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MOLLIE IS NAMED 2008
USPA FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR |
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Congratulations are in
order for our very own Mollie B, who was named the 2008 Female
Vocalist of the Year by the United States Polka Association! Nominees
are voted upon by members of the USPA, and the winner receives their
awards at the Annual USPA Convention and Festival, which will be held
in Cleveland, OH on Memorial Day weekend, 2009. CONGRATULATIONS,
MOLLIE!! |
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Squeezebox Apparel Now Available Online!!
Click Here For Details! |
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Fall 2008/Spring 2009
Recap |
Since September
of 2008, we have played engagements all over the Midwest and even
on the east coast including jobs in Connecticut, Indiana,
Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin! The response
we have received from all of you has been tremendous, and it is
truly appreciated! YOU are the reason we log all of those miles on
the van, and we thank you for your continued support. We hope you
have enjoyed our music as much as we have enjoyed performing for
you and we hope we’ll get to see even more of you over the next
couple months, as our schedule is filling up quite nicely for
2009, taking us to some new venues and events. |
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First, though, we’d like
to recap where we’ve been the past couple months. September was an
extremely busy month, and started off with the Hoagland, IN annual
Oktoberfest. The crowds (and German beer) were great, and it was nice
to see a bus group of Ohio Polka Boosters members make it to the fest.
The following weekend was our first ever FIVE day weekend, which
started in Frankenmuth, MI for their Oktoberfest. If you have never
been to Frankenmuth, MI, we highly recommend it, and their Oktoberfest
is simply incredible. We were blown away by the amount of people in
attendance the two days we played, and look forward to playing there
again this fall! There were also plenty of people there from Germany,
who said they thought the Oktoberfest in Frankenmuth was as close to
Munich as you can get! We made a stop in Paulding, OH for the Flat
Rock Creek Fest between our engagements in Frankenmuth, and upon
finishing up on Saturday night at the Oktoberfest, we crawled in the
van and set out for an all night drive to Chippewa Falls, WI, for
their Oktoberfest. We had just enough time to stop and get a quick
shower before we set up and started performing in Chippewa Falls. They
also have a great Oktoberfest with a bunch of different bands, so if
you’re in the area this fall, this is definitely a festival to check
out. We finished off the “weekend” with a Monday evening performance
for the Milwaukee Accordion Club. This club brings in a variety of
music including polkas for their monthly meetings in Franklin, WI, and
their warm reception and large crowd were the perfect way to end the
weekend!
October 2008 kept us busy with lots of Oktoberfest engagements
including performances for the Columbus, Ohio Maennerchor (German
Men’s Chorus) and The D.A.N.K. Club in Benton Harbor, MI, just to name
a few. We also made our first trip “out east” in October for a
weekend that brought us to several new venues: Pillar Polkabration in
the Catskills of New York for a Friday afternoon performance at the
Fallsview Hotel, a polka dance on Saturday in Buffalo, NY, and an
Oktoberfest dinner/dance in Allentown, PA for the good folks at WALN
cable radio. We were honored to receive such a warm welcome at all
three of our first eastern performances. Dick Pillar runs first class
events and polka weekends, and if you ever want to see the beautiful
Catskill Mountains and enjoy a polka weekend, he is definitely the guy
to contact! Also, our friends at WALN in Allentown, put together quite
an Oktoberfest Celebration for us. They have polka music that is
broadcast over the internet every weekend with a live webcam set up so
you can watch the DJ in the studio. Check them out online at
www.walncableradio.com.
In November, we made our first appearance in the Pittsburgh, PA area
at a dance put on by Larry Placak at the SNPJ club. In addition to
being a DJ, Larry is also a bandleader and has a very good Slovenian
style band. Again, another great responsive crowd. Thanks Larry! We
also appeared in Frankenmuth, MI at the Bavarian Inn along with the
Marv Herzog Reunion Band for a dance put on to benefit the Marv Herzog
Scholarship fund to a near sell-out crowd. This will become an annual
event, so contact Teresa Herzog early to get advance tickets! The
following day we headed North to Maple City, MI for a “Deerhunter’s
Ball.” Those folks sure love their polkas! We sure had fun!!!
December found Squeezebox in the Wausau, WI area for a 20th
Anniversary dance for the Wisconsin Polka Boosters. Although the
weather outside was chilly (-10 F), it warmed up quickly inside with
the large group in attendance. Thanks to all the Wisconsin Polka
Boosters, their officers, and Lynne Krause for bringing us up to the
Wausau area again and supporting us! Also, we were videotaped by
Michelle Genrich and her “crew” and that taping was rebroadcast on a
local television station.
