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<p align="center"><font size="6"><strong><img src="_derived/polka-rodgers.htm_cmp_polka010_bnr.gif" width="600" height="60" border="0" alt="Joe Rodgers"></strong></font></p>
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<i><font size="1">
Posted by Joe Rodgers to alt.music.polkas on 10 Apr 2005.
Used by permission.</font></i>
<p>Just to repeat that I love your unique site, check it often and tell my friends about
it. </p>
<p>As you invite comment, I would just
comment on one statement there, where I read that Tex-Mex is the most widespread or popular type of polka music in the
world. Although I don't
know if there are any statistics on this, I feel pretty sure that
German/Alpine -- the European style from which both most American polka
and Tex-Mex are offshoots -- is by far the "biggest" polka style
on earth. It is popular all over Germany, but especially in the southern
half, as well as throughout Austria, Switzerland, little Liechtenstein,
the German-speaking province of South Tyrol in Italy and similar areas
in Belgium, Holland and eastern France; as well as in Slovenia, which is
the home of the world's most popular polka band -- as you can read in
many European sources -- the Avseniks and their "Oberkrainer"
band. </p>
<p>The Czech Republic, which borders on Germany and Austria and is known to be
the birthplace of polkas, created a style of music on which German
polkas were originally based, and the Germans acknowledge this. The
"Beer Barrel Polka," probably the most famous polka of all time, came
originally from the Czech Republic, and a famous "anthem" of
German
polka music, "Aus Boehmen Kommt Die Musik," (i.e., "the music comes
from bohemia") proclaims that Bohemia, the traditional name of the
Czech
republic, is the country from which the great music comes. Polka music
is the official national music of the Czech Republic, where it fills the
air waves day and night (I know this particularly well because I lived
in the region when I was young and this music was all you could hear on
the airwaves there). </p>
<p>I consider all of these countries' polka music
virtually the same style because they share tunes and exchange bands
freely. Many bands from the Czech Republic also sing in German when
touring Germany, where they are more popular than most German bands. The terms "bohemian" and "blasmusik"
("brass band music")
are used in Europe to connote the type of music which is shared by the
German-speaking countries and the Czech Republic, and the term
"alpine
music," used on your site, is used in Europe to refer to the
polka-style music of the entire alpine region, which includes not only
the German-speaking countries, but also northern Italy, Croatia and
parts of Slovenia, mountainous regions that play the same type of
polka music
as the German-speaking countries. This music is also often found on
the airwaves and on TV and it is transmitted around the world on German satellite
TV as well. I watch German TV on Globecast satellite TV and
enjoy several hours of such programming every week. Dish Network now
has two German TV stations with similar content. Finally, the German/Czech style is also the main polka style in most of the
Midwest, West and Texas in the U.S., and is also popular in various areas
on the East Coast . . . Oh, yes -- and in Canada, too. The biggest
polka-oriented festivals in the world have to be the Oktoberfest and
many related festivals in Germany and Austria, which often last for
weeks on end and involve dozens of bands and literally millions of
visitors.</p>
<p>Absent the exact statistics, I would hazard a guess that Tex-Mex/Norte�o, which is a regional style popular only in
Northern Mexico and in Mexican-American communities, probably has several
million fans, maybe as many as 20 million. I believe it is probably the
second-strongest polka style on earth. However, the German/Alpine/Czech
style (Yes, they are virtually the same thing, which is why they are
often lumped together in the U.S., even by the bands that play them,
under the titles "old-time music," Dutchman, Dairyland style,
etc.; these
bands play German and Czech numbers interchangeably.) has to be popular
with at least half the German population (others are rockers,
sophisticates, don't like music, or whatever). This style is more or
less the equivalent in status and popularity of country-western music
in the U.S. -- it "rules" among rural and mountain people -- but
it is
also more than that because it enjoys the status of the folk music of
