Friday, August 28, 2015

Dobre Muziky!!! Czech polka podcasts

A treasure trove of Czech polka!  http://www.czechpolka.com/radio/index.html

Still working my way through it all. Low-fi, but a great collection of Czech and related music.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Ja, das ist eine Schnitzelbank!

We've got Schnitzelbank in at least one of our books, but we're afraid of train wrecks when counting our way through it. It's a simple song, we should do it!



It's infectious and fun because it's so damn moronic and annoying!


image via desertislandcomics:
A photo posted by Desert Island (@desertislandcomics) on

Shiner Polka, aka Praha Polka, aka Farewell to Prague

Shiner Polka was a popular western swing tune with the Texan Czech community before Adolph Hofner recorded it in the 40s. He changed his version back to the original Czech "Praha Polka", avoiding the beer brand connection that Shiner polka had, and he sang the old country lyrics:


It's the theme song of the Czech Area Concertina Club:
It also goes by the name, "Farewell to Prague", or "Kdyz Jsme Opustili Prahu" in Czech.



It still remains popular under the name "Shiner Polka". Here's a version by a band called Cracker, apparently not the San Francisco band Cracker that I know - -

Here's the sheet music, courtesy of ConcertinaMusic.com --