It's been an age since I posted anything....sorry!
I gave an illustrated lecture — via Zoom — on Nov. 12 as part of a program organized by the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow.
Lonstar and me, at the Berlin country music messe
In it I looked back over my experience in Poland, dating back to
1980, when I was a correspondent for UPI covering Solidarnosc and
martial law (including when I was jailed and expelled from the country
because of my coverage) and discussed how throughout my career I’ve
observed how people create lived experience
via dreams and desires: whether it was Solidarnosc activists aiming for
civil society, or emerging Jews and Jewish communities claiming,
reclaiming — or creating — identities, or fans of the American frontier
finding identity in country music and home-grown swinging door saloons.
There was a lot more I would have wanted to say in response to questions
in the very brief discussion afterward, but that can be for another
time.
There's a lot about the Imaginary Wild West in Poland -- with a focus on the four-decade career of my friend, the pioneering Polish country singer Michael Lonstar, whom I've written about in the past on this blog.
You can view my lecture here -- or on YouTube. It starts with Solidarnosc, then segues into the "virtually Jewish" and on to the Imaginary Wild West.
The oldest known recordings of the banjo date from the 1890s and are contained in four wax cylinders recorded by the African American entertainer Charles A. Asbury.
The Retropod podcast is the latest to write about Asbury, following several articles last year when .Archeophone Records released a 45 rpm vinyl recording with 16-page booklet, photos, and notes.
Lubos Malina plays banjo with the Czech Band Druha Trava, at Dobrofest, Trnava, Slovakia, 2006
The Archeophone notes describe Asbury as "an African American veteran of the minstrel stage" who lived from ca. 1857 to 1903.
Born in Florida but raised in Georgia by a Baptist preacher, Asbury played Sambo in stage productions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
before becoming a noted vocalist with the original Unique Quartette and
a celebrated banjoist on the vaudeville stage. His banjo songs were
popular in phonograph arcades all over the country in the early 1890s,
years before phonographs went into people’s homes. He did yeoman work
for the infant phonograph companies–churning out wax cylinders, a few at
a time, for seven years–before disappearing abruptly from the annals of
the stage and recording history[...].
The oldest recording on the set dates to about 1891, making it the
oldest known banjo recording in private hands. Asbury played in the old
minstrel “stroke” banjo style that virtually disappeared from the
vernacular and has only in recent years been rediscovered and
reinvigorated by scholars of American banjo music.
My last post took note of a concert I attended in April by the Czech bluegrass band The Malina Brothers, with guest appearances by Charlie McCoy,
the Nashville-based harmonica virtuoso and member of the Country Music
Hall of Fame, and the Czech singer Kat’a Garcia. The concert was sold
out, and got a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd. And it was
being filmed for a live show DVD.
That concert took place in the Sono Center, a major venue in Brno, CZ, for contemporary music -- the audience numbered 700 or 800.
Less than a month later, the Malina Brothers, who are old friends of mine, visited Italy -- where they gave a house concert at the home of a friend.
I managed to live stream it from my phone, on Facebook -- and here it is. It was my first live streaming, so the visual quality is not the best (and it's vertical -- the program didn't let me rotate the phone)... but still. It's a testament to their talent that their same repertoire works in a big theatrical venue like the Sono Center -- and also in the intimate setting of a private living room.
In Brno, Czech Republic, the Imaginary Wild West leaps off a wall….
advertising “the best steaks” in the city at an eatery called “U Starýho Bill” (At Old Bill’s) that calls itself “a real ‘TEXAS’ restaurant.”
The wall here was a few steps away from the Sono Center, a major Brno
venue for contemporary music — where I was headed to attend a concert
by the Czech bluegrass band The Malina Brothers, with guest appearances by Charlie McCoy,
the Nashville-based harmonica virtuoso and member of the Country Music
Hall of Fame, and the Czech singer Kat’a Garcia. The concert was sold
out, and got a prolonged standing ovation from the crowd. And it was
being filmed for a live show DVD.
The Malinas are old friends of mine. Banjo player and
multi-instrumentalist Lubos Malina was one of the founding members of
the great Czechgrass group Druha Trava, and I met him (amazingly) nearly
15 years ago, at one of the many summer bluegrass/country festivals in
CZ, when I first started exploring the Imaginary Wild West in Europe.
