♪ The crowd seems happy The band even more ♪
♪ My fräulein she dance me all over the floor ♪
♪ By the end of the evening we can't find the door ♪
♪ Doin' the Milwaukee Waltz ♪
♪ ♪
- Narrator: Polka music can be funny,
but it's no joke.
In April of 1994,
a bill was passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature
proclaiming polka the official state dance.
Appropriately, it was signed into law
during a dance at Solinsky's Ballroom in the town of Pulaski.
- [Gov. Thompson]: This country and this world would be a lot better off
if people would polka and have a beer and glass of milk.
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
- For Wisconsin's polka hardcore it was a red-letter day,
but it left some wondering exactly which polka
was the official polka.
♪ ♪
- There isn't just one form of the polka music in Wisconsin.
In fact, we have here a greater variety
than anywhere else in the world.
That's because so many different people
from so many different European countries
came and settled in so many different parts of Wisconsin
and they brought their musical traditions with them.
In the 1950s and 1960s,
some of Wisconsin's best polka musicians
traveled to the small village of Sauk City on the Wisconsin River
to record for Cuca Records.
We'd like to take you to a reunion, now, some of those musicians,
and also celebrate the state's official dance: the polka.
I'd like to welcome you all to Polka from Cuca,
a great event here. My name is Jim Leary.
I'm a folklorist at the University of Wisconsin.
I'm also affiliated with
the Wisconsin Folk Museum in Mount Horeb.
Cuca Records was a great record label
right here in Sauk City, started and run by Jim Kirchstein.
He put out more polka records
and a greater variety of polka records
than any other label in the United States.
All the musicians were going to be hearing from recorded on the Cuca label.
And the first one is Syl Groeschl.
Syl is from Calumetville
and he continues a 150-year-old family tradition
of German and Austrian and Bavarian music.
So, let's hear from Syl Groeschl.
Let's make him welcome. Syl Groeschl and his band.
[applause]
- It's polka time ladies and gentlemen,
one called the Anneliese Polka.
♪ ♪
♪ Anneliese, Ach Anneliese, warum bist Du böse auf mich? ♪
♪ Anneliese, ach Anneliese, Du weißt doch, ich liebe nur Dich ♪
♪ Doch ich kann es gar nicht fassen ♪
♪ Dass Du mich hast sitzen lassen ♪
♪ Wo ich von dem letzten Geld ♪
♪ Die Blumen hab? für Dich bestellt ♪
♪ Und weil Du nicht bist gekommen ♪
♪ Hab? ich sie vor Wut genommen ♪
♪ Ihre Köpfe abgerissen ♪
♪ Und dann in die Fluß g? schmissen ♪
♪ Anneliese, ach Anneliese, nachher tat es mir wieder leid ♪
♪ Anneliese, ach Anneliese, wann wirst Du nun endlich gescheit? ♪
♪ ♪
[cheers and applause]
- We've had Groeschl music in Wisconsin
for approximately 155 years now.
The genuine German old folk songs
and a lot of it is the same music that my dad played.
I think we're more mellow.
Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my feeling.
The oompah bands, real heavy for Minnesota,
that's different style than Wisconsin style.
- And when the Second World War started out,
it wasn't very mature music played at all anymore.
And it all-- German music just came back
not too many years ago-- a few years, maybe 7 or 10.
There is more German waltz music
than there was German polka music.
We can do a whole job in German if we have to.
Ja ja, jetzt geht's los, und uns Geld vergraben!
