Art’s Concertina Bar
uploaded by Five-Boro Camphone
We’ve mentioned Art’s Concertina Bar in Milwaukee here before, but for those (like me) who haven’t yet made the pilgrimage, Flickr user Five-Boro Camphone has a cool photoset taken at the bar. Proudly dubbed the “Only Concertina Bar in the USA”, the walls are lined with mementos and photos featuring the owner, Art Altenburg, his music, and this history of concertina and polka music. The bar also holds Art’s collection of nearly 60 concertinas. There are live bands and dancing on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as a “Concertina Jam Session Nite” on Thursdays. Definitely a “must see” for any accordion lovers passing through the Milwaukee area.

Bay Area accordion legend Big Lou and her Polka Casserole have just put out their third album, Doctors of Polka-Ology. We’ve been listening to it constantly since we got our copy and, if variety is the spice of life, this is the spiciest polka album out there. It features a heady mix of originals, classics, Norte?o, French, Austrian and Finnish polkas and waltzes. There’s also a slew of guest stars rounding out the sound, contributing vocals, trumpet, tuba, bass clarinet, viola da gamba, sitar, and more.

The last Big Lou’s Polka Casserole album, Dogs Playing Polka, recently earned nominations in the Just Plain Folks Music Awards for Best Polka Album and Best Polka Song (for “Is Anything Better Than Beer”). And if you haven’t read our exclusive interview with Big Lou, now would be the perfect time to check it out!

Big Lou’s Polka Casserole will be performing this Friday, September 15, at Schroeder’s German Restaurant in San Francisco for the CD release party of Doctors of Polka-Ology. The party runs from 6pm to 9pm and there’ll be plenty of beer, schnitzel, and polka dancing (lessons courtesy of the Golden Gate Bavarian Club) to go around. Anna and I will be there, too, so come say ‘hi’ and we’ll give you some Let’s Polka stickers.

In the meantime, enjoy this Big Lou original from the new album:

Big Lou’s Polka Casserole: Never a Dull Moment (MP3 sample)

Accordionist.org is a new discussion forum for accordion players that I found via the Accordion Guy’s blog. Share news, promote gigs, swap tips, buy/sell gear, or just hobnob with your fellow squeezeboxers. It’s only been running for about a week, so spread the word and hopefully it’ll attract a critical mass of accordion enthusiasts.

Some other good places to rub elbows with accordionists online:

• Reyes Accordions forum
  Part of the excellent Reyes Accordions site, this is probably the best tex-mex/conjunto/norte?o accordion forum around. Lots of knowledge players (Joel Guzman drops in occasionally) and resources for beginners.
• AccordionFreedomForum
  A more general accordion forum hosted on Yahoo Groups. Members frequently share their own recordings (which are usually pretty good!) with the group.
• alt.music.polkas
  All polka, all the time. Sometimes gets sidetracked by polka community politics, but even those discussions are strangely interesting.
• Cajun Accordion Discussion Group
  Lots of good cajun/zydeco accordion news and tips, straight from the Bayou.

This is by no means an exhaustive list — just a few of my favorites, all of which have a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio. Leave a comment below if you have any other good ones to share.

Looking for a place to polka this Labor Day? Try the 31st annual Westfest — a Czech/Polka festival held every Labor Day weekend — currently underway in West, Texas. Westfest draws about 25,000 people annually and has most of what you’d expect from a typical polka festival, including nonstop polka music and dancing (bands include Vrazels Polka Band and Brave Combo), great food, a parade, and even a polka mass.

But how many polka festivals have a horseshoe pitching contest? Or washer pitching and Taroky tournaments? The food sounds even better; they promise plentiful Czech sausage (“sausage-on-a-stick, sausage dogs… even sausage boats”) and the town of West is famous for their kolaches, a Czech pastry consisting of fruit or cheese filling inside a bread roll. (By the way, I love that there’s a restaurant chain called Kolache Factory; it’s like the anti-Cheesecake Factory.) Mmm… polkas and kolaches… now that’s a Labor Day weekend.

Rock and roll had Elvis. Polka had Li’l Wally Jagiello, pioneer of the Chicago-style polka, who passed away yesterday at the age of 76. The son of Polish immigrants, Li’l Wally was a self-taught drummer and concertina player who revolutionized polka music by taking the frantic pace of traditional polka and slowing it down. In Charles Keil’s book Polka Happiness, Li’l Wally explained his approach:

“You see, a polka was never supposed to be played fast. If you play it fast, you modernize it. I went to Europe, all different villages. I never heard a fast polka there. So why should I hear a fast polka here? My beat is more ethnic. They used to tell me this is too slow… Actually, it’s not slow. It’s a bouncy beat, but not fast… Eastern style may be musicians’ music, but I don’t play for musicians, I play for the public. The public wants to hear melody, lyrics. They want to hear a song with a simple, real pretty story behind it that they can dance to. Real bouncy.”

