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Wurstfest!!!!!

The Mighty Alex Meixner Band closed out the 2010 Oktoberfest season with our regular trip to New Braunfels, TX for Wurstfest. This year, being the 50th Anniversary, was an extra special year. I wish I could remember to write about all of the special moments, people and music that was shared and celebrated- but suffice to say, this was the most successful of all of my trips to TX. I am overwhelmed and very gracious for the hospitality that was extended to my band and I. There are a bunch of posts on our Facebook fan site and videos are being posted on You Tube by numerous people…..

I look forward to hopefully returning next year and seeing y’all again… In the meantime, thank you again for your support… I have a few weeks off at home, before hitting the road for continuing recording sessions for the next studio album and some Christmas performances….

All the best to everyone, alex

Rolling through the Northeast….

Oktoberfest season is really rocking for The Alex Meixner Band here in the northeast. From the Newport, RI Oktoberfest to Stoudt’s Brewery in Adamstown, PA we have been treated to some really rocking audiences! It really feels like the audiences are growing overall for the band—both with the young and old. Thanks to everyone who is coming out and digging the shows. Looking forward to the remaining shows for this tour in NY, NJ and of course Texas!!

Wurstfest! In Image and Sound!

Oktoberfest season is well under way! We just had a great stretch in Helen, GA and there’s more to come! One of my favorite festivals every year is Wurstfest in New Braunfels, TX.

Last year, I had the great pleasure to meet photographer, Johannes Arlt, at Wurstfest. This year, Johannes has a special exhibit at The German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven, Germany. The multi-sensory exhibit will feature pictures from Wurstfest past as well as music from your very own, Alex Meixner! You can find Johannes’ story for Wurstfest last year here.

Get ready! We’ll be back in New Braunfels this year for Wurstfest Oct. 29th through Nov. 3rd. If you’re not in the area, we’ll be up and down the East Coast all Oktoberfest season. Check out http://www.alexmeixner.com for more details!

See you on the road!

alex

Videos from the Road

I’ve really been having a blast on the road this summer so I thought that I should post some fan videos of our performances:

Barbes 8/7/2010

Hunter Mountain 8/14/2010

Cotati Accordion Festival 8/22/2010

If you have any film or photos, I would love to see them! You can send them to me at alex@alexmeixner.com or post them on my Facebook Page.

…and since it is the Oktoberfest season, be sure to check out http://www.alexmeixner.com to find out if I will be near your town soon. 🙂

alex

Cotati!

This place is really special! I don’t think there is another place where the stage and audience can appreciate a rapper in 7/8 time, an Italian polka band, Gypsy jazz and Irish punkers all with accordion being played on every song (Mandated in all the performer’s contracts!). As always, the Cotati Accordion Festival did not disappoint. The weather might have been a little rainy on Saturday morning—but miraculously when the Alex Meixner Band hit the stage, the sun came out and was perfect for the rest of the weekend!

It was great to visit with so many of my friends out in Northern California and to present the current band to the Cotati audience. We got a great response from everyone with our shows and enjoyed jamming with a myriad of cool accordionists from around the world. On Saturday, it was a particularly good to meet up with the guys from Accordion Noir Radio and their band The Creaking Planks… check em out….both the show and the band…. On Sunday, of course, it was a total honor to share the stage with my good friend Max Baca and Los Texmaniacs. I also got to jam with them (including the great accordionist David Farias), Tara Linda and the legendary Flaco Jimenez. Great times….

Looking forward to getting home for a bit… playing a little duo gig with my buddy Joe Oberaitis and getting some time with the family…

alex

More Miles of Fun….

I’ve been very bad at reporting from the road these days… Without a doubt,
these trips lately have been busier than ever– which is definitely a good
thing, except for scheduling sleep and down time!

With a quick recap– I had a nice little solo concert at Barbes on the 7th.
As always, that venue attracts a unique audience of music lovers and is a
fun stretch out for me. The Musikfest jazz brunch was a nice standards gig
that was well attended…. Fort even got to play the last 20 minutes after
his car was towed to get a new alternator! (We got him back on the road to
Williamsport in time to play an 8pm show with his other band too!) The solo
show at Musikfest Volksplatz on Monday the 9th included some duets with my good friend/ great accordionist and composer- Dallas Vietty…. very nice!
Despite some issues with El Chavalon’s luggage from Delta (Boo Hiss!), we
made it Manistee, MI for a fun Tues afternoon polka party at the Little
River Casino and Resort… thanks to Virgil for lining us up… we look
forward to returning sometime in 2011…

2 days of recording in Detroit with the beginnings of the next album, were
followed by a great weekend back east. The Evergreen club in Fleetwood was packed for our Friday the 13th gig. A great dancing audience and good time was had by all… We then headed up to Hunter, NY for our first appearance at the German Alps Festival. It was a fun time sharing the stage with the great entertainers and jamming with my friend, Die Schlauberger. Of course, the great weather didn’t hurt the attendance either! Unfortunately, our good weather didn’t follow to Bethlehem Musikfest for closing day/night. Luckily, we still had a wonderfully, receptive crowd and enjoyed the best sound crews the festival has ever had at both Volksplatz (thanks Dave, as always!) and Festplatz.

