Volume 8 – #2 – February 2005

Well, LET’S KISS won the Grammy for Best Polka Album of 2004. Brave Combo is overjoyed, but stunned. Since we decided to self-release this one on Dentone and didn’t automatically have the support of Rounder Records (our usual label) or Cleveland International Records (POLKASONIC and KICK ASS POLKA), I wasn’t at all sure that we would even get a nomination. Once they were announced and Jimmy Sturr was not in the top five, I didn’t know what to think. It was weird. I figured, as in the past, he would be everyone’s major competition. But he wasn’t there. It was Henny and the Versa Js from Pittsburgh, Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones from Chicago, John Gora and Walter Ostanek, both from Canada and us. Bubba and Jeff went to the Awards Bash/Ceremony, partied a little, picked up the Grammy and came home (actually, we don’t get our statues for a while). Within the first 48 hours after the announcement we received about 200 congrats and four “this is disgraceful” emails. Obviously, winning a Grammy is a thrill. As with other major entertainment awards, voting is by academy (NARAS) members only. NARAS is the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and is made up of people that are actively involved in the music business; our peers, so to speak. It’s an honor, for sure. But it’s also the source of a lot of stress, especially in the Polka category. Some polka music fans are disappointed that Brave Combo won because we disrupt the flow. We’re not exactly like a Polish band or a Slovenian band or a German band. We’re odd outsiders who somehow infiltrated a sacred realm and stole the prize that was intended for a band that represents “the real thing.” And the fact that we’ve now won our second Grammy is almost too much to bear. It makes us an enormous threat. Traditionally, the polka scene, it appears, has intentionally kept itself away from too much exposure to mainstream “hip.” Therefore it’s been able to develop it’s own code of what’s cool and acceptable; what’s right or wrong. Consequently, it’s become a one-of-a-kind thing. I love this aspect of my favorite polka music. It is defiantly different from anything in the normal world. And Brave Combo, although unique in its own way, comes from that normal world. Sometimes, I’m sorry we’ve existed and have stirred things up so much. We’ve helped introduce conventional rock instrumentation into a genre that has avoided it on purpose. I’ve heard over and over that Elvis and the electric guitar killed the accordion, forcing polka music underground. Well, I guess Brave Combo has been trying to bring Elvis and the accordion together. Not everyone wants that to happen and I understand why. I use to go to the Village Vanguard in New York City when we were in the area touring. On Monday nights they presented “Salsa Meets Jazz.” This would involve a special guest jazz artist sitting in with a popular NYC salsa band. The shows were always technically spectacular. The players played very well. But I was rarely blown away. I wanted to hear straight salsa, not a lot of noodling solos. I wanted to hear “the real thing” that I’d heard in that funky little Puerto Rican Bar in Brooklyn or at the Corso Ballroom on East 86th in Manhattan. Purity makes sense and for many, polka has a lot to do with identity. Unfortunately, Brave Combo does exist. We do love and play polkas and have for over 25 years. We have become part of the polka fabric and have influenced the evolution of polka music in this country. And we are doing our best to preserve the traditions and to resurrect as much great polka music from the past as we can. I can’t be Polish, but I can learn a Connecticut Twins’ song from 1960 and play it for you BC-style. That’s exciting stuff to me. And most of the fans we encounter seem to agree. But I know those 4-out-of-200 are still there. Perhaps they will come and see us perform live. Maybe they’ve never even heard our CDs, but just don’t like what they’ve heard about us. All I can say is this. In my book of important musicians of the last 25 years, I put Scrubby above Mick Jagger and I put Eddie Rodick above Aerosmith. Whatever, two Grammy Awards is enough for now. I think we won’t submit a CD to NARAS this year. We want to be respected, not feared. With all of that in mind, I have to say again that we’re thrilled and honored and stand here humbled by the recognition. LET’S KISS would like to thank everyone that believed in it and supported it. And it’s particularly gratifying that LET’S KISS commemorates our 25th year. Okay, enough of this self-serving/self-deprecating blather.

Speaking of conflicting feelings, I’ve been watching the old WHAT’S MY LINE? television game show at 2:30 every morning, just before going to bed. These are from the mid-50s to mid-60s and they’re much more fascinating than I thought as a child. John Daly, was an articulate moderator and the panel, which included Steve Allen, Arlene Francis and Bennett Cerf, was brilliant, especially journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When I was young, I thought she was just a strange looking woman. But now, I think she was clairvoyant, at least. She’s fascinating, really, and I guess had a pretty wild life that ended in suicide around 1965 (though many think otherwise) shortly after having a one-on-one interview with Jack Ruby. It seems she was somewhat close to the Kennedy clan. Anyway, I guess at one time it was rumored that she had a long affair with the singer Johnnie Ray, who was 15 years younger. And she looked so interesting, almost otherworldly. Why didn’t I pick up on all of this when I was five years old? I wonder if there’s a movie about this woman. My point, though, is not to discuss the lives of celebrities. I’ve been thinking about the Red and Blue states a lot and the whole East/West Coast vs. the middle US thing and I think there’s something to it. Now, in case you didn’t know, I generally lean to the left; more blue than red. But it’s a fact that New York City and Hollywood have, almost forever, controlled the entertainment that the whole country consumes. You can see it in John Daly’s face when a guest comes from Illinois or Alabama; faraway and exotic but not particularly “relevant” places. Those who had access to national exposure – New York and Hollywood, shaped television’s early attitudes toward values and entertainment. The people in the middle of the country could only be viewed as bumpkins compared to the sophistication of the coasts, because there was no major network glorifying their less complicated lives. There is no right or wrong here. It’s just the way it happened. I remember watching MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY, starring Danny Thomas. On the show Mr. Thomas played a nightclub entertainer who lived with his family across the street from Central Park in New York. I liked it, but I didn’t get half of the references they made to anything. Why was this even interesting to my family, or anyone else in Texarkana or Lubbock or Joplin or Little Rock or Lansing or Fargo or Birmingham or Salt Lake City? Things are a little different now. The Coasts have finally met their match. The middle of the country isn’t going to take it anymore. Unfortunately, we’re all pretty sick of common-man struggles now, too. How many WALKER, TEXAS RANGER themes can there be? The traditionally liberal entertainment nerve centers have used up all their ideas and the simple conservative day-to-day guys are usually too day-to-day to be entertaining. Of course, nothing is black and white; less now than ever. Television has tried to even things out with an acid storm of reality shows that take participants from everywhere and send them everywhere to do everything there is to do. Perhaps this new genre of voyeurism is just what we all need to forget about Hollywood forcing it’s loose values on the whole country. Sensationalism and prurient motives are finally everywhere now. Hooray. I think it’s a good idea for the powers that control the media to be sensitive to how the public feels, but I also think that art shouldn’t be totally in the hands of Joe Blow. Really, everyone should just relax on this one. Try to keep in mind that the band, Slipknot comes from Iowa and Brave Combo comes from Denton, neither of which is on a coast. As a consumer, I have decided to reject the ultra liberal smut peddlers and the ultra conservative Bible thumpers. I don’t care if Howard Stern goes away and I don’t care if Rush Limbaugh goes away. They’re both rebels with dumb causes. And, if they do go away, I hope they live happily ever after. And I hope you live happily ever after, too; or, at least, that your next couple of days don’t suck. Please come and see that little ol’ rebel rousing, polka toting’ band of misfits from North Texas and we’ll try to do what you expect, whatever that is. Now it’s time to watch WHAT’S MY LINE? and go to sleep. Here’s to dreams of peace and peaceful dreams.