Oh, there are so many things to cover. First of all, if you need proof about whether a so-called leader’s rhetoric matters, I guess you can just come to Denton. This last weekend, at two different local live music clubs, there were disruptions caused by swastika-brandishing neo-Nazis and torch-bearing white supremacists chanting something about reclaiming the USA. This is shocking, for sure, but I have to admit, I’ve been looking over my shoulder at gigs and am more vigilant from the stage because a lot of our repertoire celebrates music by people from other countries and we proudly let it be known. Our strong pro-immigration position has caused many long-time Brave Combo “fans’ to bail on us, and not without letting us know why. But, honestly, how could they possibly be fans and not know where our music comes from. I mean, I appreciate the compliment, if they think we wrote all of the stuff we play. This is all so stupid, but stupid can also be dangerous, especially if the main reason a person is dangerous is because he or she is stupid. Whatever, I haven’t seen Nazis, pro-KKK, and white power folks in town in decades.

When I was growing up in Texarkana, there were still some black and white drinking fountains and separate entrances to some businesses, but I was taught that this was wrong, and that things were quickly changing for the better; that life would someday be more fair for everyone. My parents definitely believed that everyone must, somehow, contribute and carry his or her own weight, BUT they believed, even more strongly, that people deserve a break and a chance to get it together. They backed-up this belief by allowing ex-convicts to live in their home, right after being released from prison. This was a huge part of their world for many years and they made a difference. It was walking the walk, beyond what most people are willing to do. And their lives were enriched immeasurably, as well, although, it was tricky and sometimes pretty scary. I saw examples of humans actually caring about and for other people and I was told that we’re all equal and I better not forget it. I think this attitude of live and let live helped me imagine things that maybe no one else had imagined, like putting together a rock band to play music generally rejected by rock bands and the rest of mainstream society. And most of what we played was music either by immigrants or influenced by immigrants. And we were 100% innocent in our mission. We simply all really liked a lot of different kinds of music and didn’t understand why some of it was labeled as stupid or only good for a joke. Of course, we all know now that the basis for dissing polka and making fun of it came from the same place as Polish jokes. The people who lived in the USA already didn’t want those Polish people, in particular, moving across the ocean. They were the Latinos of the day. I salute the proud descendants of people who have endured hardships just because they were different. We play Polish-American festivals, Czech-American festivals, German-American festivals, Slovenian-American festivals and, as well, Mexican-American festivals, of course. Jeez, where would we be if we had never rocked the cumbia, or polka or salsa or huapango or schottische or oberek or waltz!!! And where would we all be if our choices were limited to only the cool stuff white people conjured up on their own. And, although we white Americans have come up with some worth-while music, we can’t claim rock, soul, jazz, Cajun, zydeco, klezmer blues, cha cha, tango, salsa or even Gospel, in addition to the above-mentioned styles. That would leave, pretty much native-American and some ultra-pure form of country music, which had never been exposed to rock or blues or jazz. Hmm, I don’t know, maybe something like Western camp-fire songs; sing-a-longs.
“Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam
Where the deer, and the antelope play.
Too bad this is the, on-ly style of song
Made from scratch, in the whole USA”

On to a lighter topic, I listen to right-wing radio somewhat regularly, to keep up with their latest ways of demonizing the left and, I gotta say, I am really tired of being portrayed as a baby killer just because my politics lean way-left. In reality, I am not pro-abortion, unless it’s medically necessary, and am in favor of people (both parties) being responsible enough to not get pregnant, accidentally, in the first place. No one should be cavalier with life and death matters. Inconvenience is absolutely not a reason for having an abortion. However, more than that, I am in favor of each person making his or her own decisions. Period. That’s the way everyone wants it, especially in the USA. Nobody wants an outsider telling him or her how to live. So, I guess I can see both points-of-view and must leave the hard decision to the person who is actually facing it. Am I a freak of nature? Hell no! I dare say this is how almost everyone on the left feels. The far right says that an abortion is no big deal to those on the left. That’s just not true. No one is happy about it. It’s always a very difficult decision, even for Democrats. No surprise, but I am pro-animal rights as passionately as some anti-abortion people are “pro-life.” In fact, there are similarities in how the two groups (animal rights and pro-life) operate. My most radical side believes that killing and eating animals is just straight-up wrong, mainly because it involves so much cruelty and suffering all day long, every day. I just had to extricate myself from being involved. So about 35 years ago I ate my last fried fish sandwich from McDonald’s. I had long-before stopped putting hunks of cows, pigs and chickens into my mouth and swallowing them. And then I realized fish had faces and brains and felt pain, as well. To me, eating animals is backward and barbaric and reflects human weakness and supports our darkest selves. But I also believe that it is each person’s right to make that sort of heavy decision. It sucks that right now so much animal torture is happening, and on such a horrifically huge scale. It breaks my heart if I dwell on it. In fact, one of the down sides of touring is having to see all of the cows and chickens crammed into big trucks. It makes me ashamed of all humanity. But I do have to live and work and be social with others. Not everyone agrees with me. I have to put the rights of the individual ahead of my desires. Since everyone knows I’m always right, anyway, it’s okay if I don’t get my way every now and then. So, let me sum this up. I am not a baby killer and I don’t know any baby killers among my army of left-wing friends. Those radio guys need to chill out, but, really, I’ve not known many chilled-out radio talk show hosts. Wonder why they’re almost always revved-up. What’s that supposed to mean?