the land; most town festivals, traditional events, etc., are
unthinkable without it. Thus I would guesstimate it's popularity numbers
as being about 40-50 million in Germany alone, plus probably about the same
totals in the other European countries, which would total something
approaching 100 million in Europe, not counting a couple million more in the
U.S. and Canada. <p>Polkas, incidentally, are also a sort of national music in
Lithuania, too, but not really in Poland, where polka music from the
neighboring countries never really caught on big time and hardly exists
today. The historians write that Polish-Americans, nostalgic for home and for
music which would unite them in France, the U.S. and Canada, built up a
polka music style of their own, including many Polish songs and soon
also German, Czech, Slovenian, American and even Mexican tunes. As I
mentioned in a previous Usenet posting, they also borrowed horns from other sources (
either from the other European styles which used them, or from Dixieland jazz, which they heard here), as well as the
German-made
concertina and accordion. this caused the famous Polish-American
anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski, to write in the 1940's that
Polish-American polka music is " a strange hybrid" that is
neither Polish nor American--that Americans assume is Polish, while native
Poles consider it American. Everyone familiar with the "Polish"
style
knows that it is generally rejected by natives of Poland.<p>I hope that this information, which can be found in various
scholarly writings on polka music, will be interesting and useful to
everyone and will help to dispel the ongoing prejudice among some
Polish-American fans that German/Czech/Slovenian polka music is somehow
inferior to their own. Actually it is the original style of polka, to
which all polka music owes many classics and most of its instrumentation,
and it is by far the biggest and most popular polka
style on earth, with its descendant, Tex-Mex (a borrowing
from the Texas Germans and Czechs) a significant second. On the other
hand, unfortunately, the Polish-American polka (and don't get me
wrong: I love it, too)
is sort of an "illegitimate child" of a marriage between Polish,
American and other types of music, not fully embraced, as Malinowski
said, by either its mother, Poland, or its father, English-speaking America
. . . and this is probably a major reason for its troubles today,
as its fan base is aging and dropping rapidly, while it enjoys no
reinforcements from the mother country, which considers it to be
foreign and substandard, or from most of the American public, which
feels the same way about it. Still, I along with many other lovers of
the genre, love it and will struggle on the best we can to keep it
afloat.<p>
Thanks once again for your wonderful contribution to documenting
polka music of all styles. <p>Sincerely yours, <br>
<i>Joe Rodgers</i><br>
Bridgeport, CT<br>
(teacher and polka musician)
<p> </p>
<p>[Note from Nos: Thanks for your contribution. I think that the
Polish-American polka's charm is enhanced by its history as a cultural hybrid,
just like the Chicago-style hot dog or jazz music. As for the polka suffering
from a lack of reinforcement from the mother country -- that's a <a href="polka_page.htm#state_of_polka"> theory</a> I hadn't
considered before.]
<p>
<!--msthemeseparator--><p align="center"><img src="_themes/polka/indhorsa.gif" width="600" height="10"></p>
<p>After reading Joe's
Usenet postings (you can search alt.music.polkas for "Joe Rodgers" at Google
Groups) polka song lyrics, I started writing up my own
conclusions about polka lyrics. Here's what I wrote:
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt>What are polka lyrics about?
</dl>
The writings of Joe Rodgers on Usenet have persuaded me to take a closer look at polka lyrics. While
my knowledge is still superficial, here's what I've learned so far.
<ol>
<li>Joe points out that the Polish lyrics in most Polish-American polkas come
from the folk songs of Poland. Those folk songs cover a wide range of themes
such as insect songs ("Mosquito Polka" cf. "The Bluetail
Fly"), gruesome tragedies ("Mountaineer's Farewell" and
"Green Maple Polka"), and robber ballads ("Four Miles from
Warsaw").
<li>American-written polkas present a radical departure from these themes,
centering instead on dancing, drinking, and familial and romantic love. The
"Down Home Polka," by Dan Gury of the Dynadukes, sings the praises
of home and hearth in a way almost unheard of outside of the American polka.
