| The power of polka |
By: Kay Fate
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Posted: Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:38 am
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Ray Sands, right, has been playing with the Polka Dots since 1949. Here, the band performs recently in Zumbrota. From left are members Gene Eiden, Rick Keane, Nathan Davidson and Sue Sands. Not visible are band members Leo Lentz and Graham Luck.
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The Kenyon Leader
KENYON — In 1949, Ray Sands told the Polka Dots — a small band from Zumbrota raising money for a new hospital — that he’d help them out for a couple of Saturdays.
“And 60 years later, I’m still helping them out,” he laughed.
Along the way, Sands has helped the Polka Dots achieve both national and international fame, playing at such venues as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Minnesota governor’s mansion and the International Polka Fest in Germany.
He is, quite possibly, the longest-standing member of the same polka band — ever.
“I guess I don’t know of any other polka band that’s stayed together for 60 years,” Sands said.
In 2000, Sands was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Bob Dylan, Judy Garland and Prince, to name a few.
Listen to him recount the experiences throughout the years, though, and you see Sands for what he is: a humble, hard-working farmer who just happens to love music.
He can’t, for example, think of a downside to playing and traveling for 60 years.
“I ... You know, I just can’t think of anything,” Sands said.
This, from a man who for many years played his accordion with the band five nights a week — and farmed 200 acres.
“There’s a decade there that was just a blur,” he admits today.
If there are any questions, though, Sands could find the answer.
“He’s kept meticulous records of every dance job he’s played — and each musician that played,” said Sue Sands, Ray’s wife of 38 years.
Still, he said, “I look forward to every gig I play.”
Sands got his first accordion when he was 9; his father paid $25 for it.
“That was a lot,” Sands said; “money was pretty scarce back then.”
He played in his first band at age 11, joining an older brother and sister. They earned $2 a night.
At 17, Sands traveled to the Prom Ballroom in St. Paul to watch Lawrence Welk play the accordion.
“He was my hero,” Sands said of the North Dakota farm boy who eventually gained fame as a bandleader. “I was up there watching him, and I was just in seventh heaven. I was thinking, ‘someday, I’m going to be up on that stage myself.’
“And two or three years later, I was up there,” he said.
Not bad, for a boy who couldn’t — and still can’t — read music.
“I don’t know how, but I guess I don’t need to,” Sands said.
It is, his wife said, “a God-given talent.”
There was a time, Sands said, when he could have devoted more time to his music, “but I wanted to stay with farming.”
The Polka Dots recorded their first album in 1952, by request of the music industry. The record sold more than 10,000 copies.
The group has since recorded several more CDs, including one just released last week in honor of the band’s 60-year legacy.
Sands has written two polkas, though “I really never thought I had a talent for writing.”
The songs come to him at night, he said, while he’s sleeping.
“I have to write down the words before it goes away,” he said. He associates the melody with the words, then hands it off to his wife.
“Sue gets it on the piano, and arranges the piece for the rest of the band,” Sands said.
“It’s happy music,” he says of the genre. “The fact that you’re making people happy... Seeing them smile is so gratifying.”
The Polka Dots have a very dedicated following, he said. “They’re friends, really; they’re part of the band.”
“We never think about canceling,” said Sue Sands; “you’d hate to disappoint the people.”
In fact, the only time the band was unable to perform at a scheduled appearance was two years ago, at a New Year’s Eve party at the Park Ballroom in New Prague. A snowstorm had moved in, prompting the cancellation.
Still, Sands said, shaking her head, “some of the Polka Dot fans made it. They were die-hards.”
Some of them, to the end.
Sands admits he was uncomfortable the first time he was asked to play his accordion at a funeral.
A couple had met while listening to the Polka Dots; years later, the wife promised her dying husband that Ray would play at his funeral.
Despite his reservations, “I had nothing but positive comments,” Sands said.
In fact, the band has marked several milestones with various couples, playing at their wedding reception, then their 25th, 40th and 50th anniversary celebrations.
Not much has changed in the 60 years, Sands said, except for maybe the advent of air conditioning and ventilation in the venues.
“Back in the early days, we’d play from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.,” he said, “and after the first hour, you couldn’t see the back wall. It’d just be a blue haze, with all the smoke.”
He doesn’t hesitate to share his most embarrassing moment with the band — the day he opened a door to unload equipment for a performance at the Miss Minnesota pageant, and was greeted with 40 shrieks from what turned out to be the dressing room.
“Best night of his life,” his wife smiled.
The stories go on and on, each one sparking the next.
An original arrangement performed on the “David Letterman Show.”
Multiple appearances on the “Big Joe Polka Show,” a nationally syndicated television program.
A performance in Scandinavia in 1982.
The millions of miles driven en route to the estimated 12,000 gigs each have a tale of their own, too, it seems: narrowly missing a train at an unmarked set of tracks; stranded for hours in stormy weather; long drives home to make sure the cows were milked.
Myron Floren was a close friend; so was Gov. Al Quie.
“It’s been wonderful to work with these people, but you don’t get a big head about it,” Sands said. “I guess we don’t even think about it. We’re just excited about the opportunity.”
The Sands also speak of the opportunities passed up with little regret “because it was harvest time.”
And always, it’s about the band.
“Every band has a sound of its own,” Sands said. “We’ve had dedicated, wonderful musicians throughout the years. Who they are as people is important, too.”
Among them, Rick Keane of Pine Island, who has played the trumpet and trombone with the Polka Dots for 36 years.
“He’s been a driving force behind our band for years,” Sue Sands said.
Band member Manton Steberg, 93, was the band’s drummer until last year, when a tumble off the stage sidelined him. He and Sam Arsers of Rochester were members of that 1949 group that Ray Sands joined.
Yet the more things change, it seems, the more they stay the same.
In 1949, the Polka Dots began a four-year run of Sunday afternoon broadcasts from the State Theater in Zumbrota.
Recently, Sands told a member of the Zumbro Area Arts Council that the State Theater “was our old home. I thought it would be fun to reminisce about it, and have a re-enactment of an old radio show.”
Who better to host a radio show in Minnesota than Garrison Keillor?
No one, as it turns out.
Keillor will help the Polka Dots celebrate their 60th anniversary by joining them on stage for a performance on Sunday, Oct. 11 in Zumbrota.
The past 60 years, Sue Sands believes, “demonstrate the power of music, no matter what the genre. It reaches out to everyone,” and continues to do so.
Ray, who sold his dairy cows last year, has no plans to retire. There are more memories to be made, he said.
“We took it for granted, maybe, all this stuff,” he admits, “but it was just us, playing music.” |
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