Wow, this has been quite a weekend of recognizing and celebrating minorities in Denton. There was a massive LGBTQ Pride Day event on the square and a big ol’ Gospel concert at Fred Moore Park for Juneteenth and, of course, it’s Father’s Day, when boomers post that photo of dad in his WW2 uniform. Those photos remind us all how often Father’s Day rolls around, which reminds us all how short a year is. Jane and I did discover no one dines at Panera on Father’s Day. We had the place to ourselves, baby! And we rocked it! By the time we left, the joint was in shambles, from us having so much unbridled fun. Not to complain, but I must complain about the iced tea at Panera. It all tastes like flowers. I love flowers, but I don’t eat or drink them, although I know some people do. But flowers are not even on the menu at Panera. They just sneak flowers into their tea and it tastes like Flonase smells. It’s always an expensive disappointment, every time I foolishly get their iced tea, hoping the flowers will be gone. But they’re always there. So I dump the tea and get a Coke. Nope, they have Pepsi. Oh, well. Otherwise, it’s a fine place to eat. I’m sure you’ve been there.

As you may or may not know, I grew up in Texarkana, Texas; a medium-sized city straddling the tips of northeast Texas and southwest Arkansas. Texarkana is one city in two states, but it’s actually two cities which share a name. Whatever, that bizarre reality was normal to me. As was being a Southern Baptist in the south. 100% normal. My father even worked at our church, First Baptist. We were at church all the time. I was even named after the then-current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Carl Bates. I experienced years and years of Sunday School and Prayer Meeting and mountains of sermons and hymns and myriad choir practices and performances. I was there, right in the middle of a whole lot. And, although it was required that my brother, Jimmy, and I go to church, I generally had an okay time. Getting up early (before about 10am) always sucked for me, no matter what I had to do, and it hurts as much now as it did any Sunday morning when I was a kid. Brave Combo’s had to perform for a few morning news shows during our career and it was never fun. When we’re on the road, we never check out before noon, unless there is no way around the motel’s or hotel’s policy. But, between you and me, there is almost always a way, and I will find it, for that extra hour of sleep. Jeez, I go to bed between 3:00 and 4:00am. How can I check out at 11:00? That is inhumane. Hey everyone, FYI, night is a cool time of the day, mainly because most people are unconscious! Anyway, the fellowship/socializing part of church was okay. It was a big place, so there were lots of cute girls my age. I did try to pay attention to the life’s lessons I was supposed to learn, whether in Sunday School or big church, but my mind wandered a lot. So, during big church my mother gave me tablets of paper and pencils, to keep me occupied. None-the-less, I contend I heard and internalized most of what was being explained to us by the Biblical scholars of Northeast Texas. And a bunch of it made sense (love your enemy, don’t throw stones, pride and prejudice are bad, turn the other cheek) and much of it makes sense today. I was taught, in a Southern Baptist church, mind you, that much of the Bible is not literal. Rather, parables, designed to explain or teach lessons. I also heard that we were not to brag about our inner peace and joy. We were just supposed to live in such a way that no one else could exist without whatever magic we were supposed to exude, because we were so sure of our salvation, it made all things Earthly, like money, possessions, and power, somewhat irrelevant. I also remember hearing, over and over, that once Jesus hit the scene, the Old Testament became simply history and was no longer a reliable source of information on how to live with others. Ultimately, I realized, no matter where I was or am, I’m an outsider and a tribe like church, in particular, just didn’t fit my being. But, although I left the flock, I still had lots of friends and family involved and I trusted their interpretations of the Cosmos for themselves, because I believed their bottom line would be similar to mine; that all people should be equal because, above all, our pathway to enlightenment depends on our ability to not judge others. Jesus said it, Buddha said it, Mohammed probably said it, the god of common sense says it to us today. Atheists and devout Christians can come to the same conclusions about how to get along with, and benefit from, each other.

