News
TCHCC Honors Polka Music Legends
The Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center in La Grange hosted its annual gala on Saturday, Dec. 5. During the event the organization honored three mainstays of the Texas polka music scene: polka DJ Larry Sodek, the Harold Strand Orchestra and the Ellinger Combo.
Eins, Zwei, Cha, Cha, Cha
Out of the smoldering ashes of a gloomy dance summer, on an equally gloomy first day of winter weather, a new polka band has emerged. In a time when the future of polka music is cloudy, three young men and a lady have forged ahead with a band that they call the Pivo and Polka Band (PPB).
Ellinger Combo
Ellinger, Texas is a small community in eastern Fayette County near the railroad where early Czech settlers got off the train to start a new life in Central Texas. Among other things Czech it is the hometown of the Ellinger Combo. The name implies the sound of a jazz group playing in a cocktail lounge, but the band is far from that. To define the group, here is an abridged version of the liner notes from the Ellinger Combo's very first album From Ellinger With Love which was produced and recorded at the Ray Doggett Sound Studio in 1968.
The Harold Strand Orchestra
Harold Strand immigrated to Texas at the request of the federal government and never left. Harold, a Minnesota native had joined the Air Force after high school and was quickly relocated to the sunny south of Waco, Texas in 1953. Growing up in a small Minnesota town, there were only Scandinavian and German/Czech families about. He, of Norwegian heritage, was amazed at the many different cultures that Texas held.