Cheese, beer, brats, landjaegers, braetzlies - yodeling, accordions, polkas - food and music reflect local culture. A colorful, historic cultural identity defines a region and enhances its quality of life.
The Smithsonian exhibit, "Key Ingredients," currently on display at the Brodhead Public Library, features local food traditions. The Roger Bright Memorial Polkafest at New Glarus this weekend features music reflecting our Swiss culture. While we owe this legacy to many past and current performers, two names stand out - Rudy Burkhalter and Roger Bright.
Rudy was born in 1911 in Basel, Switzerland, on the banks of the Rhine. He started playing his father's small button accordion at an early age. He was soon entertaining and winning prizes at competitions.
By listening to the radio, he picked up Strauss waltzes and music of Wagner. Upon hearing young Rudy playing this music on his accordion, a music critic recommended him to the Basel Music Conservatory where he learned music theory and the art of composition.
Rudy accompanied other musicians, and soon became known throughout Switzerland. In 1928, he accompanied the Moser Brothers and toured America, including his first Cheese Days celebration in Monroe.
He returned to Switzerland, continuing his apprenticeship with a travel agency, and his music. He left again for America with the Moser Brothers to entertain at the World's Fair in Chicago. Some curious young ladies doubted the authenticity of these entertainers. One of them, a Swedish schoolteacher from Minnesota, had the audacity to ask Rudy if they were real Schweitzers. Rudy was quite taken by this young lady, Frances, and invited her to dinner.
Rudy returned to Switzerland and resumed his music along with apprenticeship in the travel agency. He maintained contact with Frances.
With fellow musicians, Rudy traveled Switzerland and Europe, enhancing his reputation. He recalls an evening during the 1930s entertaining in Berlin, with Hermann Goering in the audience. Then there was the night in Nuremberg when from his hotel room he heard a commotion outside. It was a bunch of SS marching up the street, carrying torches and singing. Although neither he nor the Moser Brothers were Jewish, Rudy recalls it as a very frightening experience.
Rudy and Frances were married in Switzerland in 1937, and in 1938 moved to Madison. Between the Great Depression and hovering war clouds, the travel business was slow going. Rudy started teaching accordion lessons throughout the region. He came down to Monroe once a week. I still remember his first studio on the second floor of a building on the north side of the Square. Within a few years he had many students. I still have one of Rudy's postcards written to me by Frances - circa 1943.
Rudy collaborated with local talent including Betty Kneubuehl, Martha Bernet, and the Edelweiss Stars, to compose music, record, and entertain. One evening Rudy got a phone call- from Walt Disney Studios. Annette Funicello and the Mouseketeers were coming to southern Wisconsin for a series, "Adventures in Dairyland." Could Rudy compose a song for that series? That is the origin of the local favorite, "Teach Me How to Yodel." It will surely be performed this weekend.
Several of Rudy's students, Billy Lehr, Billy Hartwig, and later, Henry Blumer, formed bands of their own. Another student, Yvonne Metz, started her own studio in Orangeville.
In the mid-1940s, a kid from Argyle, Roger Bright, started taking lessons from Rudy. Roger quickly took to the accordion and recorded some traditional Swiss songs at the age of 19. Roger later joined the nationally known Polka King, Frankie Yankovic. It was Yankovic, son of a Slovenian immigrant, who popularized the lively Slovenian-style polka. Although Yankovic was already well-known by the late 1940s, the "Blue Skirt Waltz," and the polka, "Just Because," recorded on Columbia propelled him to stardom.
After a year with Yankovic, Roger came back to Wisconsin and performed at the New Glarus Hotel. Roger brought back the lively, energizing, Yankovic, Slovenian style. He collaborated with yodeler Robbie Schneider to produce an ingenious blend of Swiss and Slovenian polkas and waltzes. It is doubtlessly the several albums Roger recorded with Robbie Schneider with which he is so closely identified.
Accompanying Roger on most of his recordings is one of Roger's classmates, Karl Gmur. Cliff Penniston, David Broderson and Denny Anderson have also accompanied Roger on many of his recordings.
The second accordion on many of Roger's recordings is one of the nation's premier accordionists, Joey Miskulin. Joey is one of Yankovic's protégés, now based in Nashville, featured on "Riders in the Sky." Whenever you hear accordion accompaniment on country music, it is doubtlessly Miskulin.
David Austin is another excellent accordionist who plays in the Miskulin style. David has several recordings of his own and has accompanied Roger Bright and many other musicians. David accompanies Toni Blum Seitz on her "Yodels from Swissconsin" CD.
The late Verne Meisner from Whitewater featured the Slovenian style. His talented son, Steve, carries on the tradition. Keith Zweifel is a local accordionist who, with his brother Mike, performs in the Slovenian style, as does Greg Anderson. Grant Kozera of Milwaukee is one of Yankovic's protégés. He has recorded with Yankovic and has his own recordings.
My friend and neighbor, Gary Hendrickson, is one of the finest banjo and guitar players around. He has accompanied Roger Bright, Steve Meisner, David Austin, the Zweifel Brothers, and many other well-known artists.
Austin, Kozera, Gmur, Meisner, Hendrickson, and the Zweifel Brothers, Penniston, Broderson and Denny Anderson - they are all interconnected in one way or another to Polka King Frankie Yankovic and to our local icons, Rudy Burkhalter and Roger Bright. They all capture their audiences with infectious enthusiasm and superb talent. And - it's a golden opportunity to see them all perform in person this weekend in New Glarus.
Rudy and Roger - they have left us a proud and colorful legacy. And we are fortunate to have such fine artists honoring them at the Roger Bright Memorial Polkafest.