Believe it or not, we can think for ourselves because we already know the truth, when it comes to the big picture. Now, it seems, most “Christians” in our “great” country are the very angry, pride-infested “God and Guns” style. If that isn’t the case, I hear almost nothing from an opposing point-of-view, so I must assume, this is where Christianity in America has landed, which seems pretty far from all that Prince of Peace stuff, to me. Where is that radical, WE’RE TAKING BACK JESUS, movement inside all of the so-called houses of worship? Just thinking out loud here. Sorry if it’s coming off judgmental.

Hey, Brave Combo is doing some weird stuff every Wednesday evenings in June at Red’s Yard, in quaint little Denton, in-person and live-streaming, so you can witness it, no matter where you are, theoretically. No promises are made, concerning what you might see or hear. We might be acceptable, perhaps even intriguing, or we might just suck. Check our itinerary for details.

I have much more to say about lots of topics, but I can’t in good faith, take up more of your time. Have a fab month and, remember, think for yourself. Sorry this is so long.

You may or may not know, I moved to Denton a year after graduating from Texas High School, in Texarkana, to attend North Texas State University, mainly because it had a world-class music school and a quite decent fine arts department.  My plan was to study graphic design and become a graphic designer and do some sort of commercial art.  And to minor in music and have access to all the amazing stuff going on every day in that department.  I could draw pretty well and seemed to have an eye for design/composition.  Also, Denton had a reputation for being a rather loose, creative environment; simple country folk mixed with the most PHDs, percentage-wise, in the whole country.  As well, a friend of mine, who was about to graduate from NTSU, convinced me living in Denton would be the opposite of living in Texarkana, which definitely sounded good.  Jeez, I was 19 years old.  Of course, anyplace other than Texarkana was appealing.

I’d been playing in rock bands since the 10^th grade and, obviously, dug music, but I figured I would never be technically good enough to compete with even average music students at NTSU, on a performance level.  Visual arts sounded reasonable and, perhaps, an easier way to make a living.  So I did my work and got a degree in graphic design/advertising art.  I had two main professors.  One was totally old school (learn to use a chisel point pencil and all the crafty things) and the other was totally modern (design is all there is).  I leaned toward modern teacher, although crafty teacher was extremely interesting and became a big Brave Combo fan many years later.  Anyway, modern teacher opened my eyes to the power of design, which I did find exciting.  However, when I finished my bachelor’s degree, I realized I had no desire to move to Dallas or Fort Worth and work in a design studio; a cubicle.  In fact, I knew that was not going to happen.  Modern teacher was very disappointed in me.  But, there I was.  So, I thought I could get my master’s degree and teach art and make art at the same time.  I liked art history a lot.  Still do.  So I got my MFA in drawing and painting, but had stopped drawing and painting, by that point, and was working with audio installations and making things which explored the impact of sound and music.  Painting with sound.  I had an obsession with Muzak and its actual purpose, and was also exploring how to make all music equal, so ego and prejudice wouldn’t get in the way.  I used a variety of sound systems with big speakers, little speakers, headphones, drive-in theater speakers, whatever.

After attracting the attention of a few sorta important people in the regional art world, I decided a live band might be the best way to get my point across.  But the idea would be the main thing.  I was, by that time, already focused on polka music, because it had such a bad reputation in the big ol’ mainstream pop world, which it certainly didn’t deserve.   I just had to see what would happen if one played polkas in a rock and roll environment.  That’s the basic story of what led up to forming an actual band.  One of my painting professors, Bob Wade, came to NTSU as a rather famous Texas artist and became more famous and infamous, while he was there.  I apprenticed with him for a couple of years and learned a bunch about making art and why anyone would do it and what it all meant to me.  Bob always talked about how the artist simply points at things.  He also asked us students, the first day of painting class, “Do you make art or do you make what looks like art.”  That question really got to me and is with me every single second while I’m working on my next “masterpiece.”  Anyway, to me, Brave Combo is, and has forever been, one very long art piece; a creative experiment.  Being in a rock band, after high school, didn’t sound like much fun.  Hell, being in any regular band, including a polka band, didn’t sound like much fun.  But being part of a thing, which was allowed to play polkas, sounded beyond great.  I really wanted to feel the power of the music but had little desire to get too close to the cultural attachments.  I don’t need to go nuts over beer and freak out over sausage, especially since I stopped eating meat about 35 years ago.  Brave Combo is about music for music’s sake, damn it!  And it’s 100% okay to like rock, jazz, gospel, salsa, country hiphop AND polka.  Just listen and think for yourself.  Try not to knee-jerk so much.  First of all, knee-jerking is not attractive.  That’s why you rarely see ballet dancers do the knee-jerk.  Anyway, the concept behind Brave Combo was pretty simple; rock band plays polkas!  From there, somehow, many magical things have sprung forth, at least from my point-of-view.

