leitrim,  met and  married a Dutchman and opened a small shop called O’Byrne DeWitt in Manhattan around 1900. It wasn't just a store, it was a community hub where immigrants could grab a cup of tea, hear the latest news from home, and buy Irish records. Ellen saw the major lack of available recordings and sheet music and basically willed major labels into recording Irish music, she famously pressured Columbia into recording the first instrumental dance tunes by promising to buy 500 copies herself, which she then sold door-to-door. She eventually sold phonographs from her shop to immigrants, almost as souvenirs, as well as stacks of recordings to be taken back to Ireland.

After Ellen’s sudden passing in 1925, her son Justus O’Byrne DeWitt expanded the empire to Boston. While they were huge in the recording world (eventually starting Copley Records), they are holy names to box players because of their partnership with Paolo Soprani.

Justus worked with legendary player and teacher Jerry O’Brien to design custom accordions specifically for the Irish style of the time.

The "O'Byrne DeWitt Professional De Luxe". These were often 19-key, 2voice or 4voice instruments tuned for the D/C# players who dominated the scene back then.

In the late 40s and early 50s, they sold these iconic grey Paolo Soprani models, and the "Holy Grey". These "pepperpot" grill boxes became the gold standard for Irish music because of their massive volume and fast reed response, traits that helped the accordion hold its own against fiddles in loud dance halls.

The history is obviously much richer than that, and I encourage you to read more about it!

I'm the second owner of my box. The previous owner and his family bought the box from the O'Byrne DeWitt shop in Boston in the 1950s. He told me it was quite a strain on the family's budget, but his father figured the strain was worth it. He and his father would take turns playing the box, rarely playing traditional Irish tunes, instead playing music they heard from movies. He moved to Northern Nevada in the 1970s and brought the box along with him. I have also remained in Northern Nevada with the box.

Nevada's got a pretty dry climate and that's definitely been a major plus for the box, preventing the reeds from rusting or mold to start growing. The box still has its original D/C# layout, original tuning and even its original case which is in surprisingly good and very usable condition. The previous owner tried to remelt the wax around a few of the reeds himself and he said his father added the thumbstrap. I wanted to have this box rewaxed and converted over to C#/D, but I was always afraid of how that might impact the value of the instrument, so I've just played it off and on as is. I was blown away when I first played the box when I felt how the bellows moved. Like melted butter and the compression was Great! I pulled out one of the reed blocks to showcase the condition of the reeds as a whole and how pristine they are for such an old box.

I have loved Irish folk music and especially history since I was a little boy, but I've never been very good with session tunes and it doesn't seem right to hold onto this box for its historical value alone. I'm focused more on songs anyway and this box is a machine designed for fast paced session music. I'm sad to see it go and to part with such an iconic piece of Irish American History, but it needs to be in the hands of someone who can truly make it sing.