The humble beginnings of Percy Cardona's career began in his small hometown of Big Wells, Texas. Since discovering his ear at the ripe old age of twelve, Cardona learned multiple instruments with the aid of his family members. His oldest known musical relative is his great grandfather on his mother's side. Cardona's parents primarily listened to neotraditional country & tejano music. Besides his family, Percy was influenced by a healthy dose of George Strait & Alan Jackson as well as Emilio Navaira & Selena Quintanilla.

As an 8th grader, Cardona joined a local tejano group playing keyboards for live events. His high school years widened his musical development as a percussionist in the marching band and a pianist in the school jazz band. The education of music theory coupled with his love for performing put Cardona on the fast track towards becoming a well-versed musician and entertainer.

Cardona's father, Perciliano Cardona Jr., sang lead vocals for a conjunto group called Los Hermanos Cardona (The Cardona Brothers). Percy yearned to share the stage with his father and decided to learn the diatonic button accordion; an instrument prevalent to the genre. Unable to find a teacher acquainted with the squeezebox, Percy Cardona took matters into his own hands by mapping out the buttons on a sheet of paper. He then labeled the notes by matching the pitches with his keyboard. After practicing enough to where he no longer needed his "cheat sheet", Cardona joined his father's group playing old conjunto standards in surrounding cities.

Naturally, Cardona's musical services were called upon by other local acts as his reputation grew. Percy Cardona played with many bands; often finding himself juggling multiple instruments at once. The most daring combination was accordion, keyboards, running the drum machine, and singing background vocals. Before long, the regional shows turned into nationwide performances. Percy Cardona was hired by tejano staple, Patsy Torres, who founded the Positive Force Tour; a musical presentation performed at schools across the country encouraging students to stay drugfree.

After touring much of the United States with different groups, Percy Cardona's interaction with musical colleagues organically expanded his palate to include the rock genre. Bands like Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, and Dream Theater became Percy's music of choice. Cardona joined a cover rock band as a drummer and began experimenting with odd time signatures and grooves. A solid rock drive was honed and was eventually incorporated into Cardona's squeezebox style. The culmination of genres have allowed Percy to flourish on stage with tejano icons that include Stefani Montiel & David Marez as well as crossover acts like Shaggy, Shiny Ribs, The California Honeydrops, & Lisa Morales.

The accordionist served double duty on Sting's 57th and 9th tour as he played for, both, the opening band and the headliner. Cardona's accordion solos with Sting included numbers like Fields of Gold, She's Too Good, Jeremiah Blues and Mad About You. With opener, The Last Bandoleros, having previous engagements contradicting with a 2nd Europe leg, Sting hired Percy Cardona to finish out the tour. Cardona's role expanded to background vocal duties along side Joe Sumner.

Much of Cardona's success has been a byproduct of his pursuit to play music for the sheer fact that he loves to play; which is always noticeable when he does a little dance or screams in excitement at a moments notice. This continues today as Percy is currently on tour playing accordion and singing background vocals for The Mavericks; a nine piece powerhouse that combine Tex-Mex, country, latin, and rockabilly influences. The Raul Malo led ensemble have many moments that showcase Cardona's squeezebox ability to a new fanbase.

With a melting pot of experiences aplenty, Percy Cardona hopes to cultivate a new sound for a solo country record to be released in the near future. No matter the challenges that lie ahead, you can be sure Cardona will approach them like he always has...with a big smile on his face.