The Chardon Polka Band is an American, Ohio-based, Cleveland-Style polka band. It was started by Jake Kouwe in 2003 when he recruited four other teenagers to form a polka band at Chardon

High School A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, and the group was originally called "The Chardon High School Polka Band" and included an accordion, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, electric guitar, and tuba. The group got their start in the school's music room and played at local senior centers and nursing homes in the Chardon area. Kouwe cites

Weird Al Yankovic Weird derives from the Anglo-Saxon word Wyrd, meaning fate or destiny. In modern English it has acquired the meaning of “strange or uncanny”. It may also refer to: Places * Weird Lake, a lake in Minnesota, U.S. People *"Weird Al" Yankovic (b ...

as his inspiration for playing the accordion as he started lessons on the accordion after seeing Yankovic in a VH1 special. The popular satirist remains a role model for The Chardon Polka Band. The band had slowly gained notoriety among Polka fans and in the Cleveland music scene in general, but got mainstream attention when they were featured in a

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

named ''Polka Kings'' on

Reelz Reelz (formerly known as Reelz Channel) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. The network's programming was formerly devoted to entertainment-oriented programming focusing on the Hollywood ...

in 2015, even though the show was quickly cancelled. The band currently plays over 200 shows a year and has grown to be one of the Cleveland music scene's most recognizable performers playing at a mixture of festivals, schools, nursing homes, and bars, but also tours nationally and headlines many of the nation's top

folk festival A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods. Handicra ...

and

Oktoberfest celebrations The Oktoberfest is a two-week festival held each year in Munich, Germany during late September and early October. It is attended by six million people each year and has inspired numerous similar events using the name ''Oktoberfest'' in Germany ...

, playing a mixture of original music, classic polkas, and covers of pop songs. The band was also one of the founding members of the Cleveland revival of

Dyngus Day Easter Monday refers to the day after Easter Sunday in either the Eastern or Western Christian traditions. It is a public holiday in some countries. It is the second day of Eastertide. In Western Christianity, it marks the second day of the Octa ...

. The band has released ten full-length albums, all independently, four of which were nominated for a

Polka Hall of Fame The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum in Euclid, Ohio, United States. It traces the history of the Cleveland-style polka, from its Slovenian roots from the 19th century, through American factory and mining towns w ...

award for either the album or one or more songs.

Band members

*Jacob Kouwe - Lead vocals and

Accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

*Brian Brazier-

Tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

*Mike Franklin - Lead and backup vocals,

Banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Mitch Lawrence - Saxophone,

Clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

*Bob Young -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Seasonal Member

*Michael Grkman - Upright Bass, Bass Guitar

Past members

*Paul Coates -

Sousaphone The sousaphone ( ) is a brass instrument in the tuba family. Created around 1893 by J. W. Pepper at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa (after whom the instrument was then named), it was designed to be easier to play than ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

*Paul "Pops" Magooch - Drums *Joe Dahlhausen - Drums *Emily Kouwe - Saxophone

Awards and Media coverage

* The

has nominated the band in 4 separate years, and the

International Polka Association The International Polka Association (IPA) is located in Chicago, Illinois and dedicated to the study and preservation of polka music and the cultural heritage of Polish Americans who have made this music tradition part of their heritage. The IPA ...

has nominated them in 2016. ** In 2011, the band's first single ''Free Beer Polka'' was nominated for best Best New Original Song. ** In 2013, ''A Fistful Of Polka'' & ''Bring Me More Beer'' were both nominated for Best New Original Song and the band was nominated for Band of the Year. ** In 2016, ''You Can't Drink Beer In Outer Space'' was nominated for Best New Original Song and the album ''World War Polka'' was nominated for recording of the year. and "You can't take my Polka from Me" was nominated for Song of the Year. ** In 2018, the album ''Old Time Tent Revival'' was nominated for recording of the year. * The band created a pilot for a variety program called “Lights! Camera! Polka!” in 2017. The show is an assortment of performances, humor, and education. * The band was the subject of a 16 episode

named ''Polka Kings'' on

in 2015. * The band has produced over a twenty music videos. A few of these videos: Squeeze Box, O Tannenbaum, The Krampus Song, and Jingle Bells were made in a

clay animation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...

style b
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the latter three of which were included in a 30-minute Holiday Special. * The band was featured nationally on Here and Now (

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

) in 2015. * The band was on and episode of Trip Flip (

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) named "Ohio: Polka Plane Plunge" in 2015. * Jacob Kouwe was named one of Cleveland's Most Interesting People 2015 due to the success of the band. * The band produced the documentaries ''Polka Across America'' and ''A Polka Christmas with The Chardon Polka Band'' which both aired on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

Western Reserve The Connecticut Western Reserve was a portion of land claimed by the Colony of Connecticut and later by the state of Connecticut in what is now mostly the northeastern region of Ohio. The Reserve had been granted to the Colony under the terms o ...

and was rebroadcast on other PBS stations cross the country.

Discography

*Pirates, Women, and Beer (2009) *A Fistful of Polka (2013) *This is Oktoberfest (Recorded Live at the

Helen, Georgia Helen is a city in White County, Georgia, United States, located along the Chattahoochee River. The population was 531 at the 2020 census. History Helen was platted in 1912, and named after the daughter of a lumber official. The town was incorp ...

Oktoberfest The Oktoberfest (; bar, Wiesn, Oktobafest) is the world's largest Volksfest, featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival. It is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is a 16- to 18-day folk festival running from mid- or ...

, 2014) *Polka Round the Christmas Tree (

Christmas album Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

, 2015) *World War Polka (Released

, 2016) *Old Time Tent Revival (A collection of

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

s, 2017) *More of the Same… and Probably Worse (Live album, 2017) *Pony in the Backseat (Kids album, 2018) *OH NO! NOT AGAIN! (Covers and live album, 2020) *A Very Polka Christmas (Christmas album, 2020)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chardon Polka Band, The American polka groups 2003 establishments in Ohio Musical groups from Cleveland Chardon, Ohio People from Chardon, Ohio