This week's installment of the Polka Hole features a cassette tape my beautiful girlfriend Danielle purchased for me for my birthday. How exciting! The title of this tape is Slovenefest Potpourri "Polkas and Waltzes", or at least that's what I thought it was. While uploading the tape, I realized that Slovenefest Potpourri wasn't the name of one single act, but, as a matter of fact, was a compilation featuring several different polka musicians. Ooops. I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal if I didn't list every single musician. This way, the album can be downloaded in a single, tiny package. Now isn't that nice? I thought so too.
So you may be asking yourself, "What is Slovenefest?". Well, Slovenefest is an annual festival held by the Slovene National Benefit Society, also known as the Slovenska Narodna Podporna Jednota, or the SNPJ. According to the SNPJ's website, the organization was founded in 1904 with the intent to offer affordable life insurance to Slovenian immigrants. Cool! Polkaing against Polio. Book it.
So, back to the tape. Lots of good stuff on here. In fact, it even features Canada's Polka King, Walter Ostanek. Judging by the album cover, I assume he's the one in the bottom left hand corner. That guy looks like he should be a king. I wonder how he acquired that title. I assume that with all the beer our best buds in Canada enjoy there must be A LOT of polka musicians.
I made sure to get this tape up in time for a pretty good reason, the final song on the album. Titled "Night in May Waltz", I didn't know of a better time to release this to your ears. Pop this song onto your MP3 player or into your Walkman and enjoy the rest of this beautiful month!
Download it here:
