The Chardon Polka Band

The Chardon Polka Band is an American, Ohio-based, Cleveland-Style polka band. It was started by Jake Kouwe in 2003 when he recruited four other teenagers to form a polka band at Chardon High School, and the group was originally called "The Chardon High School Polka Band" and included an accordion, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, electric guitar, and tuba.^[1][2][3] The group got their start in the school's music room and played at local senior centers and nursing homes in the Chardon area.^[4][5][6] Kouwe cites Weird Al Yankovic as his inspiration for playing the accordion as he started lessons on the accordion after seeing Yankovic in a VH1 special.^[4] The popular satirist remains a role model for The Chardon Polka Band.^[7] The band had slowly gained notoriety among Polka fans and in the Cleveland music scene in general, but got mainstream attention when they were featured in a reality show named Polka Kings on Reelz in 2015, even though the show was quickly cancelled.^{[4][8][9][10][11][12][13]} The band currently plays over 200 shows a year and has grown to be one of the Cleveland music scene's most recognizable performers but also tours nationally and headlines many of the nation's top folk festival and Oktoberfest celebrations, playing a mixture of original music, classic polkas, and covers of pop songs.^{[1][3][8][14][15]}The band has released five full-length albums, all independently, three of which were nominated for a Polka Hall of Fame award for either the album or one or more songs.

Band members

• Jacob Kouwe - Lead vocals and Accordion
• Emily Kouwe - Saxophone, flute
• Mike Franklin - Lead and backup vocals, Banjo, and guitar
• Joe Dahlhausen - drums
• Mitch Lawrence - Saxophone

Past members

• Paul Coates - Sousaphone/tuba, electric guitar
• Paul "Pops" Magooch - drums

Awards and Media coverage

• The Polka Hall of Fame has nominated the band in 3 separate years.
  • In 2011, the band's first single Free Beer Polka was nominated for best Best New Original Song.^[16]
  • In 2013, A Fistful Of Polka & Bring Me More Beer were both nominated for Best New Original Song and the band was nominated for Band of the Year.^[17]
  • In 2016, You Can't Drink Beer In Outher Space was nominated for Best New Original Song and the album World War Polka was nominated for recording of the year.^[18]
• The band created an pilot for a variety program called “Lights! Camera! Polka!” in 2017. The show is an assortment of performances, humor, and education.^[19]
• The band was the subject of a 16 episode reality show named Polka Kings on Reelz in 2015.^{[4][8][9][10][11][12][13]}
• The band has produced over a dozen music videos. A few of these videos: Squeeze Box, O Tannenbaum, The Krampus Song, and Jingle Bells were made in a clay animation style by superdaddytv.com, the latter three of which were included in a 30-minute Holiday Special.^[20]
• The band was featured nationally on Here and Now (NPR) in 2015.^[21]
• The band was on and episode of Trip Flip (Travel Channel) named "Ohio: Polka Plane Plunge" in 2015.^[22]
• Jacob Kouwe was named one of Cleveland's Most Interesting People 2015 due to the success of the band.^[9]

Discography

• Pirates, Women, and Beer (2009)
• A Fistful of Polka (2013)
• This is Oktoberfest (Recorded Live at the Helen, Georgia Oktoberfest, 2014)
• Polka Round the Christmas Tree (Christmas Album, 2015)
• World War Polka (Released Dyngus Day, 2016)

References

External links

• Official website
• The Chardon Polka Band's channel on YouTube