If you’re like me, you were probably up late on Sunday night, waiting anxiously for the clock to strike midnight so you could begin celebrating National Polka Month. Positioned far enough away from National Accordion Awareness Month (June) to avoid conflicts, National Polka Month encourages fans to support local polka shows during a time when attendance typically slows due to bad weather.

Among the big polka events scheduled this month are the International Polka Association’s Festival of Bands in Chicago and Benefit Dance in Ludlow, MA. For those hoping to escape the cold weather entirely, a handful of polka cruises are setting sail, including the Ultimate Polka Cruise and Jimmy Sturr’s Polka in Paradise.

If you can’t get out of town, tune in to one of the many Internet radio stations devoted to polka music, like 247PolkaHeaven.com, the Polka Jammer Network, or Prime Time Polkas. If you’re at work, pump up the volume and share the polka spirit with your co-workers.

So as you begin making plans for this special month, I leave you with this rumination on polka music by Carl Finch of Brave Combo:

“As nature and society become more unstable, humans will return to the basics and retreat from the overbearing self-consciousness of pop culture. Polka serves two purposes: good music and freedom from pretense in an environment where the hip and unhip freely mix and mingle.”

I think that’ll be our new motto — “Let’s Polka: Where the Hip and Unhip Freely Mix and Mingle.”

“I’m coherent in my art. I tell my story with the accordion.” Those are the words of legendary Brazilian accordionist/composer Sivuca, who passed away last week.

Born Severino Dias de Oliveira in 1930, Sivuca played and composed in a number of genres, including forró, bossa nova, folk, and jazz. Over the course of his lengthy career, he collaborated with musicians from around the globe — artists ranging from Harry Belafonte to South African singer Miriam Makeba to jazz harmonica player Toots Thielemans.

Here’s a video clip of Sivuca performing his forró classic “Feira de Mangaio” with samba singer Clara Nunes. If your hips don’t move even a tiny bit while watching this clip, seek professional help.

[Found via Martin Klasch]

Next year’s Grammy Awards will include 108 categories ranging from Best Rap/Sung Collaboration to Best Surround Sound Album. And yet, despite the proliferation of categories over the years, there still isn’t one devoted to cajun or zydeco music.

Over the years, only a handful of cajun/zydeco musicians have won Grammys. Clifton Chenier, Queen Ida, and Rockin’ Sidney each won for Best Ethnic Or Traditional Folk Recording during the early 80’s, and Beausoleil won for Best Traditional Folk Album in 1997. This year, singer Ann Savoy (of the Savoy Family Cajun Band) was nominated for her collaboration with Linda Ronstadt, Adieu False Heart.

Establishing a cajun/zydeco category, though, would go a long way towards promoting and preserving the genre. Fortunately, there’s a campaign underway to create a Grammy category for cajun/zydeco. Led by Cynthia and Terrance Simien, the effort has gained steam recently as the number of cajun/zydeco recordings submitted for Grammy consideration rose to 40 this year.

According to Cynthia Simien, Grammy officials have recognized the campaign’s progress and promised to reconsider adding the category when they meet again in May. That’s great news and hopefully at this time next year, we’ll be previewing the first-ever nominees for Best Cajun/Zydeco Album.

Nominations for the 49th annual Grammy Awards were announced this morning in Hollywood. The nominees for Best Polka Album are:

• Batteries Not Included by Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones
• As Sweet As Candy by Lenny Gomulka & Chicago Push
• Party Dress by LynnMarie & The Boxhounds
• Good Friends Good Music by Walter Ostanek & Fred Ziwich
• Polka in Paradise by Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra

While Best Polka Album may be the most accordion-friendly category, those weren’t the only nominees who featured accordions in their work. Julieta Venegas was nominated for Best Latin Pop Album, the Klezmatics for Best Contemporary World Music Album, Weird Al for Best Comedy Album, and pretty much every group in the Best Norteno Album category has an accordion player. The full list of nominees is on the Grammy website.

The awards ceremony (hosted by Stephen Colbert) will air live on CBS on February 11, 2007. Of course, since there are 108 categories, most awards — including Best Polka Album — will be handed out in a ceremony before the televised show.

Between now and the awards ceremony, we’ll post an in-depth review of each Best Polka Album nominee. Will Jimmy Sturr walk away with his 16th Best Polka Grammy or will someone else get a taste of Grammy glory? We’ll find out in February!

