Four days, 36 bands and a sold-out crowd. That’s the short story of the “Mollie B Polka Party” taping that took place Thursday through Sunday, Aug. 8-11, at the Medina Entertainment Center ...

his son and two cousins joined him and formed a polka band, starting with gigs at the former Slovenian ballroom in Herminie. Today, Joe Jr. and his son Mike are both part of the house band at Hofb ...

Chris Bogdon was in first grade in his native Carnegie when he started taking accordion lessons. Steve Novosel, while growing up in Murrysville, took up the instrument at 9 years old. Both were raised ...

Like Gordon, Bogdon, 53, of Cranberry, grew up immersed in local polka music. His father fronted the Jimmy Bogdon Orchestra in the 1960s and ’70s and Jimmy always wanted his sons to play the ...

Concurrent with the emergence of the polka was the booming popularity of brass bands and the invention of a variety of squeeze boxes - accordions and concertinas. Innovative tinkerers in France ...

Charlie Braunreiter and I are several generations apart but we can agree on one thing: I don’t know much about old-time polka music and he doesn’t know much about music past the early ...