MAESTRO’S MEN SONG
GOES WORLDWIDE

Chicago (PMN)—It is amazing the things that polka fans find and report about at the internet’s polka newsgroup. The same person who delved into the Brazilian polka phenomenon also explored the French polka scene. Unfortunately, he remains anonymous here, because he did not add his full name or location to his postings.

The polka fan stated, "Here's an amusing example of how a polka song can "get around" in the world: Today I clicked on a "YouTube Recommends" number entitled ‘Bal Polonais avec orchestre Opieka a Harnes’" The title was in French, because it is by a French-Polish polka band in France, but roughly means "Polish Dance with the Opieka and Harnes Orchestra."

After a short intro, the chorus of "Ale fajnie" ["But Cool"], the band launches into something they and posters commenting below, refer to as "Nowy Kraj Polka" ["New Country Polka"], but actually "Stary Kraj Polka" ["Old Country Polka"] by the Maestro’s Men from their "Decade" album of two years back.

This is no coincidence, it is that very number, not a borrowing from Polish folklore. It tells a story about Polish immigrants coming to the U.S., bringing their fiddles and keeping the music alive for generations to fit a King Brothers melody. Like most of the King Brothers songs, the words were in Russian and Polisky wanted a Polish vocal. The words in the French/Polish version are just changed slightly to say that the immigrants were in France, not America and that they kept playing their bandoneons (popular in French Polonia) instead of fiddles [skrzypce]in the Maestro’s Men’s version.

In the comments in Polish and French below the video, several people comment on how they like the song and the French band and one Polish Brazilian writes in Polish "We have Polish bands in Brazil, too, and they’re playing this song. It is interesting example of how "Polish" polka songs from this country can actually go around the world.

The newsgroup poster notes that "In decades past the rather large French-Polish field is known to have borrowed a lot of material from U.S. bands, such as Wisniewski and Wojnarowski, and evidently they’re still doing so, at least occasionally."