The Machine’s Pump Volume 20 – #3 – March 2017

Oh boy! I guess I’ve done it now. I’ve been myself and said what I think, and that’s not allowed anymore. If anyone has been paying attention, I am passionate about a few things. Music, of course. I enjoy listening to it, learning it and playing it. I especially enjoy, as a performer, getting the attention of the audience with songs which sound strange, exotic or even disorienting. It’s fun to play a familiar melody in a way that encourages listeners to re-evaluate their opinions or ideas. I like mashing two or three disparate compositions together to create something new and unpredictable. This is how I entertain. I present a radical viewpoint, musically, and try to convince you I’m right.

Brave Combo has ruffled lots of feathers over the years. Most of the time, unintentionally. My career has, among other things, been an education on the sensitivity and insensitivity of humans, including myself. I’ve learned it’s possible to step on toes without ever even knowing the toes were there. Being an outspoken animal rights kinda dude invites lots of hurdles to jump. In my worldview, animals are our equals, if not our teachers. Watching my cats and dogs closely for a few minutes can be the best thing I do all day; noticing the really subtle stuff. For me, nothing beats the feeling of rescuing an animal from a bad situation. But it doesn’t mean that I’m against helping people in need. I donate time, energy and money to a myriad benefits, organizations and special events on a regular basis, personally and with the band. But I just feel compelled to be a voice for those, in particular, who don’t have one. It’s really no big deal. It’s just who I am. There are people who do much, much more for the causes I support, so I am absolutely not extraordinary in my efforts. I believe, however, that I do more good for animals than, say, big game hunters or people who host dog fights.

One day, in this process of being myself, while pondering current events, I realized how much Brave Combo owes to the process of humanity flow and how much immigrants have contributed to our repertoire and our knowledge. Whether musicians came into the United States from the north, south, east or west, they carried their ideas about music with them and, once here, blended their music with existing forms and styles and new sounds emerged. Polish songs from the old country don’t sound much like what they turned into once they were in New England and the New York City area for awhile. The traditional met jazz and big band and before long East Coast polka was born. But the evolution didn’t stop there. It moved west and by the time Chicago contained the largest population of Polish-Americans outside of Warsaw, this polka sounded almost nothing like the older East Coast big band style. It was punchier, but slower and funkier, ultimately becoming the Chicago push style. Rock and blues had now influenced it.

And, speaking of polka, which I do often, other Polish (and German and Czech) musicians were making their way to Mexico and settling in the Monterey area, introducing their songs and the accordion to Mexican musicians, resulting in simply amazing border music. Conjunto, Norteno, Tejano, and Tex-Mex. This is all organic stuff. Super special organic stuff. I don’t advocate, at all, people entering our country illegally and it’s definitely okay with me if violent offenders are sent home and dealt with properly. I just know how prejudice toward specific people and nationalities, because they were different, has negatively affected their efforts to succeed. Polka is the proof. To this day it is still considered, by many otherwise sensible people, the musical joke. Only good for a laugh. Why is that? Once upon a time, Polish jokes were as common as separate drinking fountains for blacks and whites. Why did Polish jokes exist? Because “Americans” didn’t like those stupid Eastern Europeans anywhere near our borders. So, once they were here, it became the norm to make fun of them; to belittle them, even if they went through all of the proper channels and were here legally and actually contributing to their communities. But the influence of polka, as a measurable force, on popular culture in 2017 illustrates my point. There is almost no positive impression of polka expressed anywhere in the mainstream unless it’s attached to an event that also features lots of meat and lots of alcohol.

Anyway, after thinking about how much Brave Combo has benefited from cultures mixing it up, I wanted to do some shows to emphasize this point, not to preach or to make anyone uncomfortable. In light of the current political climate, I felt like this would be a way Brave Combo could celebrate our song list and acknowledge how it got here. But, as I said at the beginning, “I’ve done it now.” Earlier this week I checked messages at the office. There was one from a fan who said that, although she’d devotedly attended many shows over the years, she was upset about the promotion of the upcoming IMMIGRANT SONGS performances and would not be attending any more Brave Combo shows.

We’ll be performing IMMIGRANT SONGS at Poor David’s Pub, in Dallas, on Friday, March 31, at Dan’s Silverleaf, in Denton, on Saturday, April 1 (no joke), at The Continental Club, in Austin, on Saturday, April 22 and at St. Andrew’s Coffee House Live Music Series, in Houston on Thursday, May 11. Please check our itinerary for details on these shows and other upcoming Brave Combo performances. That’s all I have to say.