Wasn’t he unironically, joyfully great? Like, it is easy to make fun of, but wouldn’t I take that over first chair clarinet at the NY philharmonic any day?
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Can’t say I know of a Rolling Stones Polka, how about The Doors?
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Didn’t I grow up listening to my mom’s FY&tY 8-tracks, and didn’t I enjoy the heck out of that happy music?
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(God I’m gonna have to pick up a clarinet again and attack klezmer like noones business–midlife crisis time, do I stay with silicon valley or become a farmer klezmer-ist!?)
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How can one be sad after listening to a good polka?
(Though I am feeling a bit melancholy as I haven’t seen Brave Combo in years and they don’t play outside of Texas much lately)
Or a Clarinet Polka?
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With the exception that the clarinetist couldn’t do a three octave glissando (**cough I can **) wasn’t he effing awesome!?
(Soft Reed, Rico 2.5, and don’t fear the breaks, make them fear you. Took me years to figure out, and noone who knows will tell you how to do it.)
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Didn’t I fall in love with that band after first seeing them live way back in 1993/4ish? Haven’t I seen these guys more times live than any other band including TMBG as they are wonderful fun live?
Have you heard their rockin’ version of The Hokey Pokey?
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Don’t you need only one?
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Can you keep the polkas to a ratio rather than specific number? For example: 20% of songs played in a set will be polkas?
Are the other songs jigs and reels?
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Was anyone else at the folk festival in Chicago nearly 40 years ago when Odetta got an audience of about 1,200 to sing “Home on the Range” with great feeling for over 10 minutes?
How awesome does a singer/band have to be, to get people to experience children’s songs in a whole new light?
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Let’s see–jigs, reels, a few airs, two sets of hornpipes, some Ewan McColl, pogues, one Stones cover as an encore (honky tonk woman), and a few appalacian tunes–what am I forgetting?
Ever heard Jean Ritchie? (This is goingin our next set and my wife nails the vocal)
How did I forget the strathspeys?
(For an acoustic group we can get rather raucous)
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Did you say Jean Ritchie!!!
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Troll face you know her as well? 
SAD face Did you know she died last month?
Pffffffffuuuuuuu… I had no idea, I guess we will be playing some of her tunes next week–the only question is which ones?
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Found it: http://www.amazon.com/Folk-Songs-Southern-Appalachians-Ritchie/dp/0813109272
It is on books.Google.com as well, and isn’t astounding how many appalacian tunes can draw a straight line to Ireland? Even pre famine? I listened to False Sir John and have the lyrics, couldn’t that be straight from the Irish west country?
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Why would that be astonishing to me, since my main hobby is genetic genealogy? 
In other news, did you know there’s a lot of German and Swiss ancestry in Pennsylvania?!
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