<li>Polka presents an interesting contrast with country music. Since the days
of Jimmie Rodgers, country lyrics have expressed feelings of wanderlust,
conflict, loss, and heartache, as well as dealing with the topics of
infidelity, crime, imprisonment, and death. Surely no polka would be
titled "Take This Job and Shove It."</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p><a name="critique">Here's Joe's critique:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>These statements are a bit problematic and it is often hard to generalize, I think, based on the 4-5 songs
I put up there [on alt.music.polkas] so far. To mention a few points:
<ol>
<li>Somebody (on alt.music.polkas?) argued the other day that many or most
Polish polka lyrics were actually written in the U.S.A. I think that's overstated but many were
-- the best ones came from Poland, that's for sure. And many more than that person said, but it might be going too far to say that most of the
Polish polka lyrics are from Poland. </li>
<li>The list of categories (insect songs, etc) is basically valid, but there are many other categories than
these. I just didn't get into them yet. One fellow suggested exploring soldier/war songs
since there are very many of these in the Polish tradition for historical reasons.</li>
<li>When discussing the "insect song" category -- I'm not sure this should
be considered a real category. I have just observed that this type of song exists here and there around the
world. I can't think of another such song from Poland, although there probably are a few. </li>
<li>You may well be right that American-written polkas center on dancing,
drinking and love: these do focus on a more limited range of subjects than the
Polish-language songs from Poland, which cover an entire oral tradition of hundreds of
years. The American songs are certainly more limited in scope as well as
creativity, but dancing and drinking songs are in fact a huge part of the
Polish-language repertoire from Poland, as well. Again, I would have gotten into these eventually for the sake of completeness, either on the newsgroup or writing an essay for
you. I admit that these songs are not as interesting to me in content as the ones
I have
featured (often by request) on the newsgroup. I have a predilection for the old
story-songs. I also think that love songs, of what ever type, are featured equally in the
Polish-derived and Polish-American repertoires.</li>
<li>Unfortunately I don't know the "Down Home Polka." It sounds similar to the well-known
polka "Those Pennsylvania Hills (are calling me home)" -- which in turn reminds me offhand of a couple of
Polish-language numbers Eddie Blazonczyk recorded, which say respectively "I'll never forget the
Zakopane (southern Polish) mountains, the country I was born in", etc., and "when we visit our
Polish homeland we will see our relatives and the mountains and the
valleys." There are quite a few numbers like these in the
Polish-language U.S. polka repertoire, reflecting homesickness/nostalgia for the old
country, although they are becoming less frequent since fewer polka artists or fans master the
Polish language now or have direct ties to Poland.</li>
<li>Regarding your paragraph 3: this, too, is problematic. You are certainly right about the subject matter of country music but many, if not all, of these themes appear in polka music as
well. The "Mountaineer's Farewell" song deals dramatically with a case of
infidelity. Loss and heartache are pretty frequent subjects, too, while the robber ballads (like
"Four Miles" above) and other numbers deal with crime. In this regard i immediately think of the
"Jailbird Polka" (<i>Siedze we wiezieniu</i>), which is known and loved by virtually all
Polish-style fans, one called "The Prisoner's Song" (<i>Siedze ja we wiezieniu</i>) and, now that
I'm thinking about it, quite a few others. Enough to make criminal and prison songs a substantial
category. The theme of death is also well represented in the Polish songs.
It is actually the featured outcome/climax of virtually all the songs I quoted/translated online, as well as a frequent element in military, drinking songs, the songs of yearning for
Poland or for the mountains, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>So in summation, I'm afraid that it is hard to make the case for many of
your opinions. Thinking it over, I believe the main reason for this is that folk songs (and folk-oriented or
-derived songs, like C&W) all address the full range of universal themes:
love, death, dancing , drinking, crime, travel, nostalgia, etc. One thing I think you brought out correctly is that
English-language American polkas are more limited in the variety of subjects they
address. And this, as I have argued against those who preach the superiority of the
English-language genre, is because English-language polkas are really sort of a bastard child, largely cut off from their roots and the sources of their
creativity -- the mother country and its language. At the same time, this type of song has not integrated to any significant degree with
American folk music, nor has it matured on it own or turned out songwriters of any particular
merit. Many English-language polkas are borrowed directly from U.S. sources (mostly
C&W); and those that are not borrowed are very trite.</p>
</blockquote>
<!--msthemeseparator--><p align="center"><img src="_themes/polka/indhorsa.gif" width="600" height="10"></p>
<p><i><font size="1"><a name="joe_rodgers_3">On November 17, 2006</a>, in
alt.music.polkas, <a href="http://www.wildwilson.com/">Wild Wilson</a> posted a
link to a Turbo Angels video (they're a bit like Atomik Harmonik). I commented
"I think they've pretty much answered the question of how to successfully
market polkas to a general audience." In response, Joe Rodgers wrote the
following [used by permission]:</font></i></p>
<p>As I recently mentioned in a chat with Mike Surratt, this is Alpine Europe (in this case Slovenia) where polka music rules as the music of
the land -- and it mixes easily and naturally with newer styles such as rock. As Mr.
