Traveling all over the US and beyond!

In November, Squeezebox performed in Frankenmuth, MI at the Bavarian Inn for the annual fundraiser for the Marv Herzog scholarship fund.  This yearly event is a great one, with the Bavarian Inn beautifully decorated for Christmas, and a packed house of responsive people enjoying the music and dancing.  Also, the Marv Herzog Reunion band performed that evening, bringing back the sound that made Marv so popular throughout the years.  Plans are underway for another event with Squeezebox and the Marv Herzog Reunion Band in November 2010, so contact Teresa Herzog for more details and advance tickets.

The following evening we performed for the Deer Hunter’s Ball in Maple City, MI.  This crowd loves their polkas and waltzes, and boy do those people dance know how to have a good time and dance!  With a beautiful wooden dance floor and dances throughout the year, this is another great place to catch some great polka bands.  Following the Maple City dance, we drove through the night via the upper peninsula of Michigan on our way to Bullshooter’s in Weston, WI for a dance.  This is a large country bar that has polka bands on Sunday afternoons.  They also have a nice large dance floor, lots of seating, and a fully stocked bar and kitchen.

Every year in December, Squeezebox performs a couple of Christmas sing-a-longs with dances following the sing-along, and this year, the first of those was in Kewaskum, WI at the Amerahn Ballroom where we played to a full house.  These sing-alongs are great because they give you a chance to get in the holiday spirit with the mix of English and German Christmas songs.  Thanks to Dennis Gehring and WTKM in Hartford for sponsoring this annual event.

The following day, we headed to our “home base”, The Bavarian Haus in Deshler, OH for another Christmas sing-along and dance, and this dance was PACKED!  It seemed every chair and table in the entire hall was full, and even with the huge wooden dance floor it was full all afternoon.  We were fortunate to have Jim Busta (Mollie’s Dad) from the Jim Busta Band join us for a couple songs, and the people loved it, lining up in front of the stage cheering!  The Bavarian Haus holds dances every Sunday afternoon from early September through May, and then they have an annual “Schuetzenfest” in June.  This is by far the nicest and largest facility for dancing in Northwest Ohio and they also have a full kitchen with delicious food for all their Sunday afternoon dances.

We finished 2009 with a New Year’s Eve celebration at the Bavarian Haus, and a few short weeks later, we were headed to Florida for the Ultimate Polka Cruise.  5 Bands headlined the cruise including The Polka Family, Chad Przybilski, John Gora & Gorale, The Toledo Polkamotion Reunion Band and Squeezebox, and we had around 270 people in our group!  We had a great time, and several of the bands performed on the main deck of the ship on a couple evenings and it was great to see the response from the “non-polka people” that were also on the ship.  Polkas in the Caribbean in January on a cruise ship while it’s cold and snowy back home….  Does it get much better than this?

Our next major trip was to Arizona in February, thanks in no small part to Sue Flores, a promoter in the Phoenix area, who came through for us after some previously booked engagements were unexpectedly cancelled.  Also, our good friend, Gene Swick helped out with the weekend.  If only more people were like Gene and Sue, this whole polka scene could be dramatically different.

In Arizona we had 4 engagements in a row, starting with the Pulaski Club in Phoenix on Friday.  This compact and classy hall in Phoenix was filled with over 170 people!  They bring in bands usually at least once a month during the winter season, so check with Dave at the Pulaski club for a schedule.  The following day we performed for Sue for a house party, which was a lot of fun.  Sometimes, the smaller the hall, the more fun it is, and the Saturday engagement was definitely one of those events.  Following the dance, we had a great time by having a potluck with the people who attended the dance.  It sure is nice getting to know so many of you!

On Sunday, we performed at Greenfield Village in Mesa, AZ.  When we walked in to set up (after numerous detours due to road construction), we were astonished to see the hall was already FULL!  According to the promoter, there were at least 430 people in attendance (based on an early rough count), which we were told is one of the largest crowds they have ever had for a Sunday polka dance at the hall.  It was nice to see so many of the snowbirds, and they particularly enjoyed it when Mollie’s Dad joined us on concertina for a few numbers.

There are some other special friends that helped us out for the Arizona weekend that we would like to acknowledge:  Jeff Heinz from WDEZ Radio (www.wdez.com) and the Music Connection Band from Wausau filled in with us on drums for the weekend and did a TREMENDOUS job.  Also, Robbie Piatkowski from Canastota, NY helped out by providing what seemed like endless laughs, and also helped by driving down with the equipment with Ted and joined us for a couple songs each night.  Thank you to you two guys for all your help and friendship!  Lastly, thanks to all the folks who made the trip down to Arizona from “up north” just to attend our dances and thanks to the folks from Ohio and Wisconsin for inviting us to some delicious meals at house parties preceding and following our gigs.  We look forward to coming back to Arizona next spring!

We finished our Arizona performances with a 2 piece one hour show (just Ted and Mollie) on Monday evening for the Arizona Accordion Club.  They had several of their members perform throughout the evening and they all did a superb job.  One of the nicest things we found out about is that they have a youth program at the accordion club where they teach kids (primarily under 20 years old) how to play accordion, and they provide them with student accordions.  They are always looking for donations of accordions so they can continue to expand this program, so if you have one setting around that you would like to get rid of, please contact me and I (Ted) will get in touch with them and figure out how to get them the instruments.  We must keep pushing to keep youth involved in our music so we can ensure many more years of polka music, and this kind of program does just that.

We’d like to share a few more upcoming events with you before we close out this update:

Bands for the Hamler Summerfest, held the last weekend in July in Hamler, OH have been finalized and include the following bands:  Walt Groller, Barefoot Becky, Hank Haller, The Party Time Reunion Band, an “All New High School Honors Polka Band” and Squeezebox.  We’ll have more details in our next column about ‘The Granddaddy Of ‘Em All”, the Hamler Summerfest.

Squeezebox and Herzog Tours are running a trip to Germany September 21-30, 2010.  Join Ted and Mollie on a 9 Day Tour of Germany and Austria!  Visit the world-famous Munich Oktoberfest and optional Passion Play in Oberammergau!  This trip starts at $2,350 per person based on double occupancy plus taxes.  For more info or to reserve a spot, contact Ted Lange at 419-966-3530 or Teresa Herzog at 989-652-8189 asap for there are limited spots available or click here to view the trip flyer in a new window.

Also, in January 2011, Squeezebox will be joining Gary’s Ridgeland Dutchmen and Barefoot Becky for a 7 day Caribbean cruise.  For more info, contact Ted, Gary or Becky, and we will be happy to get you a brochure or CLICK HERE to open a new window with the cruise flyer.

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MOLLIE IS NAMED 2008 USPA FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR