Greetings, Scandinavian Fans!

Booking Oktoberfest performances is in full swing right now.  I'm cramming every last performing opportunity into the months of September and October that I possibly can.  After all, it's the magical time of year when, as my late friend Lynn Schaefer used to say, "People may not like accordion music, but they tolerate it."  This is the one time of year that polka bands become rock stars and are in demand for their ability to play the Chicken Dance and Beer Barrel Polka.  In June nobody much cares if there's a polka band around but once fall arrives it's time to roll out the barrel.

The big events usually book several months in advance.  Those include the Leavenworth Oktoberfest.  The smaller local events usually start booking in July while the private parties wait until mid-August.  Right now I'm in the thick of sorting out all of the small events that we do during the week to fill in our performance calendar.  It's tricky to keep everything lined up and get musicians to fill in for all of the gigs since there are so many of them.  Not everyone in the band is able to make every gig which means I get to spend a lot of time on scheduling.  All of the time that I put into sorting out who is playing what on which gig is why I pay myself a bandleader's cut for most gigs.  Somebody has to spend their time contacting clients, writing contracts, sending information to musicians, and organizing everything.  Sometimes it's maddening tracking down all of the details but every time I step out on stage with the band I'm reminded of just how much it's worth it to do this part of the job.

Those purists among you have likely already paused to consider the question of why a nominally Scandinavian band is playing a German event like Oktoberfest.  The answer is because it's fun and pays well.  Oktoberfest is just another opportunity to have fun and share music.  We've got the right instruments and players to play Oktoberfest music so why not do it and have some fun at the same time?  I'll admit that it confuses some people to have a Scandinavian band play at Oktoberfest but almost everyone is willing to just go with it once they hear us play.

ALBUM UPDATE:  I finished all of the accordion tracks last week.  Our engineer, David Conley, is busy throwing down some guitar tracks.  Hopefully by Labor Day we'll have that done along with most of the vocals and clarinet/sax parts.  After that there will be a few more tracks that need to be finished but it should mostly be mixing and mastering by that point.  Hopefully we can finish the whole thing and have a completed product ready to sell by the end of the year.  Keep your eyes open for updates about the album as they come along.

That's all from me.  I have to get back to writing schedules.