[music from Syl Groeschl and Orchestra]
♪ Hät' wir doch lieber das Geld vergraben ♪
♪ Das wir in der Leben versunken haben ♪
♪ Jungens, was hätten wir deine Haufen ♪
♪ Jungens, was könnten wir saufen ♪
♪ Aber wir haben es nicht vergraben ♪
♪ Weil wir so gerne getrunken haben ♪
♪ Drum sollst du ohne zu schnaufen ♪
♪ Das andere auch noch versaufen ♪
♪ Bier her, Bier her ♪
♪ Oder wir fallen um ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Ja, hät' wir doch lieber das Geld vergraben ♪
♪ Was wir in der Leben versunken haben ♪
♪ Kinder was hätten wir deine Haufen ♪
♪ Jungens, was könnten wir saufen ♪
♪ Aber wir haben es nicht vergraben ♪
♪ Weil wir so gerne getrunken haben ♪
♪ Drum sollst du ohne zu schnaufen ♪
♪ Das andere auch noch versaufen ♪
♪ ♪
[cheers and applause]
- We put out, I believe, six albums, long-play albums.
I think the longest album that ever took us
was three and a half hours.
We had pretty good luck.
We never had a--
Usually, I think our first recording session
was only two and a half hours for a long-play album.
- Want another one! Why not!
Die "Tante Anna," ja, das vorige Ding!
One, two...
♪ ♪
♪ Wenn ich die Tante Anna seh ♪
♪ Dann muss ich immer lachen ♪
♪ Sie geht so stolz von Hoff und Zehe ♪
♪ Dann mach sie so viel Sachen ♪
♪ Sie trägt die grüne Abend Kleid ♪
♪ Und der Hut mit der rote Feder ♪
♪ Aber wer sie sicht na der Wens bescheid ♪
♪ Ruft die sie ein jeder ♪
Refrain: ♪ Tante Anna, Tante Anna, du bist die schönste Frau in der Welt ♪
♪ so wie du gebaut bist! ♪
♪ Tante Anna! Tante Anna! ♪
♪ Du bist die Frau was mir gefällt! ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Wer hat noch keine Mann geküsst, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Wer weisst noch nicht, was Liebe ist, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Wer ist verrickt nach jeden Mann, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Bei wen beist aber keiner an, Tante Anna ♪
Refrain: ♪ Tante Anna, Tante Anna, du bist die schönste Frau in der Welt ♪
♪ so wie du gebaut bist! ♪
♪ Tante Anna! Tante Anna! ♪
♪ Du bist die Frau was mir gefällt! ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Wer fleckt sein Haar mit Schweine Oel, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Wer pudeln sich mit veisen Mehl, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Wer trägt die Neigel grün für ihn, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Bei wen ist doch alles verkehrt, Tante Anna, och ja ♪
Refrain: ♪ Tante Anna, Tante Anna, du bist die schönste Frau in der Welt ♪
♪ so wie du gebaut bist! ♪
♪ Tante Anna! Tante Anna! ♪
♪ Du bist die Frau was mir gefällt! ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Wer möchte gern verheiret sein, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Bei wem felit aber keiner rein, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Und sollst du als Jungfrau sterben, Tante Anna ♪
♪ Dann lass mich dein Vermagen erben, Tante Anna ♪
Refrain: ♪ Tante Anna, Tante Anna, du bist die schönste Frau in der Welt ♪
♪ so wie du gebaut bist! ♪
♪ Tante Anna! Tante Anna! ♪
♪ Du bist die Frau was mir gefällt! ♪
♪ ♪
- It's unfortunate, we don't have enough young people
coming up fulfilling the places for the older folks.
If that could change that the young folks
would get interested in the polka music,
ooh, it would come alive.
♪ ♪
- One young person who is carrying on
Wisconsin polka traditions is Steve Meisner
son of polka hall-of-famer, Verne Meisner.
- Verne has been a master of the Milwaukee Slovenian sound
since the 1950s.
Slovenian polka is characterized
by fast and flashy accordion and raucous saxophone.
♪ ♪
- When I got out of the service in 1961,
I heard about Cuca Records in Sauk City, Wisconsin,
and I came up here to see Jim Kirchstein.
At that time, long-play albums
weren't that prevalent, so we did-- went on
to do numerous albums, at least 10 albums.
- Ah, let's hear it for Steve Meisner.