THE APATHETIC MAJORITY.  About 150,000 people live in Denton now.  We recently had an election, which included mayor and a couple of city council seats.  These people make BIG decisions and those decisions impact Dentonites every day.  Only about 10% of the population showed up to vote.  And the races were close.  A few hundred votes either way could have changed results.  I fear I may know many people who got lazy at the wrong time.  My wife, Jane, and I, literally zipped by the civic center to early vote one afternoon, on our way to Sonic.  It took about ten minutes.  And we each got that same little “I Voted” sticker which I immediately stuck to my forehead, as Jane was saying, “Don’t stick that to your forehead.”  So shame on 90% of Denton, minus those people too young to vote.  So, rather, shame on 90% of 60-70% of the population or something like that.  Whatever, no one snagged more than 7,000-8,000 votes, which is pitiful and not deserving of a victory celebration at Applebee’s.

Speaking of Denton, Brave Combo is partnering with a new outdoor venue in town, Red’s Yard, to present an every-Wednesday happening, called “Weird Wednesday with Brave Combo.”  It is going to be a brand new form of live entertainment and will be live-streamed, so anyone in the world can watch this new form of live entertainment.  Here are some facts.

Brave Combo will be appearing at Red’s Yard every Wednesday evening in June, from around 7:00 to 9:00, on their outside stage.  Admission will be free.

The PA will be small and intimate.  Think “live background music, which might be more annoying than entertaining….to the audience.”  We may spend several minutes just rehearsing something and the audience will be encouraged  to eat and drink and enjoy watching and hearing us horsing around, trying out various ideas.  We may invite someone from the audience to sing with us if we don’t want to sing.  Or we may just talk about something for a long time.  And then I might play drums, while Alan plays accordion, for no good reason.  One of us may leave the stage for a few minutes and offer no excuse.  Then Jeff might tell everyone about something cool he saw recently, while Robert accompanies him on lap steel guitar.

Why would we do this, you ask?  Because we want to play, in a rehearsal (meaning “anything goes”) setting, but we want it to be a performance; a presentation of music.  It must involve a high degree of chance, but not from a normal improvisational way.  Bands come up with most of the cool stuff while they’re freely grasping and imagining and not being self-conscious.  Ultimately, perhaps we can make something mildly intriguing and unaffected by normal band/audience ego stuff.  This is the best I can do, to explain what to expect, because we don’t know anything, yet, other than it will definitely not be Brave Combo just playing a bunch of well-rehearsed songs.  We will be there TO rehearse…and screw around.  All for your pleasure…and ours.  And, at the end of June, we’ll decide if it’s worth continuing.  There’s a good chance it won’t be.  But, you never know.  Every Weird Wednesday in June.  7-9pm (CST).  We hope our souls can touch or, at least, that the live-streaming doesn’t crap out.

Okay, enough words!  Think for yourself and be kind!

