Volume 8 – #1 – January 2005

Hey, all you fresh-faced babies! In case you forgot, our latest CD, LET’S KISS has been nominated for a Grammy in the polka category. The awards shindig is Sunday, February 13. Jeff and Bubba are going for sure. I may go, but I have a feeling Danny and Alan will be enjoying the show at home. Of course, we’re all anxious to find out who wins the Polka Grammy, but next on my list is “Best Country Rock Adaptation of a Classical Blues Minuet” or something like that. I can’t remember who the nominees are this year or which songs are competing, but I know when that category or one similar to it pops up, I’m gonna take notice. Maybe I’m thinking about “Best Rock Song Posing as a Country Rock Song” or maybe it’s “Classical Album of the Year (with a country rock flavor ala Phil Spector).” Goodness gracious, everything is so complicated these days. I remember when the Grammies had only two categories: “Album of the Year” and “Best Ambient Golf Course Music Album.” Those were the days, except that I was never into sports much.

EXCITING PREDICTIONS FOR 2005
Brave Combo and I will inundate you with music in the next few hundred days. At exactly the right moment we will finally release, in it’s entirety, HOLIDAYS. It just couldn’t be done in 2004. LET’S KISS got in the way. Also, we’ll be in and out of the studio all year making something special for 2006. More on this in about 12 months. On the Carl front, Mike Dillon and I have been making a record for about two years and we will finish it before winter. My friend Sara Hickman and I have been communicating a lot lately about notes and chords and microphones and plastic and shrink-wrap. And, I am determined to finish the hymn medley and would love to do a CD of little muzaky tunes for relaxation and worry. Concerning existing work, Rounder Records will be distributing their own exact replica of LET’S KISS. We wanted to submit the CD for Grammy consideration in mid-September and knew we wouldn’t finish it in time for a Rounder or Cleveland International release (Rounder would have needed it by early May and we didn’t even begin recording until the end of June). So fearless Dentone Records was our only choice. As it turns out, it was a good choice. Anyway, our good friends at Rounder will now make it possible, at least in theory, for you guys outside of Texas to find it in stores.

GOOD NEWS FOR 2005
I have accepted the New Year. I now automatically write “05” instead of “04.” The rest is easy. It’s time to coast all the way to 2006. Getting those pesky first 25 years of BC out of the way was quite liberating. All that’s left is easy stuff; you know, gravy (meat stock free, of course). Brave Combo is ready to face the challenge of the 26th year by morphing into a slightly distorted version of its current self. So, we decided to expand and add another horn player to the mix. His name is Tim Walsh. He started a band in 1979 with Carl Finch, called Brave Combo. Also, Joe Cripps and Mike Dillon will be playing with us more than ever this year. It will be a massive wall of polka sound. Who knows? We might all wake up tomorrow and realize that our neighbors look like characters from an old TV western called THE COWBOYS NEXT DOOR, starring the little dancing, singing infant and his infant wife. Sordid, but interesting. The pioneers and early settlers were born old and died young, with their boots on. Anyway, you get my point. Life is a cabaret on a lonely street in the middle of the most dilapidated section of downtown, my friend. Come to the Cabaret.

Speaking of illusions, one way I’ve tricked myself into thinking that, despite all odds, anything is possible, is to look at the passing of days more like periods of alternating sunlight and darkness. Time is just one long thing. Humans mark the passing of it in many ways and chronicle events that occur during it by applying significance to the markers. For instance, a week is seven days, but it’s also the amount of time it takes for light and darkness to flip-flop seven times. I think my goofy perspective reduces the significance of the thing we call a day and puts more emphasis on what can be accomplished in a large block of time that doesn’t necessarily have to be broken up into days. By the way, my idea should be ignored by anyone with children living at home, unless you can get them to buy into it. The core of the whole thing is the rejection of routine. You know, like brushing your teeth in the middle of the meal and not wasting time rinsing your mouth before you start eating again. I think I’m a bad role model for some kinds of people. Don’t listen to me. Everything I see saddens me and humors me at the same time. How can this be? We Earthlings sleep and wake up and make money and decisions and mistakes. We follow our noses and get impatient standing in long lines. We look for pleasure and happiness, and sometimes find unbearable sorrow. To be an inhabitant here means we’ll be entertained, get bored and suffer, to some degree, on a daily basis.

A cat has moved into the Brave Combo office. She came to us with the name Stacie and she has a crooked head (the result of an untreated inner ear infection). Legend has it that she was spayed twice. I don’t think she remembers any of the details, cause she is so spunky. If you visit, you can meet her. Call for an appointment, but not too early. Stacie likes to stay up late and sleep late, like me. We love the wee hours at my house. Good thing. Every night, nocturnal creatures control the backyard, playing Wagner and acting creepy. What a great plane of existence this is. Don’t you agree? Look for the fun. It’s there, even when you least expect it. Come back next month.

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