Saturday, we made our first appearance at the Amerahn Ballroom in
Kewaskum, WI for a Christmas Sing-a-long with a 4 hour dance that
followed. Our Christmas sing-a-longs have become quite popular and
really help put everyone in the holiday mood. Thanks to Dennis Gehring
and also Scott Lopas from WTKM in Hartford for sponsoring this dance.
We’re looking forward to doing it again in December 2009! We hope
you’ll join us and get in the Christmas Spirit with some Christmas
Music, polkas and more!
We left immediately from Kewaskum, WI and drove through the night (and
through a snowstorm) for our next performance, which was in Bay City,
MI at the LFA Hall. We had a wonderful weekend, but by Monday morning
when we finally got back home, it was definitely time for some sleep!
In January 2009, we appeared for our good friends Betzel & Rosie Smith
in South Milwaukee for a polka dance which again, had a great dancing
and listening crowd. In addition to booking Squeezebox for a couple
jobs so far, Betzel and Rosie also run quite a few dances throughout
the year and they bring in a variety of different bands. Please try to
support your local dances not only when clubs run the dances, but also
when individuals are willing to take a chance and help out bands that
are coming through their area. Without your support, those dances
would have to come to an end.
Following our Milwaukee appearance, we headed up to the Oneida Casino
in Green Bay, WI for 3 straight days of appearances. These shows were
open to the public and were free of charge to come in and hear the
music. The folks at the Oneida Casino are a real class act, and
treated us exceptionally well, and we were so happy to have a couple
of bus groups come in from Chicago to see us, in addition to all of
the “locals” that came out! THANK YOU!
We’d like to thank all of you who contributed to making our fall 2008
and spring 2009 a huge success. Additionally, we have several new
sponsors in addition to a couple of repeat sponsors who help make this
newsletter possible. We hope you’ll support their events, and when you
do, please tell them you heard about their event in the Squeezebox
newsletter. Their advertising in our newsletter, allows us to continue
to mail out over 2000 newsletters to over 40 states and Canada. (that
doesn’t include all of the newsletters that get sent via e-mail!).
Additionally, if you have an e-mail address, and if you wouldn’t mind
having us remove you from the postal mailing and sending it to you via
e-mail, please let us know! We are trying our best to keep the costs
down with our newsletter so we may continue to send it out twice a
year. Also, feel free to make copies of this newsletter or pass it on
to your friends when you’re done reading it! Tell your friends they
can subscribe to our newsletter by simply mailing us a request in the
mail, in an e-mail, or by subscribing on our website by clicking
HERE. Thank you again for all your
support!!!!!
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Preparing for our second recording & expanding our schedule!
Bring SQUEEZEBOX To a Town Near You!
Over the next couple
months, SQUEEZEBOX will be hard at work once again in the studio,
working on our SECOND recording, which at this point will be called
"Freshly Squeezed."
Stay on the lookout for this much anticipated release from SQUEEZEBOX!
ALSO, WE'RE STILL LOOKING TO ADD SOME MORE DATES
TO OUR SCHEDULE! If you know of a festival or event in your area
that is looking for live music, please feel free to pass along our
contact info! We welcome any opportunity to perform in new areas
and new venues! Click HERE for our
contact information! |
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SQUEEZEBOX Announces release
of "SQUEEZE ME"
SQUEEZEBOX is proud to
announce the release of their debut recording, entitled "Squeeze Me"!
This new recording has a wide of variety of music, including 8 Polkas,
2 Waltzes, and 6 foxtrots/two-steps.
CLICK HERE to visit our recordings page, where you can download
samples of the songs and place your order for your own copy! |
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SQUEEZEBOX
is a live band, based in NW Ohio, that specializes in multiple genres of
music including polkas, waltzes, fox-trots, 2-steps, big band, swing,
square dances, and figure dances. With over 60 years combined
experience between the core members of the band, we're able to accommodate
nearly everyone's requests at our performances, and strive to please
everybody in attendance, both on and off the dance floor! With our diverse play list and solid
vocals in English,
Czech, German, and Polish, we are able to adapt to any venue, ranging from
town festivals, polka festivals, German festivals and Oktoberfests to
weddings, anniversary parties, church festivals and music festivals. |
SQUEEZEBOX began originally
in the late 1990's under a different name, known at that time as "The
Bratwurst Boys", which was a part time spin-off band consisting of members
from the Grammy Nominated "Toledo Polkamotion." However, as the band
and members evolved through the years, and we continually added new
material to our play list, it was evident that the name we were using
unfortunately had us pigeon-holed as a "polka only" band.... We can
most certainly play polkas and we love to play polkas.... AND MUCH
MORE THAN JUST POLKAS.... hence, the name change.
SQUEEZEBOX is made up of
three solid musicians with extensive backgrounds in the performing field:
Ted Lange, Mollie Busta, and Dave Burner. Check back soon to be able to
check out everyone's biography once that information has been added to the
site! |
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