Li’l Wally promoted his music tirelessly with live shows (as a trio — trumpet, concertina, and Wally on drums), a morning radio show, and his own record company, Jay Jay records. He wrote over 2000 songs — including his hits “Wish I Was Single Again”, “Chicago Is a Polka Town”, and “She Likes Kielbasa” — and during his 1950s heyday, he recorded between ten and twelve albums a year. Unlike most bandleaders, Li’l Wally eschewed sheet music; instead, he wanted his musicians to have room for improvisation and focus on their most important job: pleasing the audience.

One of the charter members of the Polka Hall of Fame (along with Frankie Yankovic), Li’l Wally was a polka legend and he will be sorely missed. To learn more about his life, check out this excellent in-depth feature from the Miami New Times, written in 1999. And make sure to drink a beer (or two) for Wally tonight.

Li’l Wally: In Heaven There is No Beer (MP3 sample)

polka
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la vida comoMost people probably don’t think of Bethlehem, PA, as a musical mecca, but for 10 days every August, the town is home to one of the biggest music festivals in the world: Musikfest. More than one million people come to Musikfest to listen to over 300 performers on 13 different stages playing in nearly every musical style imaginable.

Thanks to the area’s German heritage, the polka has always been at the heart of Musikfest; though there was some controversy last year when organizers allowed non-polka theme nights at the Festplatz (the main Musikfest polka venue). Nevertheless, the accordion is well represented at this year’s Musikfest, with performances from Jimmy Sturr, Steve Meisner, C.J. Chenier, Oriek, Big Lou’s Polka Casserole, the Al Meixner Trio, and many more.

If you want to follow Musikfest from afar, try some of these links:

• The official Musikfest site has everything you need to know — performer bios, event schedule, photos, and an inline music player with tunes from most of the acts playing this year’s ‘Fest.
• You’ve got to love a festival that’s so big that there are two blogs devoted to covering it. Mergedigital’s Musikfest blog and the Morning Call’s Festblog have both been reporting multiple times daily on festival highlights (such as where to find the best beer service).
• And, for those who love impromptu cameraphone shots like the one above, keep an eye on the latest photos tagged with ‘musikfest’ on Flickr.

The Polka America Corporation is far from the only organization promoting polka — the International Polka Association has been dedicated to the study and preservation of polka music for nearly forty years. The IPA’s 38th annual festival begins tonight in Chicago and the highlight will undoubtedly be Saturday’s Hall of Fame Awards Banquet. Back in 1968, Frankie Yankovic and Li’l Wally Jagiello were the first to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and since then the list of honorees has grown to include such legends as Myron Floren, Joey Miskulin, “Whoopee John” Wilfahrt, and many others.

Performers at this year’s festival include Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones, Jeff Mleczko & Dynabrass, Eddie Biegaj & Crusade, and more. And the IPA hasn’t forgotten about the kids — the festival features a couple vents geared towards younger polka-philes. First, there’s the annual Polka Art Contest where kids are encouraged to draw a picture based on the theme, “Polka Music is Happiness.” There’s also the Mini-Polka Princess Pageant, which is a non-competitive pageant for girls aged 3-10 (too bad, I was looking forward to the talent portion).

Heralding a “new era for the polka industry,” the Polka America Corporation (PAC) has launched as a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to promoting polka music throughout North America. Their website is a little stodgy — which is strange considering the fun, bouncy nature of the people and music they’re promoting — but they’re clearly committed to their cause. Board members come from a variety of backgrounds and include folks like Don Hedeker (of the Polkaholics), Ray Zalokar (who runs 247PolkaHeaven.com), intrepid polka CD reviewer Barry Nostradamus Sher, Big Lou, and many more. Membership is open to the general public and only costs $5 (no word on whether that gets you a swanky membership card for your wallet). PAC has the potential to be very influential in the polka community and I’m looking forward to hearing more about their plans.

What is polka? According to the dozens of people interviewed for an upcoming polka music documentary, the answer is easy: It’s Happiness. That’s the title of the film that Craig DiBiase and Timm Gable have been working on for the past year, which has taken them all over the country to meet musicians, dancers, and enthusiasts who just can’t get enough of polka. According to DiBiase, the director:

“I wanted to make a film that informed mainstream America what polka is really about; the family atmosphere, one’s heritage and the amount of fun at these festivals, but at the same time still please the polka community with musical performances from their favorite bands. The main point of the film is to show the eccentric personalities of the polka world and prove there’s a younger generation out there polka dancing.”

The film grew out of a conversation with John Pinter, president of the Wisconsin Polka Boosters, after he’d seen the duo’s work on a Pabst Blue Ribbon commercial incorporating polka dancers. The filmmakers showed the trailer at Pulaski Polka Days last week (after filming there last year) and are busy entering film festivals and looking for a distributor. Until “It’s Happiness” arrives at your local multiplex, you can watch the trailer on the official site:

It’s Happiness: Trailer