Volume 14 – #6 – June 2011

LIFE AND DEATH
If  you’re reading this, you’re probably still alive. You know, this whole “time on Earth” thing is pretty interesting and can be pretty depressing, too.  I’m always looking for reasons or purpose.  I’m just hard-wired to examine and wonder and try to figure out stuff.  Some people love that about me and others can be seriously turned off by my tendencies.  I’ve learned that I can wear them out.   Hell, I can wear myself out, but I can’t help it.  This has been a rough year, in terms of the whole non-permanence thing.  Everything is always changing and moving on and, in fact, dying eventually.  My mother died a year ago.  She was 84 and had a relatively trauma-free existence, but losing her or, rather, having her check out forever, hit me pretty hard and it’s still hard.  But since she has moved on, so have many others who were quite important to me.  Shortly after Mother died, our writer buddy, Harvey Pekar, was suddenly gone (just two weeks after we hung out backstage at a show in Cleveland), followed by C.W. Cernosek, the guy who booked Brave Combo every year at Westfest, the mighty Central-Texas polka festival.  Then my uncle, Joseph Zaremba, became ill and was dead before I even knew he had been sick.  He seemed fine at my mother’s funeral just four months earlier.  But nothing could prepare me for the news that one of my very best friends while growing up in Texarkana, Cliff Garner, had passed away.  I hadn’t spoken to him in years, decades, even.  To my knowledge, he never saw Brave Combo.  But when I was in Junior High and High School we were together all the time.  We used to ride around T-Town, listening to his father’s Lawrence Welk and Myron Floren 8-tracks.  I often think that those experiences were instrumental in the development of the Brave Combo idea.  Polka music was a great soundtrack to accompany what I was seeing through the windshield of Cliff’s dad’s car.  Plus, he was only a couple of years older than I am and, well, that adds another whole level of chill to the picture.  Of course, once again, I found myself regretting not making more of an effort to connect with someone who was now and forever gone.  Shortly after receiving that sad news I heard that Barbara Marine, mother of our former drummer, Mitch Marine, died in a freak automobile accident near her home in Arizona.  This was just a day or two after she and Mitch’s dad, Don, saw Mitch play with Dwight Yokum in Phoenix.   Then, out of the blue, an atomic bomb exploded.  My good friend, mentor, collaborator, supporter and Brave Combo true-believer, Steve Popovich, died suddenly at his desk in his home office.  He was found slumped over his computer keyboard, apparently killed by a heart attack, mid-email.  This was really bad news and almost impossible to accept.  I still have three recent messages from him on my cell phone, suggesting songs and talking about doing this and that together, including POLKA PANDEMONIUM, a music festival he’d wanted to produce in Nashville for years.  And now was the time!  His life was way too full of things to mention here, but Google him and try to imagine what all he did and was responsible for.  Personally, he made me feel, more than just about anyone, that I was on the right track.  Brave Combo won its first Grammy with POLKASONIC, which we released on Steve’s Cleveland-based record company, Cleveland International.  That’s the same company that first released Meatloaf’s BAT OUT OF HELL, when no one else would touch it.  That bit of brilliant vision made Steve Popovich famous, leading him to work with the biggest stars in music, including Bruce Springsteen and The Jackson Five.  There’s a picture in the photo slide show on the front page of our web site of me and three other guys standing in a row with our arms around each other.  Check it out.  From left to right, that’s Steve’s son, Steve Popovich, Jr., me, Cowboy Jack Clement and Steve Popovich, Sr.  When Brave Combo would go to Nashville in the early days we would play The Bluebird Café and almost no one would show up but Steve and he would bring out people like Elvis Presley’s drummer and make the gig a party.  This was just the beginning of a great relationship that I could fall back on for support and understanding.  Jeez, when Steve Jr. was a little kid, the two of them flew over to Denmark to catch our set at the Roskilde Music Festival, just for the hell of it.  And when we won that Grammy on his label, he had a big bunch of exotic flowers over-nighted to us from Hawaii.  Whatever, I could go on and on, and I encourage you to check out his accomplishments, if you’re interested.  A tragic side story to Steve’s passing, and that photo in our slide show, is that Cowboy Jack Clement’s beautiful house and studio in Nashville recently burned down.  The office where that photo was taken is no more.  He and Steve were the best of friends.  I can’t imagine the loss Cowboy must be experiencing.  Steve Popovich, Jr. produces Cowboy Jack’s Outlaw Country Radio Show on Sirius/XM.  The world can be almost too much to bear.  My heart goes out to all my friends who are reeling from these recent tragic events.  I hope they can make some sense of it all someday.  I know I have plenty to ponder right now.

