LA GRANGE — The Fayette County Country Music Club will host its monthly opry June 15, at the Knights of Columbus Hall in La Grange. The show starts at 7 p.m., and the doors open at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $8.
Entertainers this month are, Off The Grid, Alvin Minarcik and Donnie Wavra.
Wolfgang, aka John Merz, Otto, aka Joe Klaus, and Hans, aka Mike Campasso, compose the musical trio of Off the Grid.
They say they will play anywhere there is electricity, beer and money and we are fortunate to have them appear at the opry. Merz plays the guitar, Klaus is the accordionist and Campasso plays the Zen drum, which is an instrument from Bavaria. They may play anything from zydeco and rock, from the chicken dance to Led Zeppelin, all played as polkas. They will throw in a little country, and some oldies, for good measure. You will not believe the sound that comes from this trio, and the humor that comes with it. You may have seen them at the Oktoberfest, or at one of the wineries in Fredericksburg, or a restaurant in New Braunfels, as they play somewhere every weekend. You will definitely enjoy their performance, so don’t’ miss it.
Minarcik is from the Fayetteville area. At the age of 13 he started taking piano lessons, and at the age of 15 he played the guitar and the saxophone in a high school band. As a senior in high school he played guitar with the Universal Sounds a rock band out of the Industry- Bellville area. In 1970, he started playing with the Variations, a family country band from the Willow Springs area. In the early 90’s he played accordion and played polka and waltz music with Gil Baca and Vernon Drozd and today he continues his music with the band called the Airplane Band and they play traditional country, rock, blues, Czech, German polkas waltzes and cajun music.
Joining Minarcik, will be Wavra, who is from the Columbus area. At the age of 13 he started playing with the Ellinger Combo, and later on with the Lee Roy Matocha Orchestra and with the Harold Ilse Orchestra. After the death of Harold Ilse he took over the band and named it the Donnie Wavra Orchestra and continued playing until 2016.