You got another one, there?
♪ ♪
- Well, what do you think about Steve
on that button accordion, there.
- When I was about five years old,
I saw my first accordion in my grandmother's attic,
which I found out was one of my dad's first accordions.
And one of the things that, you know,
stuck with me all my life is that he said,
"The only way that I'll teach you
"or give you lessons to learn how to play
"is if you stick with it.
"If you promise that you won't give it up."
And I remember that and I don't know if that's one of the key factors.
There's a lot of other factors...
- It's in your blood, Steve!
- Yeah well, I believe it is. I really do.
I really do believe it is.
♪ ♪
- Really, it has the ability to be so many different things
aside from being stereotyped.
It's just, you know, happy, jump-along, kind of music.
It's going through changes all the time
and I think that the younger people will come back into it.
[applause]
- Jim Kirchstein.
His record company recorded
a greater variety of old-time polka music
than any other record company in the nation.
- One person who believes in the future of polka music
is Jim Kirchstein, a Sauk City native,
who started the Cuca Record label.
- Quite often we're asked where the name Cuca comes from
because it doesn't really seem to fit polka music in Wisconsin.
Cuca is the name of the Mexican girl,
a close friend of the family's in New Mexico.
It's a name that is a nickname for Ruth.
- Today Jim maintains the Cuca Records vault
in the basement of his home in rural Mount Horeb.
- In 1954, when I got out of the Korean War,
I started a small records retail outlet
in the basement of my brother's toy shop.
And in 1959, I thought,
"I've been selling records for a few years.
"Why not do a record, just to see what is was like."
- Jim had recently graduated
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
with a degree in engineering,
which he applied to the acoustical challenges
of studio recording.
- Third one was "Mule Skinner Blues" of The Fendermen.
We had 300 records made. Somehow the record broke
and it ended up selling over a million domestically
and almost four million worldwide.
So as I'm on that record, I ended up in a two-year lawsuit
with the company we leased it to.
And after all that is said and done,
two years later, I had nine thousand dollars profit on it.
With the nine thousand, it was invested in the studio.
Then we went ahead and recorded polka bands,
from then on out for the next 60 years,
as well as a lot of jazz and rock and roll music.
- Cuca Records never had a huge hit again,
but its ethnic music line
has become the most important collection of polka,
also known as old-time music in the United States,
with over 150 LPs
and two to three thousand 45s to its credit.
A lot of this had to do with
Jim Kirchstein's open-door recording policy.
- We never charge for studio.
We would record a band and if they liked the outcome
then we talk about making records.
And their only obligation was
to buy a certain number of records.
The open door, though-- The word got around.
We recorded seven days a week
very often morning, noon and night.
I would probably average six to eight hours
of recording every day.
Then we expanded into doing our own mastering,
cutting our own acetates.
Then, we expanded into a processing plant,
so we could actually release a record
the day after recording it.
I did that once just to show that it could be done.
♪ ♪
One thing we found in the very beginning,
which was delightful,
is that you don't have to go very far to find talent.
I really consider my only talent,
is that I can recognize talent.
Verne Meisner is an outstanding technician on the accordion.
Groeschl, too. Groeschl, he would probably
maybe the two or three takes and then pick the best.
And Meisner also,
took the old-time music take of probably three takes,
that you kind of lose the spark after you get beyond three.
Each one of these recording sessions,
our group of artists created almost a friendship
that still lasts to this day,
although the label is now defunct.
We are looking at releasing CDs, now,
and in the future, on the entire ethnic line.
Take us several years to do this,
as well as some of the jazz and rock music.
- These days running Cuca Records is a sideline
for Jim Kirchstein.
Since he closed the recording studio in the mid-70s,
he's spent most of his time working as an engineer
for the Wisconsin University System.
But he has great memories of those years at Cuca.
- We're hoping you guys live forever and I never die.
- Well, that's wishing your children will have rich parents.
- Yeah, right!
