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Accordion Warrior
(Continued from previous page)

Gary Sredzienski '85
On the air at WUNH.
Photo by Gary Samson

Sredzienski's family owned a tobacco farm in Enfield, Conn., an area that Sredzienski describes as the Chicago of New England. "A lot of Polish immigrants settled there to work on the tobacco farms," he says. "At one time, the best cigar wrappers in the world were grown in the Connecticut River Valley." Sredzienski remembers four or five Polish radio shows and a culture that was community based. "Before the polka band, there was the house-party style of performing," he says. "They were called 'kitchen rackets' because people would clear all the furniture out of the kitchen, and a fiddler and an accordion player would come in, and everyone would dance." Even mainstream radio was much more community focused than it is today. "I remember Bob Steele's radio show out of Hartford, Conn., where he used to announce birthdays and anniversaries and do dedications. There were kids' shows, too, like 'Ranger Station,' which had sing-alongs. For me, doing 'Polka Party' is about preserving that form of 1950s radio."

Over the years, Sredzienski has amassed more than 3,000 78-rpm recordings of Old Country music and a sizeable collection of sheet music from many different folk traditions. Two of his four CDs, From the Porch and Poland to America, are solo recordings of Polish, Ukranian and Yiddish folk music. Sredzienski's polka audience, accustomed to the schmaltzy Lawrence Welk sound, does not necessarily appreciate his dedication to the older style of music. "To many of them, I'm the Antichrist of polka," he quips. Nevertheless, he has a dedicated audience. When WUNH holds its annual fund-raiser each fall, Sredzienski's show always makes the most money. Of the $18,000 pledged during last year's fund drive, Sredzienski raised $8,000 in two hours. "We had to have 10 people answering the phones," he says.

Angel Eyes and the Hooters

Sredzienski earned a B.S. in forestry at UNH and worked for the U.S. Forest Service for several years before becoming a full-time musician. He likes to say he is a graduate of UNH and the Hog Hollow Hooters. The Hooters were a vaudeville act that he joined when he was 10. "Weird Harold Stevens was the leader and played washtub bass," Sredzienski remembers. "Lulubelle Throttlebottom was the vocalist, and Frenchie from Quebec played the banjo. We also had a fiddler who used to do a Henny Youngman routine. And Mountaintop Lucy would tap dance. She used to wear a burlap bag for a dress."

Sredzienski's stage name was Angel Eyes, and he played accordion with the Hooters for nine years. "It was such a great education. We played all kinds of places -- ethnic clubs, theaters, Knights of Columbus halls. Back then there were more sing-alongs, and I learned a lot of songs while I was on stage. But it was also a great education in terms of accordion performance. It taught me how to be bold about my art form."

The accordion has introduced Sredzienski to many different cultures and all kinds of people. One night at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, he went back to his hotel to find the South Africans and the Romanians, who were also represented at the festival, trying to out-sing each other in the lobby. Sam Zondi, a Zulu musician, was playing an accordion, and Sredzienski asked if he could play it. "He said, 'No man, you'll break it,'" Sredzienski remembers. But he persuaded the South African to let him try, and Zondi was so impressed with Sredzienski's playing that he asked him to record two songs with him while they were in Washington. They have plans to record together again this year.

In May, Sredzienski was nominated by Rep. John Sununu (R-N.H.) to represent New Hampshire on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. There, he performed folk music from the many different traditions that make up New Hampshire's population, French Canadian, Greek, Celtic and Scottish among them.

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Page 1 Polka Story Page 2  Polka Story Page 3  Polka Story



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