Volume 7 – #8 – August 2004

Hey, y’all. The new CD, LET’S KISS, is now in our grubby little hands and we hope will soon be in yours. I think it’s a major leap into that not-yet-established genre, polka pop. But then again, I’m not a 12-18 year old girl. So in terms of what really matters in the pop world, I continue to be ignorant and invisible. Brave Combo is still not a household name, like say, Lance Bass. But, this is okay. Sometimes I pity the super famous more than the super obscure. Really famous people can have their lives taken away. Not because one loses privacy, but because one can become so self aware and self-judging it’s a real struggle to live in the moment. And, I believe, you can become desperate to hang on the notoriety, because it starts to define you. Brave Combo gets a lot of perks. It’s great. Our fan base is strong and devoted. We appreciate the support and realize that without our fans we could not make a living doing this. But there are times that I just can’t talk to another person. Believe it or not, and you probably will not, most of the time I really don’t want to be the center of attention. I want to sit in the dark and observe what other people are doing. And compared to someone like, I don’t know, maybe Lance Bass, Brave Combo isn’t famous at all. I can go to Texarkana (my home town) and be recognized only by friends of my parents and people I went to high school with. It appears that no paparazzi are following me around, taking pictures of me checking the mail or buying vegetarian corndogs. Usually I feel like Brave Combo has a nice balance going; a manageable sort of fame. However, on the positive side of self-exploitation, the original point of this paragraph was to get you all excited about our new CD, so you will want to buy it and tell your friends to buy it. And you’ll want to start pyramid schemes to help us sell it. And we’ll become more famous. More plus more plus more. And you’ll wear sandwich boards in front of cool radio stations advertising our new CD and its polka pop potential. Hey that’s a cool new buzz term; polka pop potential. “You know Wally, that singer with The Polka Country Musicians? He has po-po-po?” Some songs by the Chicago band, Freeze Dried, have po-po-po. Ward Abronski of Polkacide always had it. “Irresistible You,” by Lenny Gomulka, definitely has it. Po-po-po would be a crossover thing. The hipsters would dig the fresh sound as would the traditionalists. The polka world needs to have two or three solid crossover artists with po-po-po. Danny, with the band Copperbox (Kick), has it. The Polka Shamrocks had it, especially Colleen. A few charismatic break-out stars would help legitimize the scene to the mainstream. And the scene as a whole would benefit. This is absolutely possible. Why not? Many younger artists, like LynnMarie, Die Schlauberger, Big Lou, Alex Meixner, Hank Gucevich and Crusade are obviously trying to enhance their pop side. They want to appeal to younger fans by making polka more palatable to non-polka people, without compromising the specialness of polka. And it’s good for a musician to work at developing style as a stage performer. A lot of the old polka stars had character. They were personalities as well as musicians.

Speaking of polka, did I mention that our new CD, LET’S KISS is a polka CD? Fifteen tracks. And there are some odd things, like two versions of “Take Me Out To the Ballgame;” one funky tejano and one oberek, with a blasting tuba solo. We included THE SIMPSONS theme. The CD opens with the “Dutch Hornpipe” and closes with it (different mix). By the way, I think this CD has a helluva lot of po-po-po. But I always think that about a new Brave Combo CD. I’m usually obnoxiously optimistic, but I never count on much. Works for me.

Accordion legend, Tony de la Rosa, passed away recently. He lived near Corpus Christi, Texas and was considered a pioneer in the field of Conjunto music. He was one of the first tejano-style accordionists I noticed in the late 1970s and I bought his LPs obsessively for a while. Brave Combo covered his hit, “Atotonilco” and I had the amazing opportunity to produce two of his albums for Rounder in the early 1990s. He was a sweet, jolly person. And, although I knew he was well aware of his unique gift and contribution to the genre, he was always humble and appreciated Rounder’s interest in his music. Jane and I saw him play live for the first time around 1982 at The Yellow Rose Ballroom, in Corpus Christi. He was on stage for four hours, with no breaks. I remember an announcer guy talked a lot between every third or fourth song, but Tony never left the stage while we were there. He was great and the huge audience loved him. I watched him closely that night. I was just starting to learn so much.