[laughter]
- Actually all the sessions
were a lot of fun. It was no work.
I hate to say that now, but it was true.
We spent 16 years of having fun.
[yodeling]
- Small regional labels like Cuca are important
because they're accessible to rural musicians
and those who didn't fit into the music industry.
[Alphorn sounds]
It's location in Wisconsin
was near many of the ethnic areas that held festivals
which help keep the different music traditions alive,
festivals like the Swiss celebration
of Cheese Days held in Monroe.
[church bells toll] [Alphorn sounds]
[handbells ringing] [Alphorn sounds]
- Every nationality has rich heritage.
You have your songs, singing,
you're baking things,
your culture.
It's all there for us.
I think we learn an awful lot
from our forefathers by keeping this alive.
[accordions duet sounding]
[yodeling]
[applause]
Ah, nobody ever taught me yodeling,
that was something I just came by.
And I used to do it out the farm
when it was my job to get the cows at night.
And the cows would really come; you know what I mean.
They'd look up, because they knew about that time.
If they heard me yodeling,
they knew it was time to get going.
♪ You sing like the Swiss do by the hillside ♪
♪ You'll meet neither girl or boy ♪
♪ All you need is a Mumbo Jumbo windpipe ♪
♪ And a great big barrel full of joy ♪
♪ Just go one, two, three, four... [all yodeling] ♪
♪ Try again, once again... ♪
♪ ♪
♪ See, you're singing like Swiss marissa now ♪
♪ Just go one, two, three, four... [all yodeling] ♪
- Oh, I have quite a few records that were made at Cuca.
I remember when I went up there
we made the Cheese Day record
with Rudy Burkhalter, then.
I was born and raised in Switzerland
and most of them played it like the Swiss did
and that's why I felt at home right away, here.
♪ ♪
[yodeling]
{yodeling duet]
- In 1991, Martha Burnet and Betty Vetterli
carried the Swiss American spirit of Green County
to Washington, D.C.,
performing at the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife.
- Yeah, you know, when you get standing ovations
at the Smithsonian you know that they like it.
Yeah, for me to stand there and face the Capitol
of the United States on 4th of July
singing, coming from a little village,
mountain village in Switzerland,
you just can't describe what--
You know what it does to you.
What it does to you.
- Gets you right here. - Yep, that's right.
♪ ♪ [accordion duet playing]
[yodeling]
[cheers and applause]
[accordion music with band playing]
- Alvin Styczynski also played at the Smithsonian's
Festival of American Folklife.
In the early 1950s, Alvin sparked a renaissance
of Polish American dance music in Northeast Wisconsin.
He's still going strong.
- We're gonna start it out with Pulaski is a Polka Town polka.
And we give the credit to Mr. Jim Kirschstein
for this one, also on the Cuca label!
♪ ♪
♪ Pulaski is a polka town ♪
♪ You see them dancing all around ♪
♪ That's one thing you will know ♪
♪ Wherever you will go ♪
♪ Everyone loves that polka sound ♪
♪ That's one thing you will know ♪
♪ Wherever you will go ♪
♪ Everyone loves that polka sound ♪
♪ The polka is a dance for me ♪
♪ My feet move automatically ♪
♪ My head sways side to side ♪
♪ My feet go left to right ♪
♪ Oh gee, I'm happy as can be ♪
♪ My head sways side to side ♪
♪ My feet go left to right ♪
♪ Oh gee, I'm happy as can be ♪
- Well, they say that the concertina
is a hard instrument to play, of course.
When I first started, I did practice every day.
I had the concertina on my hand every day
for the first two years that I started practicing.
We don't play the same tempo
for every polka or waltz that we play.
So it does have its own tempo.
They say it's the Polish beat.
And then of course the same thing with the waltz.
It's more of the swing type
and we also have obetics
that are some fast waltzes.
♪ ♪
- Yeah, there it is "The Stevens Point,"
Stevens Point...
