There were accordions

[jhetley]

Yes, I'm afraid it is true. You let a bunch of musicians in, sooner or later one of them is going to bring an accordion. Then someone else will bring another, and another, and eventually you have a Movement....

No sign of Weird Al, though.

Ska, flamenco, raga, bluegrass, Smyrneika. Rockabilly. Quebecois. Cajun. Another set by Danu, traditional Irish.

Polka.

Who invited the Polka?????

And the damned bouncer at the beer tent refused to card me. That is a blow, I tell you.

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain - the guard at the wine-tasting tent at last night's art and air festival wouldn't card me, either, even though I fluttered my eyes at her in a most fetching (and, I hoped, youthful) way.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

It's enough to drive me to drink. W. C. Fields, anyone?

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

That there Polka gets all sorts of places.

One year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival featured the Baltic States, the state of Wisconsin, and music traditions of the Rio Grande area. All three areas have polka traditions and all three areas have widely differing polka traditions, both musically and how the dance is danced.

There was much wonderful cross-fertilization going on and it was wonderful to see.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

This group did some Mexican cross-over polkas. Moderately weird.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

Well, ponder this fusion of Baltic fiddle styles, Wisconsin music, and Rio Grande polka steps.

If you are at all interested in variant polka music, you might check out Smithsonian Folkways Recordings for "Deep Polka" and "Deeper Polka". They also might be available as MP3 downloads. (required notice: a long-term friend recorded and mastered "Deep Polka" and I suspect zie was involved in "Deeper Polka" as well.)