Surratt said, and I tend to agree, it is not easy to reproduce such a phenomenon in the
U.S., whose roots music is not polka -- far from it -- but rather blues, country,
rock, jazz, and so on. Many famous genres, but not polka. Thus, just surrounding a polka vocalist and
accordion player with pretty girls, as in this video, probably won't do it in this country. </p>
<p> The one slight hope, as I wrote to Mr. Surratt, for such success might result from finding some kind of formula like the
German Polkaholix have and putting into play here (in English, of course, for the
most part, not German or Slovenian). However, even this group's music and lyrics are steeped in old country
-- not "new country" -- flavor. So
Mr. Surratt and I tended to agree that you just can't reproduce recent European polka success stories in America because polka is essentially
a European thing. Hence, the further US polka "innovators" move away from European roots,
the less likelihood they have of great national success. </p>
<p> I still believe, as quite a few others apparently do, that the "polka" (more or less) group with the greatest potential at the
moment for achieving some degree of similar success is Freeze Dried; however, the impressive things they have done which reach out to our
culture as a whole are not polka music at all, but American roots music. Nonetheless, more power to them. Their achievements seem to
confirm my view that ultimately the best chance for keeping polkas
alive in the future probably lies in including polkas, to the extent possible, in the repertoire of groups who have a greater appeal based on
their popular non-polka repertoire. </p>
<!--msthemeseparator--><p align="center"><img src="_themes/polka/indhorsa.gif" width="600" height="10"></p>
<p><font size="1"><a name="maja">From an email of 7/9/2007:</a></font></p>
<p>Hi, Nos: I came across <a href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/dance/polka.html"> this excellent
article</a>, which has very accurate insights into (European) Poles' view of the polka, based on the history of the dance in Europe.
Their perception of the polka as a low-class urban dance of the first half of the last century is an interesting parallel to the history of the tango, which is well known to have originally been a low-class Buenos Aires street and brothel dance before it rose to
"high society" status. True as these observations are, I have never seen them in print before
-- much less supported by photographs of urban folklore presentations well known to those familiar with Polish European culture.
[Nos says: Maja Trochimczyk also writes about the <a href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/dance/">other
Polish folk dances</a>.]
</p>
<p> All the best, Joe R
</p>
<!--msthemeseparator--><p align="center"><img src="_themes/polka/indhorsa.gif" width="600" height="10"></p>
<p><i><a name="Joe_on_Canada">Adapted</a> from a Usenet post to alt.music.polkas,
Jan. 29, 2008</i></p>
<p> Recent posts voicing alarm and fear of immigrants from neighboring countries prompted me to respond with a
<a href="http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.polkas/msg/d1fafb7e09981bc9"> polka-oriented defense of
our Mexican neighbors</a>, noting the huge role they and their descendants play in today's polka music. This set me to thinking
about noting the fine polka creativity of the U.S.'s great northern neighbor, Canada.
