Tony de la Rosa was the king of the conjunto accordion. He was perfect. I had the enormous pleasure to work with him and produce a couple of his albums for Rounder a few years before he died and Brave Combo has always had one of his songs in whatever current repertoire, “Atotonilco,” being the best-known of his many hits. One of my favorites, for many reasons, is “Elida Polka.” It has everything and it’s trancey as hell (or heaven). So, I started messing with it and decided to turn it into a modern Oberkreiner/German-style polka, with a very heavy bass drum and in-your-face tuba sound. I don’t know if anyone will dig this or not, but I like it and will be playing it live with Brave Combo this polka season. And the video will definitely enhance your experience, especially if you love looking at me. That’s me, actually playing it, right there, in front of the camera. And I give my performance a solid B minus! Just as good as live!

Brave Combo first recorded this song over 15 years ago, for our Grammy-winning album, LET’S KISS, and then, a few years later, with the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra, scored for around 75 musicians. Lyrically, I wanted the message to be as simple as possible, with as few words as possible, almost as if I were trying to explain the concept to a child, but the opposite of preachy. The line, “I want to change more than I want you to change,” means I want to accept you, as you are, more than I want you to bend to my expectations. And this is the point of the song; how I define civilized in this presentation. For obvious reasons, it now seems more appropriate than ever, unfortunately.

For the 2022 version, I composed a new intro/outro and layered in some subtle spacey elements and sounds. Again, as I always stress, please try to listen in a way you can hear all the sound, highs, AND lows. Hook up a nifty little speaker to your phone. There are only about 100 million of them out there, probably within a few blocks of your house. Or listen with headphones. Or play it with your phone through your car’s sound system. Or install a very expensive integrated sound system all throughout your house. The video is mainly just something to look at, while you sing along to the provided lyrics. Also, it’s a waltz!

Jad Fair was coming to town to do a show and asked us to do it with him. We agreed and I said let’s write a song together. Jad agreed and said let’s book some studio time and record it. We agreed but suggested shooting a video instead, at the BC office/rehearsal space. No cost! Jad agreed. So I wrote some music and Jad wrote some lyrics. And that’s what happened. We played a show and the next day, shot video of us performing our new creation. Jad, Jeffery, and me. Brian handled the technical stuff. Cheryl applauded. This is just one take of “The Invisible Man.” Thank you for watching. Carl Finch/Brave Combo