Blog You can't do the "Beer Barrel Polka" at the Grammys

When the Grammys take place for the 52nd time on Sunday, it will be the first show in 24 years to not have a category honoring Best Polka Album. According to The Recording Academy, polka isn’t “representative of the current musical landscape.” (You know, like Herbie Hancock’s Joni Mitchell tribute album, which beat out Kanye West, Foo Fighters, and Amy Winehouse for Album Of The Year in 2008.) It is the only category among 110 to get the boot this year, so it certainly looks like the academy is picking on polka. Not that the polka world was used to being taken seriously.

Even in Milwaukee, where Frankie Yankovic was crowned the Polka King in 1948, a polka haven like Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall is a novelty. (And even Kochanski's relegates polka night to Wednesdays; the rest of its schedule features other genres.) You can find polka bands at fish-fries, like at Lakefront Brewery or the Bavarian Inn, but it's not the norm, and only a handful of radio stations around Wisconsin devote a couple of hours on weekend mornings to accordion-fueled tunes. If Wisconsin can’t keep polka relevant, how can we expect the Grammys to honor it?

Some in the polka world aren’t taking the Grammy slight well. “It’s devastating,” Grammy-winning polka artist Carl Finch told the New York Times last June. “Polka is so misunderstood, you know, the butt of jokes. Having a polka category was the most important step to legitimacy that we could ever hope to achieve. To have that taken away, it’s like it was all for nothing.” Still, it’s not like this is coming totally out of left field. According to the Times story, only 20 albums were considered for the polka category in 2006, and only one of the five nominees had national distribution.

Polka is certainly not mainstream, but there still is an undeniably strong (though small) base of polka enthusiasts out there. In Milwaukee, there may not exactly be a resurgence of polka, but there’s definitely a growing interest in the accordion. The Milwaukee Accordion Club— formed not in the ’40s but in the ’90s—boasts 250 members. Local songstress Pezzettino seems permanently attached to her accordion, and while she doesn’t play a lick of polka, she’s certainly put her instrument on the local music scene’s radar.

In the end, maybe it doesn’t really matter if polka isn’t recognized with a Grammy. What did 24 years of Best Polka Album honors (most of which went to bandleader Jimmy Sturr) do for the music anyhow? Maybe this Grammy dis is exactly the kick in the pants all those starving artists out there need to create the next polka masterpiece. In the meantime, we hope ol’ Jimmy Sturr won’t miss out on the annual encouragement.