Polka community battles loss of Grammy category

By John Benson

A Valley expert says polka bands don’t bother to submit their work because they know they won’t win.

The Recording Academy has spoken and the word is the polka best album category has been eliminated from the Grammy Awards. Naturally, local reaction isn’t positive regarding what is perhaps the one last bastion of legitimacy bestowed on fans and musicians of the ethnic music.

“I’m planning to write a letter to whoever made the decision because it is an identifiable genre of American music,” said Cecilia Dolgan, president of the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame. “I saw where they said they were only getting like 20 entries and they didn’t feel it met their criteria. I feel that they’re unaware how many people do the polka. And by turning their backs on polka, they’re ignoring millions of people across the country of European descent.

“People go to Oktoberfests and dance the polka. The polka has been around for over 150 years, and despite some of the reports of its demise, they’re premature because we have young people who are playing the accordion and playing polkas. We have events for the Polka Hall of Fame with three generations of families all having a nice family affair and dancing the polka.”

Family fun aside, the Recording Academy claims in recent years polka albums in consideration for album of the year have decreased to a couple dozen at best. One person who thinks she knows why polka albums submitted to the Recording Academy have dwindled in number is radio program host Valerie Pawlowski. Her show “Valerie Pawlowski’s Saturday Morning Polka Show” can be heard from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays on Cortland radio station WKTX-AM 830.

“From what I understand, the Grammys eliminated the category because there wasn’t enough participation,” said Cleveland native and Poland resident Pawlowski, whose radio show this year celebrates its 15th year broadcasting to over 23 counties. “And how can people participate when the same man has won 18 times in a row? How does that inspire any other polka band to want to even present their music to the Grammy [Awards], who pick the same guy all of the time?”

That same guy is Jimmy Sturr, the Bruce Springsteen of polka music. Actually, the New York resident and polka trumpeter, clarinetist and saxophonist has 18 Grammy Awards to his credit, which is one behind Springsteen. Not only has Sturr won the last four best polka album Grammy Awards, but he’s walked away with hardware 18 out of the 24 years the Recording Academy has acknowledged the polka community.

“So they claim the category is being dropped because there aren’t enough participants, but the participating bands tell me that why should they even bother to submit their music when they know Jimmy Sturr is going to win,” Pawlowski said. “The sad thing about polka is it has a bad rap because people don’t take the time to listen to new polka, which is completely different but equally as good to the music created in the ’50s.”

The list of popular contemporary polka acts includes Johnny Pecon, Eddie Rodick and Don Wojtila. All of these artists have CDs for sale at the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame, which has 1,500 members nationwide. This in itself proves to Dolgan that the polka genre is alive and well in 2009.

“If they’re going to recognize every other genre or kind of music that’s in the recording field, I don’t know why they want to eliminate ours,” said Dolgan, who is a classically trained vocalist with numerous polka albums of her own. “As it is, the (polka award presentation) is in the afternoon and not on prime time. And I don’t think that these people know that even 50 years ago polka was popular and on the charts as the hit songs of America.

“Rock ’n’ roll probably helped make polkas not as prominent because children started dancing to it, but polka is still an international style of dance music. And our gift shop stocks 600 polka CDs. So somebody is buying polka music.”

Dolgan also points out the popular National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame’s annual awards banquet, which takes place every November and attracts more than 1,000 people. Looking forward, Dolgan hopes her letter sways the Recording Academy, while Pawlowski has another idea.

“What I would like to see happen is people like Drew Carey and all of the wonderful people who love polka and grew up in a German or Slovenian or Polish household get together and say, ‘Wait a minute, how can you eliminate music that came from our ancestry?’” Pawlowski said. “I mean they have hip-hop, classical, country. They have all kinds of music.”

Finally, the ebb and flow of pop culture over time often leaves casualties in its wake. Could polka music, which seemingly is embraced by older generations, be in risk of fading away into obscurity?

“No, I don’t think polka music will ever die because it’s a tradition and families pass it along,” Dolgan said. “Maybe you don’t see polka dances like there were 50 years ago but they still exist where the young and old can still go out there and have a good time. And there are enough young people who are continuing it.”

She added, “It’s just like swing dancing, which wasn’t popular until colleges started (offering swing classes and clubs). Now young people know what swing dancing is, so that could happen to polka.”