The heyday of the Anglo-German concertina (1860s to World War I) coincided with a time when social dances in houses, barns, woolsheds and community halls were all the rage in working class urban and rural areas. Along with extensive historical information and a detailed analysis of the music and the concertina players who played schottisches, polkas, quadrilles, waltzes, barn dances, mazurkas and varsoviannas from Ireland, England, Australia and South Africa, the book includes QR code links to 172 archival recordings of 36 early concertina players.

Topics include nineteenth century social dance, global sources of the house dance repertoire, old-style octave playing on the concertina, the banning of house dances in twentieth century Ireland, biographies and playing styles of early concertina players on four continents, modern players in the old octave style, an extensive discography, plus a nine-lesson tutorial on how to play the Anglo concertina in the historical house dance style.