This brief post can only skim the surface of this subject but at least it will be a start </p>
<p> Tonight's mention on alt.music.polkas of the retirement from music of Mr. Eddie
Humeniuk, attended by other Canadian polka musicians, reminded me to write this post. I'm sure that I'm far from alone when I say
that I have loved this gentleman's music ever since I first heard him playing drums with Eddie Guca and the Polish Canadians in Wildwood,
NJ, in the 1960's. I was then (and still am) a lifelong admirer of L'il Wally, Happy Louie and Marion Lush, but I was still awed by this
group -- particularly because of Eddie's driving beat. A few years later I was possibly even more amazed by the Canadian Fiddlesticks, who I
believe are one of the greatest Polish-style groups of all times -- again, Eddie's playing
was an essential factor here, as was the work of the wonderful Malkiewicz brothers. The Fiddlesticks' work, and
that of most Canadian polka groups, is marked by greater ethnic authenticity and purer Polish singing than that of many
U.S. groups (Canadian polka groups often have closer ties to the old country than
their American counterparts) and a variety of different traditional old-country numbers not played in the U.S. The post on Eddie H. states
that he created the "country fiddle " sound later used beautifully by Eddie Blazonczyk
-- this is an interesting insight, and I suppose it is true for the Polish polka field, though I would note that Polish roots
music consistently uses violins and that they are also a dominant instrument of the very widespread Ukrainian-Canadian polka style (see
below).</p>
<p> No discussion of Canadian polka music can omit John G�ra and the G�rale, of
course. John is probably the best Polish vocalist in the field today, and his group's wonderful work in both the traditional
and innovative rock/country/Cajun-derived areas is oustanding. Another wonderful old-country Polish-style group was that of Walter Bembenek,
whose LP's (which I bought in NYC years ago) featured excellent material in both Polish and Ukrainian styles which I never heard
elsewhere.</p>
<p>Canada has also produced masters of the various other European-derived polka styles, such as award-winner Walt Ostanek (Slovenian/German
styles) and Karel Binovec, whose Bohemian/Czech-style band was about as good and authentic as such a band could be.
Czech Polka Videos of Nebraska (producer Joe Cerveny) made several videos of the
Binovec band when they performed here and they are gems of my collection. </p>
<p> A final fact which may not be known to many is that Ukrainian-style polka music has always been huge in Canada, particular in the
prairie provinces, as Ukrainians settled many of these areas and the Ukrainian ethnic group is one of the very largest in the country
following the English and French. The fine Ukrainian groups are too numerous to mention but I will just refer to one, whose
recordings (which I first found in the Ukrainian neighborhood on the lower East side of NYC,
and later in Canada, too) have never ceased to thrill me: Burya, led by Ron
Cahute. The word "burya" means "storm" ("burza" in Polish) and that is the feeling that this group's polkas and hopaks
evokes in me -- that of a storm blowing over the Ukrainian steppes or the Canadian prairies. Without even including a trumpet (perhaps
because this instrument was not an authentic part of traditional Ukrainian music),
Burya is incredibly dynamic, in good part because of the excellent driving lead vocals and powerhouse
accordion playing of leader Cahute, as well as a fantastic selection of wild, beautiful
authentic Ukrainian songs. Happily, no one need take my word for this: a fine selection of Burya's music is on
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=burya&search=Search">YouTube</a> -- check it out.
My particular recommendations for starters are a medley of two numbers of which the second is "Oy chorna," a 3-number medley
beginning with "Hopak" and "Luche Bulo" . . . but they're all good.</p>
<p>Finally, a listing of this type shouldn't conclude without noting the great contributions to polka music in the U.S. by musicians of
Canadian background. To my knowledge, most of these are from New England and are of French-Canadian (Quebec) background. The list is
impressive and includes the great Happy Louie Dusseault (whose father was Canadian while his mother was from the Krakow
area of Poland -- he has knowledge of both Polish and French and included such songs as
"Alouette" in his repertoire); Eddie Poudrier, former leader of Heavy Chicago; Richie Bernier, accordion virtuoso, whose driving style has
backed many leading New England bands; as well as Andy Galarneau, a fine trumpet player who, together with Richie, now plays with the
Maestro's Men; Lennie Maynard (Canadian/Estonian), the fine accordian/concertina player with Heavy Chicago and other groups; Larry
Gareau, who has also played with several groups and whose great trumpet playing helped to make a success of the Happy Harmony Boys albums;
John Daigle, drummer with several good groups, who is, incidentally, probably a distant relative of the Louisiana Daigles, a leading family
in the Cajun music world; and last, but far from least on this list, Mitch Biskup, who, to my knowledge, is of pure Polish descent, but
who hails from Montreal, Canada. Mitch is fluent in French as well as Polish, and his adaptations of French-Canadian songs (Strawberries and
Raspberries, Flea-Fly) were an important part of the New Brass repertoire. And there are doubtless more. </p>
<p> All told, Canadians and Canadian-Americans have made an enormous and distinguished contribution to polka music, and thus it's clear
that Canada is, in terms of polka music, our great, good neighbor to the north.<!--mstheme--></font><!--msnavigation--></td></tr><!--msnavigation--></table></body>
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