It is officially Dyngus Day!  Lent is over, for those of you who observed it.  I never have.  I grew up in a Baptist family.  Baptists didn’t have to do anything special for anything.  Catholics carried heavy burdens compared to Baptists.  On top of that, I was taught that I could never fall from grace.  Over the years, being in a polka band, I’ve been seriously exposed to the Catholic mindset.  One time I told Eddie Blazonczyk, the king of the Chicago Push Polish polka style, that it seemed like some polka stars were obsessed with having their picture taken with the Pope.  Eddie looked at me very seriously and said, “What’s wrong with that?”  I learned something quick.  And, although, Baptists could sorta just cruise through life without being too inconvenienced by the demands of the church, Catholics could drink.  That same Eddie Blazonczyk once invited Brave Combo to attend one of his concerts at a big Catholic picnic right outside Chicago and everyone was dancing AND drinking, like crazy.  In fact, the nuns provided the raffle prize; a huge basket of liquor!  I never witnessed dancing and drinking at any party at the First Baptist Church in Texarkana, Texas.  So, Catholics and some other folks give up something during lent and Easter marks the end of the sacrificing or fasting or whatever.  For some Polish party people, the Monday after Easter is straight-up rock and roll day.  No easing back into the vices for them.  Dyngus Day might be an invention of the American-Polish scene.  One of the biggest celebrations is in Buffalo, New York.  We’ve been honored to headline that raucous event a couple of times and totally love blasting Polish polkas and obereks for a musically aware crowd.  Boy, things were a lot more fun before a bunch of jerks decided it would be a good idea to tear people apart and profit from their efforts to polarize our country.  Too bad it worked.  But no matter what, I love the music, for music’s sake.  And that’s that!  Call me crazy.  I’ll consider it a compliment!

Check this out!  A few years ago a popular Japanese punk-pop band, Brahman, covered our song, “Flying Saucer,” playing it quite punky poppy.  Now a whole crop of young Japanese guitarists are covering Brahman’s cover of the song.  I love this!

Speaking of music and the interesting people who create it, one of Brave Combo’s biggest influences was a South Texas accordionist/genius, named Esteban (Steve) Jordan.  He was, let’s say, only interested in making his music his way.  And the population, at large, benefitted greatly, from his stubbornness because what he created was, truly, mind-blowing.  I probably could not find many things, outside of music, on which Steve and I would agree and his reputation for being downright mean seemed to be based on some truth, but I am so glad he existed.  He died a few years ago, but his style, talent, and sheer ability will live on in other Tejano/Conjunto musicians forever.  He was a tiny person and almost totally blind, but legend has it he once forced his brother, who was also his drummer, out of their van, at gunpoint, somewhere between South Texas and Monterey, Mexico.  I got to see him perform several times and we even played a few shows together.  He was always stunning, if not magical, even when he was pissed-off at the monitor guy or one of his musicians.  He was what he was.  Here are a couple of examples of what I’m talking about.

The reason I bring up Steve Jordan, aside from the fact that his impact on me is immeasurable, is that our good friend (and one of the best interpreters of Steve Jordan’s music) from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, master accordionist/button box player, Danny Jerabek, is coming down to Denton to hang out and play some music and will be performing with us at Rubber Gloves.  Now that was quite a packed sentence!  The show is on Tuesday, April 26^th and you’re an idiot if you don’t come out and hear this guy play.  If you like accordion music and you live within 100 miles of our sweet little town, you have no excuses.  You must attend, my friend!

And speaking of that, what is up with live music, in general?  Does it really fit anymore, on a mainstream commercial level, or is the scene going to become just a bunch of eccentrics getting together for esoteric reasons, of interest to only them.  Just wondering, because that’s okay with me.  From here on out, it’s all about discovery and learning and simply adding two plus two.  Dig?  The old templates are cracked and worn and don’t really make sense anymore.  Jeez, we’ve all been through a lot.  It’s okay and normal to have changing attitudes and perspectives.  As a performer, I must try to be aware of the vibe; to feel the flow and sense where humanity is right now and where it’s going.  And it’s trickier than ever to know what works, as we enter the second quarter of 2022.  Like it or not, we’re all moving toward something new and different, and we don’t know yet if it will be wonderful or thoroughly suck.

I remain optimistic because I have no choice.  But that’s just me.  “Get on the good foot,” as James Brown used to sing!  Here goes nothing!