Tails From
The Top Dog

9/1/04
Hey my Polka people,

Our trip to Cotati was a lot of fun and we had a pretty good time playing too! Cotati is located a little north of San Francisco and of course what should have been a 45 minute drive from the airport to the hotel was an hour and a half drive but, that's just California for you.

After crossing the Golden Gate bridge on our way into the city on Friday night, we headed to a store called Lark In The Morning, which has all kinds of ethnic instruments from around the world. I got Lynn to play a Harmonium, which is the predecessor to the accordion. I know that most of you think the accordion is it's own instrument, but it's actually based on the Harmonium which is native to India. It had a great sound and it wasn't as expensive as an accordion so, who knows, maybe we'll have a little East Indian/Polka on the next record. I'm sure you can't wait! We had a good dinner down at the docks. I think we all had seafood except for Tim who can't seem to pry loose of his affinity for chicken fingers.

Saturday we went to the "Peanuts Museum". Lynn found out that this tribute to Charles Schulz was only a few miles from where we were staying and took us there as a surprise. What a great place, if you ever get the chance to go, we highly recommend that you do. Lots of interesting stories and facts not only from the museum , but from the employees there, most of whom knew and were friends with Mr. Schulz personally. From the we traveled to the St. Francis winery and sampled some good, better and best wines. We also learned that 1997 and 2000 were great years for wine and that 2004 is expected to be another great year, so look for those years next time your shopping for a good vintage.

Finally, the afternoon of the first show arrived and whenever you're doing a fly date and using rental gear, there's always a little apprehension until you see what you're going to get. Then you're just plain disappointed! Our new drummer, Dave Vaughan, was none too enthused with the clear shelled Ludwig kit, courtesy of the '70's, with heads from the same era!! But, "Young Dave" as we call him, pulled it off and is now thoroughly steeped in the Polka counter culture.

Cotati is not your typical "Polka" town. It seemed like there were a lot of folks there who's guitar heroes of the '60's are dead, so they've turned to their accordion heros! Our version of the Who's "Mama's Got A Squeeze Box" never went over so well as it did in Cotati! At times, by the way some folks were dancing, I would have sworn we were at a Greatful Dead concert. It just goes to show, that you don't always have to Polish Hop to Polka music......Lynn.....Marie! There's also the lesser known "Free Form Hop" which is based on inebriation!

We also got to see our old pal Dick Contino, who still puts on a great show and along with his band, was very complimentary of our stuff as well. The next night's show was a little better as we knew what to expect. So "Young Dave" was ready with his best rendition of classic '70's drummer licks even though "Young Dave" wasn't born until the '80's!

All in all a good trip and we thank the people of the Cotati Accordion Festival for having us and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Next stop, Sandy Oregon. Where "Young Dave" will have his next adventure with........"RENTAL GEAR"..stay tuned!

AMF,
CK

Best Line of the whole trip and the only one worth repeating -

"He was having something with a head on it, but it wasn't a Guinness"