[78-L] Polkas eliminated as a Grammy category

[David Lennick]

Meanwhile, on another network, Eddie Playbody will now pee for you.

dl

Taylor Bowie wrote:
> And the famous radio lead-in:  "And now,  Whoopee John Wilfahrt and his band 
> will play."
> 
> Taylor
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bud Black" <banjobud at cfl.rr.com>
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 12:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Polkas eliminated as a Grammy category
> 
> 
> Leave us not forget Whoopee John Wilfahrt.
> 
> Bud
> 
> -------Original Message-------
> 
> From: Dnjchi at aol.com
> Date: 06/05/09 14:37:58
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Polkas eliminated as a Grammy category
> 
> 
> Does anyone from the NYC area remember Ed Poli's Polka Platter Party on
> WKEY every Saturday?
> Don Chichester
> 
> 
> In a message dated 6/5/2009 12:33:24 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> petquality1 at gmail.com writes:
> 
> This is  sad.  I see their reasoning, but it's a shame.  The music of  the
> past seems to be getting more and more marginalized in the media... or  am I
> wrong?  Well at least there;s still the Big Joe Polka  show...
> 
> Andrea
> 
> On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 9:25 AM,  <soundthink at aol.com> wrote:
> 
>> June 5,  2009
>>
>> Polka Music Is Eliminated as Grammy Award  Category
>>
>> By BEN SISARIO
>> After 24 years, polka has had  its last dance at the Grammys.
>>
>>
>> Jimmy Sturr, polka  superstar, has won 18 Grammy Awards.
>>
>> The Recording Academy,  which bestows the Grammy Awards, announced late on
>> Wednesday that the  polka category would be eliminated, saying in a
> statement
>> that it had  been cut "to ensure the awards process remains
> representative of
>> the  current musical landscape."
>>
>> To many in the polka world, that  read as a kind of industry code meaning
>> that their genre - once  capable of supporting artists with
> million-selling
>> hits, but long  since relegated to micro-niche status - had slipped off
> the
>> mainstream  radar entirely.
>>
>> "It's devastating," said Carl Finch of Brave  Combo, a band from Denton,
>> Tex., that has won the Grammy twice. "Polka  is so misunderstood, you
> know,
>> the butt of jokes. Having a polka  category was the most important step to
>> legitimacy that we could ever  hope to achieve. To have that taken away,
> it's
>> like it was all for  nothing."
>>
>> The news was met with sadness but little surprise.  The number of albums
>> considered by the Recording Academy for the polka  award has dwindled in
>> recent years. In 2006, for example, only 20  albums were considered, and
> of
>> the five nominees, only one album had  wide distribution.
>>
>> "When it gets down to around 20 entries,  just by entering, you have a one
>> in five chance of being nominated,"  said Bill=2
>> 0Freimuth, the academy's vice president for awards.  "That's not as
>> competitive as we'd like these awards to  be."
>>
>> Winning a Grammy can be a huge career boost for any act,  particularly
> those
>> in genres like polka that get little other  mainstream attention, said
> Jimmy
>> Sturr, who with 18 Grammys - only one  fewer than Bruce Springsteen - is
> the
>> music's biggest  name.
>>
>> "There are a lot of great bands in the polka field," Mr.  Sturr said. "I'
> m
>> not going to say I'm the best band in the whole  world, but we're just as
>> good as any. But this put us over and above.  It made us almost, almost a
>> household word."
>>
>> The polka  Grammy was first given in 1986. (It went to one of the genre's
>> last  big stars, Frankie Yankovic, who died in 1998.) But it has long been
>>  under fire by critics of the awards, who say that the field is simply
> too
>> small to sustain its own category. Some also complain that it has  lost
> its
>> value since the competition has been so dominated by Mr.  Sturr, a slick
>> nontraditionalist whose albums feature guest  appearances by the likes of
>> Willie Nelson.
>>
>> "It's  basically the same person winning it all the time," said Dave
>>  Ulczycki, president of the International Polka Association in Chicago.  "
> I
>> like his music, and I like the person himself. But Jimmy is not a  polka
> band
>> per se."
>>
>> Polka is not the only genre  affected by the reshuffling. The best
>> contemporary folk/Am
>>  ericana award - which was won this year by Robert Plant and Alison
> Krauss's
>> "Raising Sand" - will be split into two categories (best  contemporary
> folk
>> album and best Americana album), and best Latin  urban album has been
>> combined with best Latin rock or alternative  album into best Latin rock,
>> alternative or urban album. The total  number of categories decreases by
> one,
>> to 109.
>>
>> Next  year's Grammy Award ceremony will take place earlier than usual, on
>>  Jan. 31.
>>
>> Mr. Sturr said that the loss of the Grammy and the  mainstream visibility
> it
>> brings would cause damage to polka as a  genre, but that he had no doubts
>> about its ability to endure. "Polka  isn't the biggest," he said, "but
> it's
>> not the smallest,  either."
>>
>> ***********
>> Cary Ginell