This past weekend I ventured north to Madison, WI to celebrate my friend (and Patreon student) Fran's 50th birthday. Amidst some frigid cold weather, it was great to jam with 2 of my favorite bands- Steve Meisner Band (with Steve Meisner, Don Hunjadi, and Chris Doszak) and Copper Box (featuring Danny and Michelle Jerabek along with the Double DC rhythm section of Dave and Dan). In a salute to these fine friends and inspiring musicians, I have done solo renditions of 2 songs that I got to play with their bands.
Muziky, Muziky is an old Czech polka that in the vocal version Danny says has a neighbor complimenting his local musician friend, but asking him to knock it off and let them sleep at night... I first heard this song on some old albums by either Razzberry Reynolds or the Frank Hermanek Orchestra-- I can't remember from my Dad's old record collection. It was also sung in Croatian on the first album by one of my accordion heroes, Don Lipovac and I recorded it on a long out-of-print cassette-only release in 1991 with Dan Witucki, my father and Ty Baden called- "International Dance Party". This version is inspired by Danny's version on a recent solo album of his called "The Bohemian". The bright tempo is not normally associated with the old school Dutchmen style- but it totally swings when Danny does it-- and is quite reminiscent of the aforementioned record that I can't remember, I think In any regard-- it was fun jammin' with Danny on this one and fun to throw my arrangement together in a solo rendition.
The "400" Polka is a Verne Meisner standard from his "Old Country Melodies" album back in the 1960s. I listened to this album so many times as a kid and have recently played it a few times when the inimitable banjo and guitar master Jerry Krahn is around to listen I had never thought of the left hand of the accordion train effect until Steve instructed that it was to start the song-- (it's funny the things that we don't notice around us!) but I did find a train whistle at home to attempt to play at the right times in this solo version...