Used Record Finds...

A quick tour of the thrift stores in search of Halloween costume accessories not only turned up a few accessories for a barely controlled dress up habit but there was some fertile plowing of the used record boxes. 

I have been playing in a polka band and the Salvation army store yielded these gems. If you are in a Hawaiian band there is stuff down there for you and you better hurry because all it would take is a uke played and my lap steel tuned to C6th and I'm doing that also. 

Note the Lil Wally record/ Recorded in Chicago on the Jay Jay label. Record company address is listed as Kedzie Ave. which is a street we walk across on the way to the park from the PK house. Apparently still actively selling Wall who passed in 2006 you can get 5 of his releases in their I tunes store. Wall released 150 albums, had 17 gold records and 4 platinum records. That's some mailbox money there. He was know as as the King of the Chicago Polka playing up and down what was known as the Polish Boardwalk and was credited with creating the Chicago style by slowing tempos to what he considered a more danceable pace.   

Al Grebnick is in the Nebraska Polka Hall of fame. He released 15 albums, numerous singles, 8 tracks and cassettes, toured the states and Czechoslovakia where he was always on the look out for new songs. He was a clarinet player and there is good tuba on this record.  

I'm guessing both records from the 50s and they are heavy duty carbon footprint vinyl. 

The two other polka records are by Frankie Yankovich and Henry Tannenberger. Frankie is  no relation to weird Al although they have worked together and is an accordion player in the Slovenian style known as America's Polka King.  Henry was a Texas boy and while I could not find much about him on the internet other than he led the band for 60 years until he passed in 2011 in Houston, He did play in the German style performing country western music as well as polkas and waltzes. His contact info on the album jacket is East 14th Street in Houston and the Guide Record Company and Doggett Music Ent. is listed as an address at 1045 Studewood, Houston Tx. That's in the Heights and apparently a place called Red Dessert Dive is at that location now. 

Rounding out my finds and these were from The Women's Shelter Thrift Store. At about $2 each they were a little pricy as opposed to the Sallie's .50 cents but the condition of the record is consistent with that price range.  They are not polkas.

We have an Orson Welles satire on LBJ and the election of Richard Nixon which I have not listen to yet but is reported to be delivered in the Biblical style. Although it's hard to verify the timeline of events Nixon was known for keeping an enemies list and Welles  was subject to a tax audit after the albums release. Just seemed like something that should be in my collection.  

Also found was a Woody Herman, Tito Fuente and Charlie Byrd release that looks to be worth $6-$20 on ebay and streams free on Amazon. It's significant because in 1972 the University of Houston sponsored a band day where about 6 high school bands massed on the field at the halftime of a UH game and accompanied Woody and the Head in a few of their tunes. I was in that mass of band students that day. I jammed with Woody just like Tito and Charlie did on this record.   

Next up is a Jimmie Rogers. I thought at first Jimmie Rogers,  one of the Kings of Country Music but instead a folk singer. Win some lose some.  

Also found was this Baja Marimba Band, Do you Know the Way to San Jose? I remember these tunes on the old KTRE (my memory might have these call letters wrong) radio station. Many of the musicians on this were studio musicians who played on all your favorite pop hits of the 60s. It was a good clean record and I recorded it with mu usb turntable before giving it to Miguel. I help him build his collection in this genre where I can.   The guy taking a whizz in the background is a reoccurring theme on all their album covers.