Texas Kapela

From The Austin Chronicle

     

.....A similar sentiment, albeit a paternally directed one, can be discerned on Marshall's fiddle waltz "Ojeic Wielki (My Father)," even if you can't understand Polish. Although Marshall is best known as the leader of the Tomball-based Tex-Slavic Playboys dance band, the polkas and obereks here are all acoustic. Marshall, Rubin, and guitar/fiddle player Ron Kasowski play songs Marshall and Kasowski learned at the knees of their relatives and "village fiddlers" like Bremond's Steve Okonski and Bellville's Raymond Zievert. Presented in pure, unadorned fashion, songs like the lively "Krakowiak" and the raw, ribald drinking song "Tancowaly Dwa Michaly (Two Michaels Dancing)" give a compelling aural hint at what life might have been like when the day's work was done for Polish settlers in Texas.