Peter Cooper on Polka

Every Friday night after work, the miners and their families would come together, eat, drink and play polka music. As my dad always put it, it was his people’s Prozac.

Popovich wound up in the Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame, Clement will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday and both men will be celebrated Tuesday at the new Polka Pandemonium show.

Popovich Jr. chose Brave Combo to play the show, knowing that his dad would approve: Released on Cleveland International, the band’s 1999 “Polkasonic” album, with unusual songs including “Purple Haze: The Jimi Hendrix Polka,” won a Grammy.

If anybody is unclear of what this music is or what it’s about, they should go and experience it, says Rink, who plays her own polka show Saturday at The Pavilion. The joy that fills the room with our kind of music is unexplainable. It’s the happiest music there is.

It’s true that a good night of polka is accompanied by gleeful and unworldly frivolity. The people’s Prozac, indeed. Look around at a polka show and you’ll see a roomful of smiles. If that room is in Nashville, we can thank Pop and Cowboy for every grin.

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