‘Daring to be Different,’ Accordion Bob Found a Full Life in Northwest Montana

A modest yet treasured staple of the music community in Badrock Canyon and the North Fork, “Accordion Bob” Mislivec says he views his life as a string of serendipitous opportunities and connections – ones that brought him from Minnesota to Montana 20 years ago, to the Czech Republic where his family immigrated from, and, again and again, to music.

Growing up in a family of accordion players, Mislivec began learning how to play the free-reed instrument at 10 years old. His family lived in northern Minnesota where his grandfather had migrated in the early 1900s. In the largely immigrant community, Mislivec said it was common to hear friends’ families speak Czech, German, and Swedish.

“With the accordion as a traditional folk instrument of each of those cultures, it was not only important in my family, but it was well received in the community and among friends,” Mislivec said. “There was that support and interest that might have not been in other areas because of the unique social dynamics.”

He learned to play traditional folk and in college he joined a local band that dipped into more contemporary music. They played classic rock and country music alongside traditional waltzes and polkas.

“There were not that many bands that were able to do that, to have that versatility … we were kept very busy,” Mislivec said.

Exercising that versatility is something Mislivec has continued to embrace. The accordion’s origins date back to the 19th century and its largely associated with traditional folk music. As such, it’s common for people to relegate the accordion to polka music.

“They don’t think about the versatility of the instrument and two things – one, you know, I’m an okay musician so I can play different styles of music,” Mislivec said. “But the real game changer was that era that they started putting synthesizers on the accordion.”

Instrument crafters began to introduce synthesizers to the accordion during the 1950s and 1960s, allowing the instrument to mimic and play other sounds from the organ to the saxophone. The instrument became a “double-edged sword,” Mislivec said.

After college, Mislivec worked as a special education teacher for over 20 years in the White Earth Nation in Minnesota. Burnt out after decades of teaching, Mislivec began to look for a change. He came across an online job listing for a service position at Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park. With both of his sons in college, Mislivec decided it was time to “take a breath and let go.”

He left his “conventional lifestyle” in Minnesota and started as a bartender at the lodge in the summer of 2005, later switching to work maintenance for the next five seasons.

“I didn’t realize it, but that’s probably the best prescription I could have chosen,” Mislivec said. “Financially, it didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t a very prudent thing to do, but in terms of life enrichment, it was probably the wealthiest choice I could probably have ever made.”

 “And I really wasn’t expecting music to become the opportunity it did.”

At Lake McDonald Lodge, Mislivec met a variety of fellow staff from around the world. He quickly befriended a couple musicians from Turkey, a classical guitarist and a singer and violinist, who he began playing music with in Polebridge. He met another friend, Kurt Bueger, who taught English as a second language. Bueger ended up convincing Mislivec to do the same.

Mislivec earned his language teaching certification and for several years split his time between Montana and the Czech Republic – teaching English in the winters and working maintenance at Lake McDonald Lodge during the summer.

In Prague, he connected with family and walked the same cobbled streets his grandparents had. “It was just cathartic,” he said.

There, he also became interested in European street music known as “café accordion” that ranged from French to Italian to Eastern European and Latin American styles of ambient background music.

Back in Montana, Mislivec’s musical connections continued to grow. He jammed with Steve Kuehl, who expanded Mislivec’s accordion repertoire to include the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Infamous Stringdusters. He started a band called Burlesco with Chris Crecelius, a bellman at Lake McDonald Lodge and a guitarist, and Jenny Lynnawcett, a baker at Polebridge and a singer and guitarist.

For about three years, Burlesco played around Northwest Montana. They also took their skills down to Missoula where they served as the pit band for the Cigarette Girls burlesque show.

He’s since played with Grandma’s Little Darlings, a local “newgrass” band that blended Cajun-style music with bluegrass. Sometimes he plays solo. Somewhere along the way, locals gifted him the name “Accordion Bob,” for his reputation as the region’s principal accordionist.

Today, Mislivec divvies up his time among a few groups – most recently with Fred Vanhorn, a retired park ranger, playing the guitar and his friend Andrew Avila playing the cajon.

Since he discovered Polebridge, Mislivec has never stopped playing at Home Ranch Bottoms and the Northern Lights Saloon, often showing up to provide “rich ambient background music” before a scheduled show. He and his crew frequent the Stonefly and other watering holes in Badrock Canyon where he lives.

In addition to his music-making, he spends his time creating other art, including glasswork – a piece of which sits above the entrance to the Polebridge Mercantile, commissioned by the merc’s owner and featuring the year the mercantile was built. His “music rig” is an antique Willy Jeep for which he’s traded his glasswork in exchange for fender repair. The vehicle carries a traditional Romani Vardo wagon topper that he built.

 “So much of my life I was just such a conformist,” Mislivec said. “What really encouraged me was being around other people who had the courage to be true to themselves, to be genuine.”

“If I look at success in the opportunities in my life, it’s just a sense of gratitude and humility for – be it music or other ways –people who have supported me, encouraged me and provided me opportunity.”

Mislivec is still most likely to be found playing at one of Polebridge or the canyon’s watering holes, though on occasion he can be found in the Flathead Valley or at the accordion festival in Trego. At 72 years old, the desire to continue creating, playing with talented musicians and “daring to be different” has only become more of a priority, Mislivec said.

“I would say even now, there’s more of a fire or a motivation to do what I want to do because I just want to be able to say in my life, I’ve lived a full life.”

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