Brave Combo
Upcoming local shows
Brave Combo. Rarely, if ever, has a band name been more apropos, not only at the group's inception, but even more so 26 years after the fact. At first glance, back in 1979, the Denton, Texas, based outfit was, in shorthand, pegged as a New Wave polka band, a courageous if not almost oxymoronic endeavor during that particular rebirth of the cool. Yet it clicked and launched a stunning run that has now catapulted it into the new century.
Over the years, Brave Combo has collected a dizzying array of descriptive musical pegs, boldly going where few bands have gone before, and even fewer could (or would) dare to venture. Succeeding in its first mission, Brave Combo is America's premier contemporary polka band, and a Grammy winning one at that. In the same breath, to name some but hardly all of the colors found on Brave Combo's musical palette, one can describe them as a groundbreaking world music act, a hot jazz quintet, a rollicking rock'n'roll bar band, a Tex-Mex conjunto, a sizzling blues band, a saucy cocktail combo, a deadly serious novelty act, a Latin orchestra, and one of America's dance bands par excellence. It's all in a night's music for Brave Combo, often in a synergistic fashion that includes everything from klezmer surf rock to rocking cha cha to what The Washington Post calls "mosh pit polka," as well as to the hokey pokey and the chicken dance. And zyedeco, acid rock, Muzak, bubblegum, cumbia, classical, and the twist, to still not exhaust the list. This plethoric multitude of musical styles and flavors is frequently mixed, matched, and melded, into delicious, new concoctions by an imaginative team of musical gourmet master chefs.
Information from the band's site
Musicians
- Jeffrey Barnes: clarinet, flute, glockenspiel, harmonica, saxophone, vocals
- Carl Finch: accordion, guitar, keyboards, vocals
- Danny O'Brien: trumpet, vocals, washboard
- Ann Marie Harrop : bass
- Arjuna Contreras: drums
Former members
Albums
The Hokey Pokey
Released 1994
Favorited by these users:
AnnMarie Wilson, BassMan, Beth_McCabe, Calvin Sexton, Catherine Cuellar, Drew, Garrett Gross, James Scott, Jeff Jones, Jerry Leeper, Jessi Whitby, Joe Sulek, Kevin Kunreuther, Mark Lewis, Mark M. Hancock, Matt Tolentino, NTBlues, Pavel Lishin, Robert Rummel-Hudson, Robertarast, Rollini505, Ruisert, SATIN_HOOKS, Steve Harrison, Susan Lauer, Todd Maternowski, apitts, bingham, caradelsol, dbyboth, edfoo2000, gordonmcleod, greg420blues, hargerst, heeremama, ibjoe, johnguari, katmilacek, krys, lindabear1, man_from_la_ca, mikalbeth, momgrube, one_tribe, preagle, promoterray, saxguy, scrappy, secretsongs, soundsofspring, stars_smothered, tate, thisperson, tonybarker, walty, yeehoo224, ziaflower, zola
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Polka's Revenge
Holidays!
Let's Kiss
Box of Ghosts
Kick Ass Polkas (Live)
The Process
Polkasonic
Polka Party
Group Dance Epidemic
Girl (w/ Tiny Tim)
Kiss of Fire
Mood Swing Music
Polkas for a Gloomy World
No No No Cha Cha Cha
A Night on Earth
Humansville
Musical Varieties
Polkatharsis
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