My long-time good buddy, Sara Hickman, has just released a coloring book, AN ECLECTIC ARRAY OF TEXAS MUSICIANS, and Brave Combo is delighted to be featured so prominently. You need to get one of these things. It’s super-duper cool and totally Sara and it has a practical application (made for coloring). And, as with everything she does, proceeds will probably be going to some charities. It’s in her blood, being all up and supportive and loving. She is just, apparently, obnoxiously determined to help people. Did you know that’s Sara in the Energizer bunny costume, in all of those commercials?

Another long-time buddy, magician/entertainer-extraordinaire, Bo Gerard, has featured me in his current blog. He got nosey and asked me some personal questions and I gladly provided him with answers. Please check it out AND check out Bo, when you can!

Stop the presses! Wait, no, keep the presses running. Yours truly is on the cover of the July issue of the TEXAS POLKA NEWS. Inside, a lot of space is devoted to Brave Combo and our 40th birthday (this year). Subscribe online or pick one up the next time you’re perusing the new publications at your neighborhood newsstand or magazine store. I loved hanging out in the monster magazine section of Hale’s Newsstand in deep downtown Texarkana. The monster magazines were right by the girlie magazines. I looked at both, but mainly the monster magazines. I could actually buy those and take them home. I have two friends, Radio DJ, Larry King (not the suspender-wearing old guy) and St.

Louis pop culture icon, Beatle Bob, who know more about Forest J. Ackerman and his fanzine, FAMOUS MONSTERS of FILMLAND, than I do. That’s all. Just two. Google him (Forest J. Ackerman), if you’re interested.

Local Denton club, LSA (Lone Star Attitude) is hosting a Brave Combo 40th Anniversary event on the downtown square Saturday, August 10. 7-10 PM. Come one and all. Rumor has it, BC alumnus, Robert Hokamp, will be joining us for part of the night. He’s bringing his guitar.

Speaking of bad-asses jamming with us bad-asses, percussionist and all-around cosmic dude, Mike Dillon, will be doing just that at our annual Levitt Pavilion show, in downtown Arlington, on Friday, August 30. This is one of our favorite shows every year. Show up and make some noise! It’s time to get down, baby! You got soul and you’re super bad! That’s a compliment, by the way.

And Lookout! Westfest is almost upon us! Labor Day weekend. Our musical comrades, The Bolzen Beer Band, from Lincoln, NE, are making their first appearance this year. Come out and yell and scream with/at them!

Cleveland International Records (out of Nashville) will soon be re-releasing our Grammy Award-winning album POLKASONIC. And, to commemorate, we have new POLKASONIC T-shirts ready to mail your way. Our store T-shirt motto is, “It will look good on you AND you will look good wearing it!”

I’m done. That’s enough for this month. My wife and I rescued yet another cat. This one was an 8-week-old kitten, living under a concrete slab, behind a restaurant. We just happened to see her. She was sick, scared and starving. Now she’s extremely happy, feels safe, purrs constantly, eats a lot and has many toys. I think she likes this better than the concrete slab. She is our 9th successful rescue in about a year. Okay, stay cool and keep your eyes open for dogs and cats who may be in distress. If you see something funky, check it out and help ‘em out. If I had a boat and a trailer and some skis and all the necessary gear, I’d go water skiing!

