Billy Wilson

Toby Hanson was born November 25, 1975 in Puyallup, WA to a family where music was always present. His grandmother had an extensive collection of records going back to the 1930s and including early Western Swing recordings. As a young child he began picking out familiar tunes on his family’s piano. After he taught himself to play a song in one afternoon on his family’s electric organ, his grandmother decided to get him formal piano lessons. He studied piano for many years with Becky Jacobsen until she moved out of the area. In the sixth grade, Toby began studying clarinet and saxophone in the school band which he continued through high school. After high school, he attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1998 with a degree in classical composition.
Toby’s association with his most well-known instrument, the accordion, began early in his life. His uncle, George Crombie, was an accordionist and gave Toby his first few lessons on the instrument. When Toby was still quite young, his grandfather bought an old accordion for $25 and put it away in the closet for Toby to learn when he was older. Eventually the draw of the accordion was so strong that, in junior high school, he began to practice on the instrument and teach himself a few rudimentary skills.
His accordion playing really became serious in college when he began studying with noted local accordion educator Gary Dahl. Gary’s teaching gave Toby the foundations he would need for his professional career as a musician, including the skills that would make him a valuable band member like listening, being able to follow music by ear, and paying attention to arrangements done in real time on the bandstand.
Toby’s performance career in Western Swing began with the local favorite band Mended Heart in 1998. Randy Dreyer, the group’s bass player and baritone singer, contacted Toby about auditioning to join the band to replace their recently departed accordionist. Toby was an immediate hit in the audition and went on to play with Mended Heart until the end of the band. During that time he produced the band’s final album, Cowboy Snapshots, which was nominated for Album Of The Year by the Academy of Western Artists. He also led the band for Marty Dahlgren’s pre- Thanksgiving Western Swing Dance at the Swedish Club in Seattle, sponsored by Northwest Dance Network.
After the end of Mended Heart and its successor band, The Dreyer Brothers, Toby began working with Mike Faast and The Jangles, lending his piano and accordion talents to their live performances and their recording Hick Jazz, Volume II. In addition, Toby is also a founding member of Kristi Nebel’s band, Cowgirl’s Dream, and produced her debut Western Swing CD, Detour. Toby is also a frequent guest musician with Patty McConnell and her Travelin’ Four Band. In 2017, Toby was the keyboard teacher for the Northwest Western Swing Workshop and his accordion student was selected for the Workshop Band.
Besides his work in Western Swing, Toby is also the leader of the Smilin’ Scandinavians polka band, whose 2016 recording Twenty Years was nominated for Album of the Year by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame. He’s music director and arranger for the Valse Café Orchestra, accordionist for the French cabaret band Rouge, and former music director for Terry Palasz’s one-woman musical revue “The Polish Diva From Milwaukee,” for which Mr. Hanson provided music direction in the 2015 off-Broadway production in New York City.
In everything he has done, Toby Hanson has been a tireless advocate for the performance, recording, and preservation of Western Swing. In his career, he has been fortunate to work with some of the best musicians in the genre in the Pacific Northwest, including, but not limited to Darrell Dunn, Stan Remick, Marty Dahlgren, Randy Dreyer, Stacy Dreyer, Doug Dreyer, Joshua Dreyer, Randy Oesch, Paul Anastasio, Country Dave Harmonson, John Olufs, Jimmy Webb, Judy Hayes, Patty McConnell, Mike Faast, Roger Ferguson, Mark Drake, Lance Haslund, Laurie Haslund, Mike Friel, Steve Nebel, Kristi Nebel, and so many others. As a producer, performer, and educator he has made a consistent effort to always present Western Swing in its rightful place as one of America’s great musical styles.