Don't miss it.
- Monroe resident John Waelti can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
The Smithsonian exhibit, "Key Ingredients," currently on display at the Brodhead Public Library, features local food traditions. The Roger Bright Memorial Polkafest at New Glarus this weekend features music reflecting our Swiss culture. While we owe this legacy to many past and current performers, two names stand out - Rudy Burkhalter and Roger Bright.
Rudy was born in 1911 in Basel, Switzerland, on the banks of the Rhine. He started playing his father's small button accordion at an early age. He was soon entertaining and winning prizes at competitions.
By listening to the radio, he picked up Strauss waltzes and music of Wagner. Upon hearing young Rudy playing this music on his accordion, a music critic recommended him to the Basel Music Conservatory where he learned music theory and the art of composition.
Rudy accompanied other musicians, and soon became known throughout Switzerland. In 1928, he accompanied the Moser Brothers and toured America, including his first Cheese Days celebration in Monroe.
He returned to Switzerland, continuing his apprenticeship with a travel agency, and his music. He left again for America with the Moser Brothers to entertain at the World's Fair in Chicago. Some curious young ladies doubted the authenticity of these entertainers. One of them, a Swedish schoolteacher from Minnesota, had the audacity to ask Rudy if they were real Schweitzers. Rudy was quite taken by this young lady, Frances, and invited her to dinner.
Rudy returned to Switzerland and resumed his music along with apprenticeship in the travel agency. He maintained contact with Frances.
With fellow musicians, Rudy traveled Switzerland and Europe, enhancing his reputation. He recalls an evening during the 1930s entertaining in Berlin, with Hermann Goering in the audience. Then there was the night in Nuremberg when from his hotel room he heard a commotion outside. It was a bunch of SS marching up the street, carrying torches and singing. Although neither he nor the Moser Brothers were Jewish, Rudy recalls it as a very frightening experience.
Rudy and Frances were married in Switzerland in 1937, and in 1938 moved to Madison. Between the Great Depression and hovering war clouds, the travel business was slow going. Rudy started teaching accordion lessons throughout the region. He came down to Monroe once a week. I still remember his first studio on the second floor of a building on the north side of the Square. Within a few years he had many students. I still have one of Rudy's postcards written to me by Frances - circa 1943.
Rudy collaborated with local talent including Betty Kneubuehl, Martha Bernet, and the Edelweiss Stars, to compose music, record, and entertain. One evening Rudy got a phone call- from Walt Disney Studios. Annette Funicello and the Mouseketeers were coming to southern Wisconsin for a series, "Adventures in Dairyland." Could Rudy compose a song for that series? That is the origin of the local favorite, "Teach Me How to Yodel." It will surely be performed this weekend.
Several of Rudy's students, Billy Lehr, Billy Hartwig, and later, Henry Blumer, formed bands of their own. Another student, Yvonne Metz, started her own studio in Orangeville.
In the mid-1940s, a kid from Argyle, Roger Bright, started taking lessons from Rudy. Roger quickly took to the accordion and recorded some traditional Swiss songs at the age of 19. Roger later joined the nationally known Polka King, Frankie Yankovic. It was Yankovic, son of a Slovenian immigrant, who popularized the lively Slovenian-style polka. Although Yankovic was already well-known by the late 1940s, the "Blue Skirt Waltz," and the polka, "Just Because," recorded on Columbia propelled him to stardom.
After a year with Yankovic, Roger came back to Wisconsin and performed at the New Glarus Hotel. Roger brought back the lively, energizing, Yankovic, Slovenian style. He collaborated with yodeler Robbie Schneider to produce an ingenious blend of Swiss and Slovenian polkas and waltzes. It is doubtlessly the several albums Roger recorded with Robbie Schneider with which he is so closely identified.
Accompanying Roger on most of his recordings is one of Roger's classmates, Karl Gmur. Cliff Penniston, David Broderson and Denny Anderson have also accompanied Roger on many of his recordings.
The second accordion on many of Roger's recordings is one of the nation's premier accordionists, Joey Miskulin. Joey is one of Yankovic's protégés, now based in Nashville, featured on "Riders in the Sky." Whenever you hear accordion accompaniment on country music, it is doubtlessly Miskulin.
David Austin is another excellent accordionist who plays in the Miskulin style. David has several recordings of his own and has accompanied Roger Bright and many other musicians. David accompanies Toni Blum Seitz on her "Yodels from Swissconsin" CD.
The late Verne Meisner from Whitewater featured the Slovenian style. His talented son, Steve, carries on the tradition. Keith Zweifel is a local accordionist who, with his brother Mike, performs in the Slovenian style, as does Greg Anderson. Grant Kozera of Milwaukee is one of Yankovic's protégés. He has recorded with Yankovic and has his own recordings.
My friend and neighbor, Gary Hendrickson, is one of the finest banjo and guitar players around. He has accompanied Roger Bright, Steve Meisner, David Austin, the Zweifel Brothers, and many other well-known artists.
Austin, Kozera, Gmur, Meisner, Hendrickson, and the Zweifel Brothers, Penniston, Broderson and Denny Anderson - they are all interconnected in one way or another to Polka King Frankie Yankovic and to our local icons, Rudy Burkhalter and Roger Bright. They all capture their audiences with infectious enthusiasm and superb talent. And - it's a golden opportunity to see them all perform in person this weekend in New Glarus.
Rudy and Roger - they have left us a proud and colorful legacy. And we are fortunate to have such fine artists honoring them at the Roger Bright Memorial Polkafest.
Don't miss it.
- Monroe resident John Waelti can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
