Steel Guitars and " POLKA" music.

[Doug Seymour]

I don't recall anyone saying they wanted to break into the polka business with PSG?

[Ray Montee (RIP)]

Doug.......Wasn't Homer Haynes all time favorite "I've Got Tears In My Ears From Lying On MY Back In My Bed While I Cry Over You" a polka? Can't recall for sure.

[Billy Johnson]

I'm not an expert but I think the Streets of Bakersfield could pass for a polka.
I remember seeing a guy by the name of Jimmy Sturr and his band on Nashville Now & the Opry too. No steel but had a real good fiddler.

[Brandin]

Tom Brumley's 'Steel Guitar Polka'. Great tune, with a very nice intro, and that ZB thru a tube amp sound.
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GB

[jim milewski]

ya some of that up tempo Mexican feel music (Streets of Bakersfield), and Doug Sahm had one, that could be played at any Polish gathering and get the dance floor full, if a country band were to do a polka without steel, it would be lacking something as the steel is like the horn part, tying it all together, my father would appreciate all you pickers interest in this lost esoteric art form, I expect all bands to add a polka and report your results

[Al Marcus]

Doug-You are right, that wasn't me in Ashtabula , Ohio, in 1949. BUT I did play at the Swallows Restaurant with a big band there in 1941. I had my D8 non pedal Vega Console Grand.....al

This was a good post, a lot of guys had fun playing those Polkas, never a sad one. And lots of packed houses with sweating dancers. Cleveland was a big polka town. Frankie Yankovic just about owned the town. No relation to the "Weird" one. Frankie was more like Lawrence Welk, they both loved the accordian....... <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Al Marcus on 16 August 2002 at 08:01 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Todd Weger]

<SMALL>Say what you want about the Polka bands but those guys have fun and so does the crowd. </SMALL>

I played guitar/banjo in a polka band in Wisconsin for 10 years. In my 42 years on planet earth, I've played in rock bands, swing bands, jazz groups, reggae outfits, bluegrass, country, funk and just about every other style in-between. I can say without reservation that I had more fun playing with the Greg Anderson Band playing polkas (and foxtrots, waltzes, schottishes, plus R&R, country, etc), than any of the other ones. My strongest memory is of a dance floor FULL of smiling, happy people. I learned alot about what it takes to please a DANCE crowd, too.

About 10 months before I left that band, and moved to Florida, I acquired a Stringmaster D-8, and we began to incorporate it into our repertoire. MY BANDMATES LOVED IT (and our followers did, too).

I think a large part of our success is that we mixed it up, and we never took ourselves too seriously.

TJW <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Todd Weger on 19 August 2002 at 10:54 AM.]</p></FONT>

[Gil Berry]

Think the second song I had to play first time on stage (1st was steel guitar rag) was double eagle. It was fun, even if, as a novice, I slipped up once or twice. Anyway, this thread reminds of a two-piece "band" that used to tour around central Michigan - consisted of my brother, Larry, who played drums and did vocals, and another guy who played a accordavan (or accordovox, or whatever it was called)..anyway, darndest instrument I ever heard...an accordian, organ, and bass guitar all in one squeezebox outfit. Those two guys really sounded like a five-piece band!

[Willis Vanderberg]

We alway did a half a dozen polka's every night.I used to sing oh lonesome me and they would polka to that.It always helped if you had a wooden dance floor that would really bounce.Also the owner liked it when we played them just before the break and everybody's tongue was hanging out.The waitresses couldn"t get the beer out fast enough.
Hey Al Marcus..Take em down to Manistee to the Salty Dog.

Buddy Van.