- Believe it or not, they don't dance much polka in Poland.
Only the region that I came from.
♪ ♪
- Edwin Brusky is a native of Poland
who teaches polka dancing
for the Wisconsin Polka Boosters in Milwaukee.
And he's a man who's very happy
that polka is now the state dance.
- It's hard to believe [chuckles] that this happens.
I think the polka is going to be here to stay.
And I see there's lot of young people are coming into it,
which is, you know, beautiful.
♪ ♪
♪ Because I'm drinking with my pal, Hup Sadyna ♪
♪ My wife is really mad at me, Hup Sa-sa ♪
♪ Stop drinking she is telling me, Hup Sadyna ♪
♪ The kids are walking without shoes, Hup Sa-sa ♪
♪ I'm only drinking hundred-proof, Hup Sadyna ♪
♪ And right away she hits the roof, Hup Sa-sa ♪
♪ She hits the roof and she's like mad, Hup Sadyna ♪
♪ Now she won't let me sleep in bed, Hup Sa-sa ♪
♪ Because I'm drinking with my pals, Hup Sadyna ♪
♪ My wife's exploding like a shell, Hup Sa-sa ♪
♪ Stop drinking she is telling me, Hup Sadyna ♪
♪ Or I will hang you from a tree, Hup Sa-sa ♪
♪ I have a rope around my neck, Hup Sadyna ♪
♪ And now my wife cashes the checks, Hup Sa-sa ♪
♪ My drinking days forever gone, Hup Sadyna ♪
♪ And my dear wife has finally won, Hup Sa-sa ♪
♪ ♪
- When we were young, we-- my grandpa was staying with us
and we had to talk Polish to him so that he would understand us.
I have to say that if we didn't pronounce one of the words right,
we were corrected, so that's how we got
to talk and to sing the Polish.
♪ Yes, ... ♪
♪ She will survive oh yes, she will survive ♪
♪ Yes, ... ♪
♪ She will survive oh yes, she will survive ♪
♪ Yes, ... ♪
♪ She will survive oh yes, she will survive ♪
♪ Yes, ... ♪
♪ She will survive oh yes, she will survive ♪
Everybody!
[all singing, "La, La" to the melody]
[applause]
- It is. It's a hard life. It's a tough life,
but you put it all together, at the end,
it's really fun. So, it's worthwhile.
I know for me it's worthwhile
the 45 years, going on to 46 years
that I've been in it.
And I am very, very happy with the polka industry.
- Now as you know Wisconsin is the polka state
and not just one variety of polka music
but many different sorts of music.
And I know of no other band that brings together
the great variety of traditional and ethnic music
found in Wisconsin than the Goose Island Ramblers.
♪ ♪
[lyrics in foriegn language]
- This is where it all started, right here at Sauk City,
at the Cuca recording.
I had a kind of a built-in audience, too.
I had a milk route, so I haul the records
around in my milk truck, selling them to my customers.
- Jim says, "Where's your material?"
"What you guys gonna do?"
Well, Bruce says, "Turn on your recorder.
"We'll think of something." [laughter]
That's the way we did it.
He actually did write the "Hurley Hop"
on the way up here in the car. And that's the truth!
- That's the truth, yeah.
♪ ♪
♪ While strolling down Silver Street ♪
♪ One dark and dreary night ♪
♪ I heard an awful racket ♪
♪ It sounded like a fight ♪
♪ I walked into a tavern and what did I see ♪
♪ The Goose Island Ramblers as big as they could be ♪
♪ They were playing and a drinking ♪
♪ And having lots of fun ♪
♪ It sounded wild and woolly ♪
♪ I said, "Well, son-of-a-gun!" ♪
♪ I walked up to the bar and laid my money down ♪
♪ I said to the old bartender ♪
♪ "Jeff, let's have another round" ♪
♪ ♪
♪ There was Smokey George on fiddle ♪
♪ Uncle ... ♪
♪ But Loose Spruce the Goose ♪
♪ I wonder where I are ♪
♪ He's laying in the corner ♪
♪ Big smile on his mug ♪
♪ Singing good old Mountain Dew ♪
♪ And blowing on the jug ♪
♪ Well I took a look into the crowd ♪
♪ Well there sat Glenn and Ann ♪
♪ Clapping and a cheering ♪
♪ And taking on the band ♪
♪ Their Little Tex from Texas ♪
♪ And the Swanson brothers too ♪
♪ My gosh I think there must been ♪
♪ At least a half of the ... ♪
- Loose Sruce the Goose...
