It's Only Rock 'n' Roll

Is polka poised for pop prominence? A group of advocates for one of America's favorite dance music thinks so and is talking about forming a serious trade organization to promote polka to the masses.

A group of polka's leading performers and business leaders met in Nashville last month during the Folk Alliance Conference to discuss the formation of an official polka advocacy group. They plan to meet again in the polka-friendly environs of Cleveland on May 7, to formalize their organization.

Ken Irwin, co-owner of Rounder Records, an independent label that has made inroads in traditional music with more than 3,000 recordings -- including projects for Grammy-winning artists such as Alison Krauss and Jimmy Sturr, who won his 13th Grammy award this year -- called the gathering together to gauge interest among the polka community in forming an organization similar to those that have advanced the cause of folk and bluegrass music, reported Chris Lewis in a press release distributed by Rounder after the meeting.

"I got the feeling there were lots of things going on in the polka world, and a lot of artists were on their own doing music for themselves and not working in an organized way to promote polka music in the large sense," Irwin told the group. "Right now, you're all spread out across the country. There seems to be a lot of energy and commitment. This will be your business and your organization."

Performers, ranging from Sturr and Lenny Gomulka to LynnMarie Rink and Eddie Biegaj, joined promoters and recorders of polka music at the meeting. Also in attendance were Steve Popovich, president of the Popovich Music Group and a former CBS executive, and Lyn Aurelius, special projects manager for the Nashville chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

Attendees concurred a national organization could help the polka community work to overcome several obstacles that have hindered widespread economic success, including a dated and "un-hip" public image, divisiveness among the various ethnic sub-genres in polka music, and jealousy among various performers over the success of their peers.

The public perception was deemed so important the group agreed a committee should be devoted to the cause of improving polka's image.

"The main association is still Lawrence Welk after all these years," said Irwin, who admittedly is a relative newcomer to the music. "Despite what all you guys are doing in your area, changing an image for a music is a big challenge. There hasn't been a concerted effort for people to work on this together. If we're going to change that image, we have to think about what polka is, what the values are, what is valuable about it, how we can get that across, and if there is a way that we can all work together."

Carl Finch, leader of the band Brave Combo from Denton, Texas, agreed.

"One thing that I learned -- which I know everybody in this room knows -- that is unique to polka music, is that it has a reputation that has to be overcome, still, in the commercial world, and I think that is what I think separates it from other music," Finch said. "There is that giant stigma that is still there, even though I find that a lot of the audiences that we play to, which don't know polka music, often turn out to be the most devoted."

Along with the image problem, the polka community often is divided by the diverse ethnic styles, which reflect strong Eastern European roots going back to the 1830s. To this day, fans and some players are so devoted to one artist or style, they won't listen to anyone else's music, said Gus Kosior of the United Polka Artists.

"If you mix the two genres together at a festival the floor clears. The Polish people will sit down and the Slovenian people will get up, and visa versa," he said. "And it's something that we have to overcome. We tried it at different festivals."

While preserving the heritage and the distinctive flavors of the music is important, attendees agreed polka must reach out to the youth market, which was well-represented at the meeting with artists such as Rink, Biegajof Crusade, and Danny Jerabeck of Copper Box. It also was noted that while new groups like Polkacide and Polkaholics might be pushing the boundaries, they do offer a bridge new fans can cross to reach the traditional side.

Finch said the polka community should try to convey the strong tension and release element that makes the music so magical, while also embracing the modern influences.

"The thing that I think is really cool about modern polka music is that the urbanization of it seems to have made it a funkier, gustier, grittier thing than a lot of traditional music. It's something that, in some ways, is more relevant," Finch concluded.

When his band Brave Combo plays its brand of alternative polka to a packed house of dancing rock fans this week at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, he will have proved his point.