LA GRANGE — The Fayette County Country Music Club will host a Polka Show on Monday, Nov.
17, at the Knights of Columbus Hall in La Grange. The show starts at 7 p.m. and the doors will open at 5:30 p.m.
Admission is $8.
Entertainers this month are Mark Halata, Tim and Alicia Kulhanek, and Kenneth Kristynik.
Halata was the Texas State Accordion Champion at the age of 13, and this didn’t exactly make him a big man on his junior high school campus during the MTV 80’s. Halata is unfashionably in tune with the Czech-Moravian music of his ancestry. He taught himself to play during his formative years. The songs he performs today are songs he has performed his entire life. Weekend trips to Moravia, Teas, and exposure to Texas polka bands such as Joe Patek, Wence Shimek and the Red Ravens kept Mark in touch with the music and culture that has always been a part of his life. As a teenager, he was exposed to other forms of accordion-flavored music. He is proficient in country Cajun, Zydeco, Tex-Mex and even rock’n’ roll. He has performed with the Rounders and the Tomeo Dogs, both hybrid retro country and roots rock bands. Halata would occasionally slip in a Czech polka to educate and entertain the crowds on the Texas roots rock circuit.
He has jammed with Dave Alvin and Los Lobos. In 1998, Texas Polish fiddler Brian Marshall wanted him to play on an acclaimed Polish roots CD. For Texavia, Halata wanted simple, uncluttered arrangements. He recruited renowned Austin bassist Mark Rubin from the band Bad Livers. It would be easier to list the people Mark Rubin hasn’t played with. On rhythm guitar and drums are Bruce and Jeff Brosch, respectively, sons of legendary Czech band leader Jimmy Brosch, who wrote the famous Corn Cockle Polka.
Kristynik has been entertaining since 1962. His accordion music and vocals have taken him from the Rio Grande Valley to Dallas, from Phoenix, Ariz., to Beaumont and many points in between. He has also performed on six Caribbean cruises. In the early years, he toured with the Music Ramblers. In 1980, he started playing with the Red Ravens and performed with them for 36 years. Currently, Kristynik is doing solo gigs and with his band, Lavaca County Line and occasionally with the Shiner Hobo Band. Kristynik plays the accordion, acoustic guitar, and the bass guitar, with a wide variety of polkas, waltzes, and classic country. His vocal talents include English, Czech, Spanish and German.
The Kulhanek’s live in the Lone Oak area, which is between Frelsburg and Fayetteville. They are members of The Lost Cause Band, which formed in 2014. The Lost Cause prides itself on being a variety band, which plays classic country, polkas & waltzes, and classic rock.