- Well now comes the good part.
♪ Well they brought out the dancing girls ♪
♪ The band begin to swing ♪
♪ The crowd jumped upon their feet ♪
♪ They all began to sing ♪
♪ It built up to a frenzy ♪
♪ The music wouldn't stop ♪
♪ They all grabbed their partners ♪
♪ And done the Hurley Hop ♪
♪ Well you heard the advertisements ♪
♪ You read it everywhere ♪
♪ Pick it up for excitement ♪
♪ You're sure to find it there ♪
♪ So on the next vacation ♪
♪ Be sure to make a stop ♪
♪ Just take a trip to Hurley ♪
♪ And do the Hurley Hop ♪
♪ Well just take a trip to Hurley ♪
♪ And do the Hurley Hop ♪
♪ ♪
[cheers and applause]
- 'Cause the music we play
is very much, I think, like the what they used to call
the house party music that was around this area,
especially in the Norwegian and Irish areas,
you know, they'd have a fiddle and a guitar and maybe a little button accordion.
And I can remember yet, boy that hat with that change in there,
it looked like a fortune.
- That's kind of the tradition I think
that we came out of us,
as far as our connection with ethnic and polka music.
- House parties were, ah, were nice friendly things.
They were mostly relatives or farm neighbors,
back in The Depression time when nobody had any money.
- Well, I started in 1929, and by '31,
I could play pretty good then.
- Roots like these made the Goose Island Ramblers a hit
in the 1994 Folk Masters Radio series
syndicated nationally by the Smithsonian Institution.
One of their most popular tunes
is based on an old Norwegian waltz melody.
- And he said that's the Dickeyville Waltz.
And I says wait a minute Windy, that's the Norwegian Waltz,
I can tell that the way it sounds.
And I said there's no Norwegians in Dickeyville.
♪ ♪
♪ There's no Norwegians in Dickeyville ♪
♪ None in the valley and none on the hill ♪
♪ There never was and there never will ♪
♪ Be no Norwegians in Dickeyville ♪
♪ ♪
♪ There's no Yonny Yohnson in Dickeyville ♪
♪ No Ola Olso or Paul on the hill ♪
♪ Dere's no Peter Swenson living down by the mill ♪
♪ 'Cause there's no Norwegians in Dickeyville ♪
♪ There's no Norwegians in Dickeyville ♪
♪ None in the valley and none on the hill ♪
♪ There never was and there never will ♪
♪ Be no Norwegians in Dickeyville ♪
♪ ♪
♪ There's no Rulla Pulsa in Dickeyville ♪
♪ No Hasun Gorda or Gansga bar vil ♪
♪ There's none lefer Skogen down by the mill ♪
♪ 'Cause dere's no Norwegians in Dickeyville ♪
♪ There's no Norwegians in Dickeyville ♪
♪ None in the valley and none on the hill ♪
♪ There never was and there never will ♪
♪ Be no Norwegians in Dickeyville ♪
- Poor Dickeyville.
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
♪ ... ♪
♪ The tuba is fine ♪
♪ The banjo is lousy ♪
♪ Look at the crowd ♪
♪ They play a half dollar ♪
♪ You come in and dance ♪
♪ ... waltz ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Round and round Round they go ♪
♪ Over to Florida and up your-- ♪
- Testing, testing.
[laughter]
♪ ♪