Heritage Accordions
Heritage Accordions
Rusty Sanner was born in Lake Charles, but his family moved between New Iberia, Baton Rouge & finally settled in Milton, LA in 1993. When he was 12, his parents brought him to the Hot Air Balloon festival in Baton Rouge where Wayne Toups was playing. He stayed in the front of the stage transfixed by Wayne’s playing of a bright red “Falcon” accordion and something in him turned on like a light bulb. He suddenly had a desire to learn how to play the accordion and as days went by, it was all that he could think about. He got his first accordion in late 1992 & when his family moved to Milton he was able to meet Randy Falcon the man who made the bright red “Falcon” accordion that he saw Wayne Toups play. The two struck up a friendship that lasted for 27 years until Mr. Falcon passed away in May 2020.
While other musicians his age were joining or starting bands, Rusty was fixated on understanding how an accordion was made & spent a lot of time with Randy. “When I was about 25, I started pressing him to teach me how to make them, he stalled for a year or so, I think he wanted to know just how strong of a desire I had. He taught me and Andre Michot in the same time period and when he retired in August of 2019, I purchased all of his inventory and began taking care of his customers to continue what he had done for over 45 years”.