What does “making it” mean? My little band turned into a full-time job that turned into a 30-plus-year career which continues to provide me a decent living, with innumerable perks and constant creative outlets, but where is that on the “making it” scale? To this day Brave Combo has never had even a minor hit on the radio, although one of our songs did chart in top 100 on TokyoFM in Japan for two weeks once. Aside from a few edgy news clips here and there, MTV came and went without a peep from us or a peak at us. We’ve never been a musical guest on a major talk show, like THE TONIGHT SHOW or JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE. From a “main-stream success” point-of-view, we don’t exist and, really, never existed; no apparent impact, at all, on the hot ‘n happenin’ scene, at-large. On the other hand, we are in the ROLLING STONE HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL. We have won two Grammy Awards (nominated for seven). We were animated in an episode of THE SIMPSON’S (guaranteeing artistic immortality, as far as anyone who’s alive today is concerned). We’ve had our music in myriad movies and TV shows. One of our signature arrangements of a Christmas song was carbon-copy-covered by Bob Dylan, of all people. We are currently doing shows in Las Vegas with Drew Carey, of all people. I sign autographs on occasion, can usually sleep as late as I want and have long since abandoned the fantasy that I could keep up with stuff like email and phone calls (if I don’t get right back to you, please write or call again and scold me and I’ll probably respond immediately). I mean, how do you possibly find time for both HIGHWAY PATROL (that’s an old TV show for those of you don’t know and couldn’t care less) AND Facebook in one day? So, am I making it or not? Some people say to me, “Man, you guys have made it,” when they see us playing a sold-out show in Chicago or something. But, just as often, someone may say, “Man, you guys shoulda made it by now,” or something like that, “How come y’all’ve never been on LETTERMAN?” Just as interesting are the fans who exclaim, “You were great on LETTERMAN!” Can’t help but wonder who or what they saw. At a time like that it’s best to just say thank you, rather than correct them. First of all, that would be awkward for everyone involved, secondly, it would douse their enthusiasm and thirdly, saying nothing would guarantee that they’d continue to tell people how great Brave Combo was on LETTERMAN. To some musicians, actually, to many musicians, making a living playing one’s own music, as one wishes, defines “making it.” However, I’m not blind. I see pictures of the good life. You know, like Elton John hanging out with Dave Grohl and Toby Keith on the French Riviera. I hear stories about the lives of the rich and famous and laugh about how many animals my wife and I care for in relatively small (but paid-for) house. I mean, really, my life is a joke. And I don’t mean that disrespectfully toward my life. It just is what it is, which includes often being “ha-ha” funny. But, generally, it’s humble and simple, with struggles similar to anyone else in the so-called middle class these days. And not to belabor a point, but the animals do take up a lot of time. And caring for so many is emotionally taxing on a weekly, if not daily, basis. All the while, they crack me up. Every one of them. It’s the whole yin/yang thing. Each is a drag in his or her own special way, but it’s great fun to spend time with them. Dig? Whatever, in 2012 I can stay at home as much as I want, which, I guess, is a luxury, and I would assume might be a sign of “making it.” But I’m also very lucky that I have fairly low-brow tastes and little or no interest in stuff like jewelry, golf, vintage automobiles, good beer, fine wine, developing land, racing horses, sailing boats or flying private jets. The list of expensive tastes goes on and on. I wasn’t groomed to be the king of Texas or run an investment firm, you know. But, I do have a rather spectacular collection of music (all styles) and much of it is on vinyl. And Boz Skaggs dropped by one afternoon to check it out and talk about Latin rhythms once. This was about a week before David Byrne came over with the producer of SPINAL TAP to look at videos of are yodelers. But what does all of this mean? Am I making it or not?” I don’t have any real complaints about money, but I’m also not thinking about buying a Rolex or a Jaguar. But I probably wouldn’t buy either even if I had the money. My watch works just fine, as does my car.

MUSIC INDUSTRY INSIDER JOKE:
Famous Musician: Well, I guess it’s time to hit the road and start touring again.
Next-Door Neighbor: Oh, are you about to release a new recording?
Famous Musician: Nah, I just finally finished off all my little bottles of hotel shampoo.