So I guess another year is wrapping up and, once again, a new one is ready to take its place. I’ve seen this before. Everyone looks back at the previous 12 months because we, apparently, can’t help it. I suppose it’s important to us to assess what just happened. The older I get, the more I feel like everything just happened. Twelve months feels barely longer than two. Plus, I’m just not past-oriented. I don’t long for the good ol’ days, whenever they were. There are certainly many events I remember fondly and I suppose, if I could hop into a time machine and walk around my hometown in the 1960s again and look at it with modern eyes, it would, admittedly, be entertaining. However, I have somewhat recently cataloged all of the Brave Combo videos, going back to our first rehearsals, and I gotta say, I don’t want to relive a single minute. The experience was pretty overwhelming and, ultimately, rather nauseating. Too much to take in. Lots of places and miles and situations and people. I was surprised at my reaction. I probably tried to watch and label too many at a time, but boy-o-boy did I get tired of myself. There were moments it didn’t look like anything to me. But mainly I was just happy I still had a reason to keep making new stuff, because I love making new stuff. And I know I drive everyone crazy with my desire to constantly create and change things up and, on top of that, be as perfect as possible, but that formula seems to work for me. In just a few months Brave Combo will be 40 years old. That’s four decades of imagining what doesn’t exist. That’s a pretty long time, right? I mean, that’s nothing compared to how long dogs have been domesticated. But compared to how long it takes to eat your average meal, it’s an eternity. Plus, most of our songs are on the short side, so a night of Brave combo involves roughly 45-50 songs. Multiply that by 40 years. Okay, I’m starting to feel nauseated again. Whatever, if I were to do a year-end round-up, I think it would be something like, “We live in a Twilight Zone-style cartoon and 2018 was full of stupid shit!” But with the new year comes new hope and, I must say, I am sorta optimistic about 2019 and very grateful that Brave Combo still has so many opportunities to perform and to be self-indulgent. We’re so appreciative of the support which continues to come our way. I’m always amazed I actually make money doing this; enough money to support a bunch of animals, including several who don’t live at our house. They have no idea how expensive they are. They don’t even know what money is. They just know I am, somehow, there to take care of them.

Speaking of 2019, we will be updating our itinerary soon and adding lots of new dates. As usual, we are on vacation for most of January and February, but on Saturday, February 23, we will perform in concert with the Odysseus Chamber Orchestra in McKinney, Texas. Symphonic arrangements of Brave Combo songs, with us playing along! We seriously dig hearing our music played by lots of violins and oboes and harps and french horns and then singing along with it, karaoke-style, in front of an audience. Pretty thrilling stuff for us. Mark it on your calendar.

LET’S GO SHOPPING. We ordered a bunch of IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN! CDs (1990 release, contains original BC recording of “Must Be Santa,” which our friend, Bob Dylan, covered) for the season and they were a hit, so we are going to try expanding the BC store to include vintage vinyl, cassettes, publicity photos, posters, and myriad oddball things. The Brave Combo office/studio is about to pop with stuff. Jeez, that TV show, HOARDERS, even called about shooting an episode (just kidding). We’ll let you know when the inventory is ready to check out and clear out, hopefully by mid-January. Start getting excited now, though. In the meantime, we do have a few copies of IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN! still in stock. It’s a classic album and, as Brave Combo says, “Christmas is always just around the corner.”

JOE CRIPPS’ BIRTHDAY PARTY. Our friend, a comrade in music and fellow traveler, Joe Cripps, has now been missing for about two years and two months. In October of 2016, he just disappeared. He was living in Little Rock at the time. Joe played percussion with Brave Combo for over two decades and was a partner in the band, as well, for several years. We toured the world together. January 5, 2019, is Joe’s birthday and on that date, an army of his fellow musicians will gather at Dan’s, in Denton, for the second annual commemorative blow-out. At that event, an announcement will be made about a scholarship which is being established in Joe’s name. Although the reason we will all be getting together is sad beyond words, Joe was bigger than life, so we plan to rock out and make a lot of noise in his memory. Several bands are playing. You should come out and party with us.

I am working diligently on my new project, The Carl Finch Sound, and now have about 60-70 new songs/ideas/pieces almost ready to perform. As well, I am returning to the studio in January to finally finish work on twelve new tracks. I remember, when I was about 11 years old, realizing I wouldn’t have time, one summer, to do all I wanted to do. I made a list, including lots of fun stuff, and barely accomplished anything. It’s still the same, over fifty years later. Forever hard to complete things. This is everyone’s burden. Revved-up in the beginning, worn out halfway through. You gotta dig deep to tie up all the loose ends and when you’re dealing with something like music, it has to be, at least, recorded and performed well and should be, at least, a little interesting. This is a tall order these days, considering how much music and art is being produced. Here’s a shocking fact which should discourage anyone from considering a career as a musician/artist. Spotify uploads 20,000 new recordings every 24 hours.

