News and Comments
Thanks for stopping by the website, I appreciate
it.
Here you'll find website updates and just random thoughts, a one-way blog
if you will.
2/8/08
Checking in. Just a reminder we'll be down in Carmine on Feb. 22
for the Big Joe Polka Show taping.
There's a really good line-up that day, culminating with Brave Combo, so
come make a day of it.
Details on the band homepage.
There's a show here on our local PBS station called "DocuBloggers".
Really interesting, short
5-7 minute segments on whatever is interesting (anyone can submit a story),
kind of a
video blog. One lady did a nice little story on Roy Haag and the Little
Fishermen.
YOU CAN VIEW IT HERE
Currently working on re-doing my office/recording studio, plus my kids
and their friends are using
our garage as storage for some school projects, so everything is in total
disarray at the moment.
Hopefully I can get some work done on this over the weekend and get a new
show up and going
within a few weeks. I also hope to have all the music for our next
CD printed up and passed out
to the rest of the band, so we can start learning some of those songs pretty
quick.
Finally, we'll be back out at the Taylor SPJST hall on Fri., Mar. 14,
come see us if you get the chance.
Spring break starts the next week, so hopefully we'll have a good crowd,
hope to see you there.
Until then, take care and stay safe...
Dennis
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1/12/08
Howdy! It's been a long time, hasn't it? Well, why pussy-foot around, let's get down to brass tacks:
No, I'm not dead, not even sick. I just decided/needed to take some
time off. Believe it or not, it is possible
to get burned out playing polka music and doing an Internet radio show. So
I took a break. As you can see by
the updates and the very creation of this page, things are slowly coming
back to life. Just a few comments on
various projects:
1) the polka show
I'm getting there. I've been spending the better
part of a year converting my polka CD collection to mp3
on an old computer I have, so all my stuff will be located in one central
spot, as opposed to 300+ CDs. That will
make the show a lot easier to produce. When the show DOES come back,
it's gonna be different. It's gotta be,
or I would lose interest again really quickly. You'll still hear plenty
of great Czech polkas and waltzes, but you're
also gonna hear some good old timey country, just like you would at a typical
polka dance down here in Texas.
I'm also going to look at the influence and effect of polkas and waltzes
on other forms of music, so you may hear a
Sousa march, or even something as far out as, oh , say "America" by Simon
and Garfunkel or "Cocaine Blues" by
Johnny Cash. I'll even throw in some Cajun and Mexican polkas and waltzes
from time to time. I can promise you
will not be bored, but don't worry, the primary focus will still be on Czech
music.
2) the Czech Melody Masters
As I mentioned on the front page, I am playing with the
band once again. Just on a fill-in basis, so if you're coming
to see me (that's presumptious isn't it), I'll try to note here when I will
or will not be playing. I'm about 99% sure I
will be playing at the February, March and May dates, beyond that I don't
know. But it's Thomas' and Dave's band
now, so contact Thomas (info found on the band's Schedule page)if you're
interested in booking.
3) recording
The Czech Melody Masters WILL be making a CD this year,
I can promise you that. Is this from 2002? No,
although I've been saying it for about that long. No, this time it's
for real. That's my one big goal at the moment,
to pick out 16 songs, record demo verions for the rest of the band to learn
and then go into the studio and record.
So look for that at some point this year.
Well, that's about it for the moment. Be safe, and I'll holler at you later.