As I’ve mentioned before, our friend, accordion genius, Guy Klucevsek, has a new album called THE MULTIPLE PERSONALITY REUNION TOUR. It’s an amazing piece of work and Brave Combo was fortunate enough to be invited to perform on half the album’s ear-tingling tracks. Well, that album is now available! Check it out here. And here’s a heads-up for our friends in Europe. Guy will be on tour somewhere near you the entire month of February (and a little beyond). http://www.guyklucevsek.com

Speaking of new albums, Brave Combo has been busy recording and we hope to have the new arrival in tangible (and download) form by the spring festival season. We’re well along, so I think this is totally possible. This will be our first release featuring Ginny on accordion. Have you heard Ginny play with us? Have you heard our six-piece mini-orchestra, which includes Jeff, Danny O. and Ginny playing some crazy stuff? Or how about when we add Danny J., from Wisconsin, to the mix or Joe on percussion, stretching the combo to seven member or eight members? Aren’t you curious? It’s a sound that excites, yet soothes. But what is the maximum number of musicians that can be in a combo? Can a “combo” have more than five or six members?

Okay, I can feel the tension mounting. I hear the rustle in the trees. 2012 gigs are starting to add up and some cool things are right around the corner. First, but not least, we are returning to Las Vegas in early February to, once again, make musical mayhem at the MGM Grand with Drew Carey and his fine bunch of IMPROV-A-GANZA buddies. If you happen to be rolling dice at the Luxor or Ceasar’s or something, stroll on over and catch one of the shows. And, in mid-February, our good friend, Mike Dillon comes to Denton for a Brave Combo/Mike Dillon Band show. And Mike and I hope to unveil a song or two from our new album project, which is only about eight years old now, but who cares? The show will be at Hailey’s on Friday, February 17. Big ol’ night of music guaranteed.

Before I sign off, here’s a video of one of our fans somewhere playing our version of “Breslau” on solo piano. Be not afraid, for what will be, will be.

Happy “dwindling days of 2011,” full of shopping, Santa, sad television, stories of Jesus, obligatory nods to the Menorah, doomsday predictions about 2012, the never-ending Republican Party presidential candidate droning and holiday-style eating. The texture of life has never been so crunchy, at least as far as I can tell. We all know this is a bad time to trust anyone, especially someone we don’t know, because we are in a desperate era and half our neighbors are probably bunko cons. Not only is the general population distrustful, it also feels scared and hopeless. The future looks bleak if you are a certain kind of person; someone who can’t accept the inevitability of change and still believes the Beaver Cleaver American Dream is synonymous with a life fulfilled. If your idea of “how things should be” looks like a big, beautiful, tree-dotted yard, surrounding a mansion, which contains your great-looking spouse and polite smiling children, then there’s a chance you’re not satisfied yet, probably not even close. But, I wish for you whatever you desire and the short-term peace that comes with it. Let’s face it. There are too many people and most of ‘em aren’t going anywhere, except somewhere to make more people. So that means that each piece of the pie just gets smaller and smaller, so it might be a good idea to change one’s expectations; to shift perspective. I mean, I don’t know why we’re here or if there’s any purpose to anything, but I do know that there are no guarantees you’ll get to be one of Garth Brooks’ grand kids. For myself, the goal is simple. Make it powerful, but make it musical. I can’t tell you why that’s a goal, but it is. I try to overlook the self-serving aspect to it and imagine that the simplicity of it makes it cosmicly life-affirming. Good for everyone, right? I mean, if I find something that I like and I excel at it, that’s a bonus for the universe, right? And, as an Artist, with a capital “A,” if I express my vision through my work, that’s important for all of humanity, even if what I do feels like goofing off much of the time, right? I hope the answer is yes, cause this is what I do. I have fun making music and it’s really not super tough. The band and I look for songs or write songs and figure out how we can best perform the songs and then we do just that. Of course, we might have to go to a lot of trouble to get to the place where we bring the songs to life and dress them up in bright colors. Unfortunately, everything but the musical part is hard. Bands have to physically move themselves, being blobs of matter, from where they live to various locations all over the place, through dense forests of Little Debbie snack displays. Plus a true musical performing Artist (with a capital “A”) has to “sell” the song, not just play the notes and mumble, which usually requires frequent attitude adjustments in order to summon the magic. And I’m not necessarily talking about the obvious stuff, like booze, uppers, downers, bennies or maryjane (been watching some old DRAGNET TV shows). Attitude adjustment could mean just that by itself. It could mean stopping whining and complaining and getting down to business. There’s a show to do. That’s what the fat man said.