But, you know what?  The name of my band is Brave Combo.  And we must emerge through the storm, whatever it is.  We must keep playing music.  This is how we plug our energy into keeping things going.  And we do it instinctively, for survival.  Ours and everyone’s.  Beyond sadness, the music still exists.  It goes on and on and we are still part of that process.  And it’s our job to keep looking forward and moving forward.  If nothing else, I am a determined mofo and have learned the value of persistence.  FYI, when you go see/hear your favorite bands you never know what issues each of the musicians on stage may be dealing with.  It’s possible that one of them is ill, maybe even running fever and about to throw up.  It’s possible that one of them just had an argument with a family member and is upset.  It’s possible that one of them is worried about someone’s health or maybe even someone’s imminent death.  And it’s likely that a couple of them are sleep-deprived.  But the performer’s job is to perform as well as possible, putting aside personal problems.  And, in fact, music can transcend those things for the performer.  So, with that in mind, let’s talk about something other than death and the end of stuff.

Brussel Sprouts taste good.

When I’m at home, our cats and dogs crack me up everyday, all day long.  They piss me off all day long, too.

This is a really cool song.  It must have been a big hit in Romania. http://youtu.be/sOVGCoiOJfQ.

I bought a new electronic accordion and it shows real promise, meaning that I’m going to keep it and not return it.  That’s major.  I actually kinda like my new purchase.

Brave Combo is on the cover of the most recent issue of INTERNATIONAL MUSICIAN magazine, the official magazine of the musicians union. http://www.afm.org/im/brave-combo

RETURN TO VINYL.  In the earliest days of Brave Combo, we released our music on vinyl (6 LPS, a 12-inch EP and a double 7-inch EP).  Cassettes were a necessary medium at the time, too, but vinyl was the real deal.  And, I also recorded three 7” 45s under the name CARL FINCH AND HIS ORCHESTRA before Brave Combo.  So, I learned a lot in those days about the medium, but by the mid-1980s, CDs had fully taken over and we followed suit, of course.  Had no choice.  Rounder stopped putting out vinyl.  But, surprisingly enough, vinyl never totally went away and in recent years has been making a somewhat healthy comeback.  CDs just don’t sound as, well, interesting, as vinyl.  So, we are proud to say that we are releasing two brand new songs on an up-coming 7” 33 1/3 record with the local Denton punk band, Wee Beasties.  It was their idea, but something we’d been considering for some time and it seemed like a great opportunity to hear, once-again, how we sound as a needle crawling through a groove.  Anyway, the test pressing fully rocks.  I’m very excited about this now and am ready to do another.  So, Brave Combo and Wee Beasties will be hosting a fabulous record release party at Hailey’s in Denton on July 16.  We only did a limited pressing, so if you want one of these suckers you better come to the show.  They’ll be cheap and will go fast.  It’s just four songs, but super groovy.  Dig?  Plus, Richard, the lead singer for Wee Beasties will probably strip down to his underwear during their set.

Okay, keep one eye open while you sleep and notice the stuff you might not have otherwise.  Everything’s moving fast and you don’t want to miss the good stuff.  And, unfortunately, you’re not supposed to miss the bad stuff either.  Without the bad you couldn’t recognize the good.  So, up/down, yin/yang, in/out, that’s what it’s about.  Now go crack up at your cat or dog or kid or neighbor or whatever.  It’s worth the effort.