I’m finally catching up from everything after a very busy weekend of gigs…. Friday and Saturday – I was in East Lansing, MI with the band at Great Lakes Folk Festival. Despite some heavy rains, we still had an enthusiastic crowd of polka dancers and folk music aficionados. Of course, Ed Klancnik, our MSU alum, had a fan club of his own there. I refrained from reminding them how good Penn State football was last year and we all agreed to root together against Ohio State…. (sorry to my friends in Columbus!). Patrick Power and his staff were great hosts and made sure everything went smoothly—hope to have the opportunity to work with them again down the road… In the meantime, we hit the road immediately after the Saturday show and got back to Allentown, PA around 6:30 am—just in time to get a little nap and head over to Bethlehem Musikfest. Again- rain dampened the proceedings, but once we hit the stage at Volksplatz, the skies did clear…. We had a nice show with the excellent sound crew Dave Hinson assembled over there- (as always!)
After the afternoon show, we headed over to Festplatz where Brave Combo was rocking the house. Little Jack Melody has definitely slid into a good spot in that rhythm section anchored by Arjuna, who has established a pretty mean polka groove- amidst his great Latin, Rock, Jazz energy! (Of course, Carl, Jeffrey, Danny and Joe were their normal spectacular selves as well!) I got to jam with the band, and special guest Hank Guzevich from Polka Family on trumpet. After their rain filled show, the skies cleared again as we got set up for our 7:30- 11pm show…We had a lot of fun playing for the dancers, as well as the tv audience on Service Electric. Looking forward to next year already…
In the meantime—the new album, “Stay All Night” has been selling well and getting great reviews on the radio already. There are cds available at www.cdbaby.com/meixneralex2 as well as www.jimmykpolkas.com and www.polkaconnection.com in addition to our live shows. Digital downloads will be available soon….
I will have a bunch of new dates to announce soon…. Including Labor Day weekend at the new Hofbrau Haus in Pittsburgh, PA and the dates for Wurstfest in New Braunfels, TX.
See ya soon!
alex