When it started in 1961, Wurstfest was a small, one-day affair. It capped a week where the restaurants and meat markets of New Braunfels, Texas showcased the sausage-making techniques their ancestors brought from Germany over 100 years earlier.
Today, Wurstfest is more than just a sausage festival. Drawing over 100,000 people from around the world, Wurstfest lasts ten days and pays homage to all things German: the food, the music, and the culture. Naturally, amidst the sausages, strudels, and beer, there’ll be plenty of accordion and polka music (and dancing). Featured performers include 15-time Grammy winner Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra, the Al Meixner Trio, the Seven Dutchmen Orchestra, Die Schlauberger, Alpenfest, and many more.
Wurstfest kicks off tomorrow and the official “biting of the sausages” will take place at 5pm. Good Morning America will be doing a live preview of the festival early tomorrow morning though, be warned, it’ll probably make you hungry for pigs in a blanket.
While I spent my Halloween stumbling around as a drunken Santa Claus, Anna was playing accordion at her library’s Halloween party. The video may not win any MTV awards, but I love how her co-workers really get into the chorus of “Roll Out the Barrel”…
There are only a handful of American cities that you could honestly call “accordion hotspots”; places like Cleveland, San Antonio, or Lafayette, for example. But if Hoosier Squeeze is any indication, the number might be on the rise.
Founded in 2000, Hoosier Squeeze is a group of passionate accordionists in the Bloomington, Indiana area whose goal is to “promote the current renaissance of the sublime accordion.”
Led by Sophia Travis (who moonlights as President of the Monroe County Council) and made up of accordionists of all skill levels, the group meets regularly to play and share music. They’ve performed at numerous community events and even sponsored an accordion workshop last month at Bloomington’s annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival.
With Hoosier Squeeze’s help, it sounds like Bloomington is well on its way to becoming one of those famous accordion hotspots…
Always wanted to write and record your own album, but find yourself scared away by the time and effort involved? NaSoAlMo (National Solo Album Month) is for you. Inspired by NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) — an annual event where aspiring writers attempt to write a novel in just thirty days — the idea behind NaSoAlMo is to let loose, silence your internal critic, and just do it.
The rules are pretty simple: albums should be at least 29:09 long (same as the first Ramones album) and, like that album, can include one cover song. Anyone who finishes their album by November 30 is a winner. Anna is taking part in this year’s NaSoAlMo and has already started work on a couple tunes today, so hopefully we’ll have an album of original accordion music to share by the end of the month. Go Anna go!
Want to build a kickin’ polka collection overnight? Or just want to add some new tunes to your existing library? I’ve found a few eBay auctions that fans of polka vinyl might enjoy:
30 Different Used Polka LPs A collection of 30 LPs, including multiple titles by Marion Lush, Eddie Blazonczyk, and Happy Louie. Ends Wednesday.
Lot of 65 Midwest Polka LPs If you’re a Midwestern polka fan, this might be the mother lode: 65 polka albums from hard-to-find Minneapolis-based labels. Includes tongue-twisting artists like Matt Vorderbruggen, the Chmielewski Brothers, and the Deutschmeisters. Ends Thursday.
Lot of 20 Polish Polka 45 Records Prefer 45s? This is a lot of 20 Polish polka singles “straight from Hamtramck” (apparently they belonged to a bar owner there). Includes records by Frank Yankovic, Gene Wisniewski, and Lil’ Wally. Ends Wednesday.
So dust off your old turntable and start bidding! And if you win one of these auctions, be sure to invite us to the listening party.
Posted October 31st, 2006 in eBay, Polka · Comments off
The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles is running a concert series called “Compressing the World”, which showcases the accordion across a variety of cultures and musical styles. Finland’s Maria Kalaniemi (of Accordion Tribe fame) performed last month and future shows include Cambodian refugee Daran Kravanh, Argentina’s Dino Saluzzi, and Poland’s Motion Trio.
The next performance is this Wednesday and features string quartet Cuartetango, accompanied by world-renowned bandoneon player Hector Del Curto. Born in Buenos Aires, Del Curto has toured extensively as both a solo and chamber musician, performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and, in his native Argentina, was named “Best Bandoneon Player Under 25” when he was only 17. Now he leads his own ensemble, Eternal Tango. Fans of Astor Piazzolla’s tangos should definitely check out Hector’s work.
“‘One of the missions of our group is to break through the stereotype that the instrument is used only for polka,’ said Marilyn O’Neil, co-founder and co-president of the CAA. ‘This is an instrument that lends itself to all types of music.'”
Amen! The CAA aims to attract a younger crowd to the accordion, and to reintroduce the instrument to those who haven’t picked it up in a while. The group holds monthly meetings — which include workshops and open mic performances — and has even established a 25-piece accordion orchestra. Keep up the good work, Connecticutians!
Posted October 30th, 2006 in News, Polka · Comments off
I finally tracked down some clips of eight-year-old zydeco accordion prodigy Guyland Leday on the recent HBO special, The Music in Me: Children’s Recitals from Classical to Latin, Jazz to Zydeco. In addition to showing Guyland’s incredible talent, there are brief interviews with family members, zydeco star and friend Terrance Simien, and, best of all, some of Guyland’s young friends.
Our apologies to anyone who visited the site yesterday and was greeted by an unsightly “Fatal error” message. Long story short: our hosting company (for the second time in six months) suffered a server catastrophe which took down our site. Fortunately, we’ve learned the value of making backups, so everything should be back to normal now. Drop us a line if anything appears out of whack.
In the meantime, I’ll try to make up for lost time by posting a whole bunch of squeezebox-related goodies today. To start, here’s a clip of Anna playing accordion with the Corner Laughers during their excellent show at Brainwash last night (see photos).
When it started in 1961, Wurstfest was a small, one-day affair. It capped a week where the restaurants and meat markets of New Braunfels, Texas showcased the sausage-making techniques their ancestors brought from Germany over 100 years earlier.
There are only a handful of American cities that you could honestly call “accordion hotspots”; places like Cleveland, San Antonio, or Lafayette, for example. But if 