Now, I’m in California! A fun reunion job with my dear friends- The Balich
Family on Thursday at Little Switzerland, had a full house… Last night was
a blast at Teske’s Germania for the band in San Jose and Saturday/ Sunday
we’re playing at the Cotati Accordion Festival…. if you’re around come
check out the fun…

Hope to see ya down the road…alex

Musings as I get ready for the next road trip…..

I’ve been a little out of the loop lately- so I apologize for those that I haven’t been on top of e-mails and facebook messages with…. I’ve enjoyed some down time with the family (or up time when it comes to keeping up with the speed of my Zoey Boey Woey!) and have also had a nice stretch of writing time in my home studio. Unfortunately this was also countered with a nasty summer flu. Hopefully that’s gone away and isn’t shared by anyone else in our house!

While I was relaxing a bit, I got the chance to watch a dvd that my buddy Tom Kowalski- Chicago gave me. He had a whole bunch of video clips of classic Polish bands at Polkabration with a great soundtrack of classic, live Happy Louie. I’m guessing that most of the stuff was from the 1980s, so figuratively speaking not too long ago—although there was probably some stuff from the 1970s in there too… The crowds were amazing! Not just in the sheer size of the audiences, but in their enthusiasm and overall energy. The bands definitely fed off those audiences too, with very animated performances as well. In other words people were having fun—which is why many of us go out to festivals and clubs for live shows. I think we, as musicians and as audiences, need to remember to enjoy ourselves more at these events…. I know I do everything I can to make sure that we’re having a good time!

With that being said, I’m getting ready for the next round of tour gigs. I’ll be heading to NY, PA, MI and CA in the next few weeks for a wide variety of gigs. Peppered amidst the festivals and few club dates are a few “serious” jobs. I say serious, because rather than the normal, sweat-drenched, head bobbing, polka mayhem of the Alex Meixner Band—these are more concert like settings, where I sit down and play a program on accordion that blurs the line between ethnic folk-jazz-classical and other stuff. Although I take all of my gigs seriously, these performances present a different challenge that draws on my more academic background in music. Putting all the gigs together, keeps a nice contrast in developing all the sides of my musical personality. I hope you enjoy the shows you get to…. Or that a YouTube shows up that sparks your interest…..

See ya on the flip side… alex

What a Crazy Few Weeks…

Wow, the last few weeks have really been a whirlwind. There are so many stories, that its hard to single any of them out. You can read about all of the craziness here.

We’ll get everything organized and post some pictures up real soon!

Good Times…..

Whenever I do a run of gigs at 1 venue, there always seems to be a mix of regular routines that settle in (ya know—a few specific songs set the tone for the room each night, a few specific tunes close out the night, you remember some of the favorites for the regulars, etc…). At the same time, there’s always those little things that sometimes seem to come from Mars….. that’s what really makes my job interesting! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy playing the regular repertoire (and the left turn curves that have become my regular repertoire)- but the challenges that come to me, definitely keep me on my toes.

For example—I just did a 7 night swing at the Hofbrau in Panama City Beach, FL. Yes, there were requests for “Roll out the Barrel”, “Edelweiss” and the “Devil Went Down to Munich”…. I also had the “Germans Up for Fliegerlied”, “Hande zum Himmel” and a new arrangement of the “Radetzky March.” But on consecutive nights, there were a variety of Europeans coming in asking for Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Jewish, Slovak and Czech tunes… and I got a bunch of them…. I thought the one guy was going to fall out of his seat when I was singing “Uzmi Sve Sto ti Zivot Pruza” for him…. (I can’t believe I got through it in Serbian, as I kept hearing Bubba’s English lyrics from the Polka Freak Out album in my head—thankfully I had the words in my book!) I think the developing arrangement of “Bufcansko Oro” is begging to be recorded soon… whoever knew that Ed Klancnik could get that funky of a Bulgarian/Turkish type groove? (Let’s face it, he can do anything- right?!?)

So…. Anyway—thanks to all of ya’ll that come out to the gigs… dig the sounds, challenge me with some different requests—and forgive me when I can’t do all of them! (At the same time… thanks also to the tables that paid the $20 fine to make us play Free Bird…..)
I love my work….

It’s also good to be home too! The family is all good and keeping me on my toes….. thanks for the good wishes from y’all for the little ones!
alex