Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Canada's Polka King



I thought I would write today about a wonderful musician who is NOT Michael Jackson……enough already!!!!!


I was at a BBQ social on Henley Island tonight and I met a local celebrity musician, Walter Ostanek. I was so excited this was going to be an opportunity for my daughter Kaitlin to meet a celebrity. Kaitlin was not so impressed as she had NO clue who he was.

As a kid I remember watching Kitchener television (one of the few stations we got clearly up in Owen Sound). Each week he hosted his own show playing the accordion and leading his polka band. Not that I was really into his style of music at the time but because he was on TV each week I thought he must be important. Later when I went to university he was very important as he was at Octoberfest each year. University students, jugs of beer, polka music…..what could be better??? Then I ended up moving to St. Catharines to discover it was the home of Walter Ostanek, where he owned his own music shop. Walter has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards and actually won three times! Unfortunately, the Grammy Awards people (whoever they are) just recently decided to remove the Polka category.

While I will always consider Walter a celebrity, I was thrilled to actually chat with him for quite some time. I discovered he truly is a kind, gentle, fun man. It was great to meet him!

For those interested, check out more about Walter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Ostanek

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