INTERESTING TIDBITS ABOUT FORMER BC MEMBERS: Lyle Atkinson grounded his electric bass, thereby eliminating a troublesome buzz, by wiring the little finger on his right hand to the metal bridge on the bass. Dave “Tito” Cameron’s socks often didn’t match. Tim Walsh got all worked up about gooseberry pies once and made one. It was quite tart. Phil Hernandez’ father played in a rock band (by the way, Phil and his wife just had a baby boy). Joe Cripps has met Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro. Bonnie Norris makes really, really, really, really, really good sugar cookies.

MONEY, POWER AND GOD, OH MY! I guess it’s a good thing that we’re so often made aware, through various media, how much suffering there is in the world. Sometimes it bums me out, but mainly I think it helps me keep things in perspective. A lot of people are in desperate situations almost constantly. Even in the United States, fear, hunger, poverty, etc. are on the daily agenda. You know, if my air conditioning isn’t cutting it, I just call a repairman and he makes it cool again, even in Texas in August. There are people in Denton, hearing the same trains I hear every night, unable to sleep because it’s hot and their crappy window unit doesn’t really work. It just rattles the window where the spiders get in. As an American you’re expected to make it on your own, no matter how confusing and hectic everything is. It feels like a non-stop race for new ideas, bargains, career opportunities, bargains, good investments, bargains, better positions and bargains. The better the deal, the better we feel. Money gives us a sense of security and validates our existence. This shouldn’t be news to anyone.

Power is way up there, too. Actually power feeds ego more than money does. It makes people that work for powerful people turn into robots with no will of their own, which can actually be to everyone’s advantage, if the ego-maniac truly has good ideas, displays some sense of fair play and is capable of at least a little compassion. I mean, why not be nice to your well-paid, faithful robots, especially since they’re obviously grateful for the security you provide? In that scenario, I guess everyone should be happy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. Power encourages creepy behavior. Power can make the powerful think everything is just a game and forget that real lives are involved. In that scenario, robots can feel used and might develop a will of their own, which would be bad for everyone.

So, that’s money and power. What about God? I think if you give money and power to a person determined to do “God’s will,” you’ve probably got big trouble brewing for at least somebody. I’m sure you’ll agree that when rich power mongers start talking about God things can reach a whole new level of scary. Of course, if you’re always cocked and ready to kick some ass for Jesus or Mohammed or Moses or David Koresh it would be more exciting than scary.

My point is that when I’m reminded how much suffering some humans and animals endure day-to-day, it makes me realize that I’m very lucky and not necessarily entitled to this good life; certainly not at the expense of others. I don’t believe it is my right to live better than the previous generation. I don’t believe capitalism, disguised as democracy, will necessarily work everywhere. I don’t believe the United States should feel above the rest of the world, nor do I think the United States should feel independent from the rest of the world. In a short while, we will be one homogenized race. Nothing can stop this. The location of the actual ground where your house rests barely means anything anymore. We’ve become too inner-connected world-wide to turn around and go back the other way, unless we start electing Taliban guys as congressmen. Things are always changing. We were never supposed to reach a point in life where there is no stress or challenge. We’re never supposed to stop learning and adjusting our directions. Maybe it would be good if we all lowered our expectations a little. Maybe it would be good if Americans didn’t think they were better than everyone else. We are just as connected to and dependent on the rest of the world as they are us. Every country has good ideas and almost every country has the ability to see it through. Why isolate ourselves? I mean, everyone knows that the USA will always control the barometer of pop culture cool in the world. Isn’t that enough? In the “saturated with entertainment” department we’re just too big to beat. But we don’t have to be the leaders in everything all the time. There’s a presidential election coming up. The rest of the world is looking at how we vote and who we elect, because the outcome will affect them too. And the outcome of the election will tell them what our intentions are. This may be the perfect time to send a message that we’re taking their lives into consideration as well. Don’t be afraid to look at the obvious. Vote intelligently. Beyond that, que sera, sera.