Our seasonal rocker, “Hey, Little Dreidel,” from the album, HOLIDAYS, inexplicably, became one of the most requested songs of 2011 at station 965TheNoize in Las Vegas. I spoke to DJKlick recently and she excitedly let me know how much her listeners love the song. It’s a Hanukkah song, obviously. This is weird and what’s the deal with Vegas? We’re going back in February to do four more shows with Drew Carey at the MGM Grand. Maybe Las Vegas is our new Denton. Perhaps we should look over some off-the-strip properties in Sin City, rather than Branson, for our Brave Combo Theater.

Speaking of traveling and Branson-esqe things. I was in a store the other day, looking at a Christmas display and sniffed an evergreen-scented candle. The smell stayed with me the rest of the day. Not pleasant.

SONG OF THE YEAR. The world is full of music. Jam-packed full and some of it is fantastic. In fact, I would even venture to say that the world is full of fantastic music; more than any one person can take in. I often listen via an app called Tune-in Radio. It’s amazing. I can even listen to the Denton Police Department dispatcher, if I want. But I find myself most usually drawn to the domestic polka stations (shocked?), Russian stations, Eastern European and Balkan region Stations (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland), Regional Tejano/Conjunto stations, Hawaiian stations, some Middle Eastern stations and, on occasion, African, Haitian or Dominican stations. And I listen to a fair amount of South American and Mexican stuff. What can I say? I listen to a lot of music. But, there can be only one Song of the Year. And the winner is obvious. It’s “Polka Never Dies” by the Vancouver, BC band, The Dreadnoughts. It’s the perfect blend of rock/pop and polka. It works on so many levels. It seems that the band was touring a lot in Eastern Europe and, apparently, as I’ve reported here in recent installments of the Machine’s Pump, many of the young rock bands in that part of the world are now heavily influenced by that relentless 2/4 polka beat. Anyway, the sound got under The Dreadnoughts’ skin and “Polka Never Dies” is the result. I’m not sure how aware they are of Brave Combo, if at all, but, man, they sure sound a lot like us, but that could be total “sign of the times” coincidence. I highly recommend that you check out the song and the band out YouTube. http://youtu.be/FzEfI72HyCY

Speaking of Beauty, another growing trend in Europe is a polka movement that’s more about disco or disco pop. Slovenian bands, such as The Turbo Angels or Atomic Harmonik, represent that bass drum heavy, shiny, happy, dance-floor snappy, Abba-influenced polka style perfectly. This particular sound comes from disco, in general, but more specifically, from the new German Oktoberfest Oberkrainer groove. It’s a polka with a disco drum beat. Oddly enough, it’s actually been around for decades and in the 1980s Myron Floren, I believe, released an album called DISCO POLKA, which was just what I described – a polka with a disco drum pattern. This is blowing your mind, right? Nostradamus and The Mayans predicted it, too.

Accordion Tribe-ster and Brave Combo ally, Guy Klucevsek will be releasing his amazing new album, THE MULTIPLE PERSONALITY REUNION TOUR, in early January. Do whatever is necessary to hear this thing. And I’m not just saying this because we, Brave Combo, played brilliantly on half of it. It’s just a damn good piece of work. Guy is one of the world’s finest accordionists and we are honored that he asked us to play on this masterpiece.

Speaking of work, although BC is entering the slowest time of the year, there are still gigs popping up and a trip to our itinerary page is always in order. Plus, we are about to begin slaving over our own new album, emotionally draining every crevice of our being for your ears. Thank you for appreciating the sacrifices we make. Here’s to 2012! High Hopes/Low Expectations. Whatever, it’s still polka time, Baby!