Guitarist Pavel Malina used to play with DT, and fiddler Pepa Malina
still sometimes plays with them. The Malina Brothers band came together
informally at first, but over the past five years or so has developed a
remarkable following in CZ — as the concert in Brno demonstrated.
The three brothers visited in Italy six years ago and gave a house
concert at the home of a friend. It was the first of a series of house
concerts anchored by Lubos.
The brothers played this arrangement of Smetana at the house concert in
2013 — and at the concert in Brno.
On the night after the Brno concert, Pepa Malina performed with Druha
Trava at the start of a a week-long tour with Charlie McCoy — a
sold-out, standing-ovation gig in the town of Ceska Trebova.
Here’s a video of the run-through before the Ceska Trebova concert:
Charlie McCoy has had a standout career in the USA and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
I’ve written about him in the past, on my Sauerkraut Cowboys blog,
because he is quite wellknown in the country music scene outside the
USA. He tours regularly in Europe and elsewhere (i.e. Japan), and he
makes a point to play with European bands and also records with them; he
has released albums in France, Denmark, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Later this summer he will be touring in Sweden in England.
Onstage at the concert in Ceska Trebova, he recalled how he met up
with Druha Trava — it was at the festival in Strakonice, CZ, where he
was performing in 2001. DT was also on the bill and asked if he would
join them for a few songs — since then he has toured with them half a
dozen or more times in CZ, released a live album with DT and also
released a CD with The Malina Brothers.
Here’s a promo video about the Malina Brothers album (partly in Czech, partly in English):
I met Charlie back in 2005 during one of his tours with Druha Trava — the concert I saw was at a “Days of Texas” festival in the little town of Roznov pod Radnostem, in eastern CZ.
The festival, I wrote in an article
highlighted
the fact that from the mid-19th century until World War I, thousands of
people emigrated from Roznov and other towns and villages in the region
to Texas. Today, Texas has the largest ethnic Czech community of any
state in the United States.
There were
demonstrations of 19th-century farming customs used by the emigrants and
performances by American-style Czech country-western groups, as well as
local folk groups performing Wallachian songs and dances. An exhibition
of quilting featured a big patchwork quilt reading “Texas,” hung
prominently from the upper floor of the old Roznov Town Hall.
Like the Malina Brothers concert in Brno, the Druha Trava/Charlie
McCoy concert in Ceska Trebova drew a standing ovation from an energized
crowd — and lots of autograph-seekers and CD-buyers afterward.
I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I updated this blog... time seems to fly faster and faster and, well, I'm lazy...and then again it's easier just to post links on the Facebook page... But I'll try to do some catching up in the next few days....
I've visited a number of wild west theme parks in Europe over the years -- they are key elements in the Imaginary Wild West. Real Imaginary spaces that have grown out of dreams, passions, stereotypes, and yearnings -- but also help create them.
This was my first visit to Twin Pigs -- but the latest of several to Boskovice.
The Boskovice park was founded in 1994 as a private initiative by a local man, Luboš "Jerry" Procházka, who developed the park in a natural setting in and around a disused sandstone quarry. The first time I visited -- in, I believe, 1997 -- it was out of season and the park was closed; I could only look at it over a fence. But I was struck by the view of the saloon and other movie-set buildings.
My first view of Wild West City, in 1997 - out of season
At that time, I was researching my book "Virtually Jewish" -- about the relationship of non-Jewish people to Jewish culture in Europe. I wrote this in an essay published at the time in The New Leader magazine (and also in my 2008 book "Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere)"):
Some people compare Europe's current interest in Jewish culture with the United States' interest in Native Americans. To be sure, I have seen Indian dolls wearing beaded costumes for sale in the Denver train station that reminded me of the "Jewish" puppets and figures I have photographed in Prague, Krakow, and Venice.
I was not surprised, therefore, by two posters I found on display in the Boskovice tourist office. One is for a jazz festival whose proceeds are to go toward renovation of the Jewish quarter. The other advertises a rodeo at a place called "Wild West City: Boskovice's Western Town." It features photographs of people dressed up like American Indians riding horses, with corrals, rickety wooden structures and even tepees in the background. A handbill shows a seductive Indian maiden looking over her shoulder.