Hey, Bubba Hernandez and Jeffrey Barnes are still hanging around, playing fantastic shows with Brave Combo. We do three-part harmony, like the Chordettes. Or were they four-piece? Well, we can do that, too, if we want, like the Chordettes, in case they were a four-piece ensemble. Speaking of the Chordettes, here’s a song by another singing group from that era which probably wouldn’t fly in 2019. HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all!

I am so tired of thinking too much. I’m so tired of checking the news to see what new depressing thing has happened. I’m so tired of trying to wrap my head around the thought processes of evangelical Christians. I’m so tired of disliking others because they’re idiots. It feels like, in 2016, we all moved to a weird, distorted version of where we had been living. Indeed, something has allowed, even encouraged, the worst side of humanity to rise to the surface and feel just fine about it. October has been a horrific month in the USA. I guess the killing of eleven people in a synagogue is part of making America great again. I feel like we are witnessing the dissolving of American society and the de-evolving of humanity. The explosion of social media, a platform designed to “unite” us, has mainly been about the explosion of ego. Me against you. Now that Pandora’s Box is wide open, a dangerous, fear-spewing monster has been put in charge of the country. I just need to figure out a way to embrace all the crazy stuff going on and be thankful and honored to be living in such a bizarre, volatile, out-of-control era; to be alive at the actual tipping point of climate change. And to actually see the USA flirt with becoming controlled by right-wing nationalism. How special is that? No matter what, I have to stay a little attached to this ridiculous realm. I still have to write up contracts and make business phone calls. I have to set up gear and plug in cables. I have to pay bills and drive within the lanes. Friends and family, including lots of animals, depend on me every day. So, there are many reasons I must keep it together. But it’s become harder to find anchors; reliable stuff. And we’re all learning too much about how to con people and how to live comfortably with lies. Okay, now I am tired of this paragraph. Jeez, go vote!

Check out this song, “Shprayz Ikh Mir,” by the Klezmatics. Viva music of immigrants!

Hmmm, David Byrne is about to release the entire TRUE STORIES movie soundtrack, including the stuff I wrote and recorded. That explains why Warner Music has been calling and sending me forms to fill out. Okay, that’s very good news.

LET’S not POLKA! The 2018 polka-blitz season has officially come to a close. This was one intense bunch of gigs! So many notes! Thank you to all who came out to our shows and dances and got down with us.

Did you know that a classic line-up of Brave Combo has been performing together most of this year and will continue to do so in November and December? I’m talking about Jeffrey, Bubba, Danny, Alan and myself. The five of us recorded two Grammy-winning albums not too long ago. Don’t know what 2019 will bring, so you should scramble to check us out before the year (or time) comes to an end. Hear songs you haven’t heard in a long-ass time or maybe ever.

Speaking of classic Brave Combo, our beloved musical brother and long-time BC member, Joe Cripps, has been missing for two years. It’s just as hard to believe now as it was in October of 2016. I can’t believe Joe hasn’t been around since the presidential election. Man, oh man, he would have had some choice words for certain people in high places. We all miss him and hope we can, someday, know exactly what happened.

Speaking of the past, above is a gig photo we unearthed from the 1990s. Over the decades Brave Combo has performed at, perhaps, hundreds of wedding parties. One time we were playing such an event in Dallas and the groom asked if his dad could sit in on a few songs. Of course, we said yes. It’s his wedding. The father turned out to be Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. So, indeed, we played a mini-set of his hits. From left-to-right, it’s Jeffrey, Bubba, Roger, Mitch (on drums in the back) and me on piano. We were so cool at that moment. All five of us!

Please check our itinerary often. Dates pop in when you least expect it. Of course, holiday shows are around the corner. Make your plans now!

Also, my new side project, The Carl Finch Sound, will be performing one more fabulous show this year, in Denton, at LSA (south side of the downtown square), on Thursday, November 8. I have been in the studio recording new material from this endeavor and hope to release it, with videos, early 2019. As well, good ol’ Brave Combo has recorded several new tracks, including our latest version of “The Clarinet Polka,” featuring Robert Hokamp flying though the melody on guitar. I gotta get busy and pull this stuff together.

And speaking of good ol’ Brave Combo, next year, 2019, will mark 40 years of nuclear polka. I may not ever mention that again or we could wind up throwing a bunch of celebratory bashes. I can’t really dwell on this too much, though. Not yet. But I’ll probably get myself psyched up for it. It’s no big deal, really. I mean, it’s not like it will be our 43rd year or anything like that. Everybody calm down.

For now, let’s focus on the present and what’s right in front of us. If you have not voted, do it now! Then go have a nice dinner.