As he celebrates his 47th birthday today — one day after the 40th anniversary of his first accordion lesson — Weird Al Yankovic is enjoying the biggest commercial and critical success of his career. His new album, Straight Outta Lynwood, debuted at #10 on the Billboard album chart and the first single, “White and Nerdy”, has climbed as high as #9 on the singles chart. It’s the first time that Al has cracked the Top 10 in either chart.

Weird Al’s recent resurgence has also garnered critical appraisals of his role in popular culture. In the Village Voice last week, Jonathan Zwickel called Al a genius, noting that he has “always been out of fashion, which, if pop culture has taught us anything, makes him permanently in fashion.” Meanwhile, in Slate, Sam Anderson referred to Al as a “troubadork” whose “quintessential joke is to transfer the bravado and intensity of rap (or rock, or punk) into the mouth of some iconically unhip figure.” High praise for the author of “My Bologna”…

Nothing warms my heart like seeing the headline “Accordion Player Wins MTV Award”. Singer/songwriter/accordionist Julieta Venegas brought home the award for Best Solo Artist at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards Latin America held in Mexico City. She was also nominated for Best Video, Artist of the Year and Song of the Year. But Julieta isn’t done with the awards show circuit, yet; she’s up for four awards (including Album and Song of the Year) at the Latin Grammys on November 2nd.

Legendary Tex-Mex singer/songwriter Freddy Fender died of lung cancer yesterday at the age of 69. Freddy wasn’t an accordionist, but he certainly played with a few — most notably Flaco Jimenez when they were part of the Texas Tornados. In fact, last night at the International Accordion Festival in San Antonio, Flaco had the crowd observe a moment of silence in Freddy’s honor.

Born as Baldemar Huerta in San Benito, Texas, he played honky-tonks throughout the South and had some early success with a Spanish version of “Don’t Be Cruel”. It wasn’t until 1974, though, that he broke through with “Before The Next Teardrop Falls”, which topped both the country and pop charts. In 1989, Freddy joined with Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, and Flaco Jimenez to form the Texas Tornados, who fused rock, country, and Mexican sounds with alternately serious and silly lyrics; this video for “Who Were You Thinking Of?” shows the sillier side:

If you want to explore Freddy’s music, this greatest hits collection (featuring hits like “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and “Secret Love”) is a good place to start. There’s also the Best of the Texas Tornados, which I’ve been listening to all morning. And if you’re already a longtime fan, stop by his website and pay your respects in the guestbook.

Vaya con Dios, Freddy.

Freddy Fender: Vaya Con Dios (MP3 download)

My laptop is in the shop, so I’ve had a tough time staying on top of accordion news lately. Fortunately, some friends of the site have been kind enough to keep us up to date on the latest squeezebox happenings:

• Tom Torriglia just got back from the 25th annual Reno Italian Festival, which was crawling with accordionists, including Michael Maffei, Ray Massa of Eurorythms, US accordion champion Anthony Rolando, Tom Serafini with Oro Puro, the accordionists from TDA, and Tom himself with Bella Ciao.
• Skyler Fell’s San Francisco repair shop, Accordion Apocalypse, is hosting an eclectic, circus-themed show this Saturday night. Experience the gypsy/klezmer sound of Portland’s Vagabond Opera, acrobatics and juggling from Circus Finelli, the foot-stomping energy of One Man Banjo, and an appearance by the Accordion Apocalypse Circus Sideshow.
• East Bay accordion guru Henri Ducharme pointed us to a “musical epistle” about a recording session he recently did for composer, Jorge Liderman. It’s a fascinating look at how a professional accordionist attacks a difficult piece. You can listen to a clip, and view a page from the (daunting) score, on Henri’s site.

Thanks to Henri, Tom, and Skyler, for sharing their news. Remember, if you have any accordion-themed news to share (an event, a new album, etc.), just let us know and we’ll spread the word.

Mexican singer/songwriter Julieta Venegas rose to fame with her unique brand of accordion rock, fueled by an expansive sound and powerful lyrics typically heard only in veteran artists. Lately, she’s been reinventing herself with a brighter pop sound that has widened her audience even more. She just received four Latin Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year for Limon y Sal and Record of the Year for “Me Voy”. This clever video for “Me Voy” also earned a Grammy nod:

(Thanks Ian!)