I found Wild West City on my map, the edge of Boskovice, and stopped there on my way out of town. It is a theme park set up in an old quarry that resembles a stage set from a John Ford movie, replete with a flimsy wooden saloon and general store. A sign at the entrance reads, "Indian Territory." Another notes the kilometers to various spots in the American West -- most of them spelled incorrectly. It's off-season The place is deserted. The only sound is that of hoofbeats, as a costumed employee rides a horse round and round the repro corral.
Boskovice's Wild West main street
On subsequent visits over the years, I spoke with Jerry -- who is still the owner and managing director -- and observed the town "in action." It includes the usual wild west tropes -- a "main street," saloon, "boot hill", bank, "Indian Village" etc.
In the Boskovice "Indian Village"
But I've always found it much more low key and laid back than some of the others I have visited -- there's a dusty slightly rundown feel -- though I did notice on my visit this July that some of the buildings had been repainted since my last visit. There also seemed to be more activity elements aimed at kids.
The imagery is based on US western movies and Karl May books, but it also is influenced by Czech tramping tropes. The Czech movie Lemonade Joe, a 1964 spoof of the singing cowboy genre, also plays a role -- in particular with the big "advertising" mural for "Kola Loka" -- the sarsparilla type drink enjoyed by the movie's hero.
Performance at Boskovice Wild West city in 2004
The park includes an outdoor theatre
where live performances take place -- I didn't see one this summer (it
apparently was based on the shootout at the OK Corral) but some years
back I took in a performance based on Karl May's Winnetou characters.
Twin Pigs, located in southern Poland near Zory, off a main highway, is a somewhat different story, It employs the same general skeleton, but has quite a different feel: a purpose-built construct born out of a commercial business plan rather than from personal passion.
Opened in 2012, it is described as an amusement park, and it is much more "top down," planned out, and hard-edged than Boskovice, with its grassroots origin and -- despite recent improvements -- still rather amateur feel.
There is a regular lay-out along the Main Street, and also a ferris wheel, roller coaster, and other rides, restaurants, a 5D theater, and children's activity trails. Lots of red-white-and-blue bunting and American flags (and a few Confederate ones, too).
I've been visiting Willie Jones, the American-born singer whose been based in Germany for more than 30 years and is one of the standouts on the European country scene. He has a new compilation CD coming out this fall, and I wrote the liner notes.
Willie is one of the first people I met in Europe's Imaginary Wild West -- back in 2003, when he was the strolling singer at the Pullman City wild west theme park (I was writing an article for the New York Times on European wild west theme parks). We went on a memorable road trip to a country roadhouse in southern Bohemia ... the first time I heard "The Okie From Muskogee" sung in Czech.... I last saw his about a year and a half ago, at the "mini Dobrofest" festival in Trnava, Slovakia (which I wrote about HERE).
Last night I went with Willie to a club gig in a village in Bavaria, near Regensburg: he played bass backup for a German duo called Bud 'n' Cellar, and also sang....country-infused rock and pop.
The club was packed -- and the fans demanded -- DEMANDED -- DEMANDED -- that they play "Country Roads" -- two times! I have posted about the significance of this song in the European country scene.
I was particularly fascinated by the tattoos sported by one of the group's friends. He wore his enthusiasm on his skin.
For several years I've been exploring the imaginary wild west in contemporary Europe -- observing and experiencing the many ways that Europeans embrace the mythology of the American Frontier to enhance, imbue or create their own identities. (Or, indeed, just have fun.) On this blog I will post pictures, stories and links relating to this multi-faceted subculture, from European country music to rodeos, theme parks, round-ups and saloons....
I'm an American writer and photographer who has researched and written widely on Jewish culture and heritage issues for more than three decades. I've written several books on the topic and manage the website www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu, a project of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe.
I also am working longterm on "Sturm, Twang and Sauerkraut Cowboys: Imaginary Wild Wests in Contemporary Europe," an exploration of the American West in the European imagination for which I won a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEH summer stipend grant. In 2015 I was the Arnold Distinguished Visiting Chair in Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, SC. My other honors and awards include Poland's “Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit" and the Michael Hammer Tribute Research Award from the Hadassah Brandeis Institute (HBI).
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