[78-L] Polkas eliminated as a Grammy category

[agp]

I see two reasons for this.

One is a blame that lies directly on polka bands themselves. Having 
engineered a polka show for about 4 years in the mid 70s, I can tell 
you that most of the stuff played was the most inane slop I had ever 
heard. I grew up listening to polkas and there was a stack of old 
Dana 78s at the ready. I wore out and eventually ended up accidently 
breaking great records by people like Ray Henry and Frank Wojnaroski. 
I was able to replace them for cheaps on a bulk lot purchase about 25 
old Dana side on eBay ($6.99). The stuff that people were putting out 
couldn't hold a candle to those records. Plus -- having heard alot of 
polkas and getting records of the same from Radio Prague, I can tell 
you that that stuff -- from the source -- puts modern grammy 
nominated polkas to shame.

The second is that what I regard as real polkas - that being the 
stuff from Eastern Europe -- is ignored by the Starbucks-ian crowd 
who think that they are sooooo cool because they are listening to 
some tribesman from Equatorial Guinea bang on a drum -- ah yes -- 
what do they call it -- world beat. Hell I was listening to world 
beat when I was 2 years old when I heard those old Dana 78s!

If polkas are to be respected they need to come back to their roots 
and be recognised as much as a form of folk music as styles such as 
that of artists like the Afro-Cuban All-Stars, The Buena Vista Social 
Club, and Flaco Jimenez. To that end, Sturr did not do wrong by 
recording with Willie Nelson.

Tony