MINNESOTA POLKA: Elmer Scheid / At the Mill Polka / Pleasant Peasant 44-61 / 1961

Elmer Scheid (1921-2012) of New Ulm, MN, was a concertina player whose first professional job came in the 1930s at age 13 with the John Fritsche Band (Fezz’s father). He also played with the Six Fat Dutchmen and the Babe Wagner Band, managing the latter for two years after Babe’s death in 1949. Scheid founded his own Hoolerie Band in 1951 and became one of the most popular groups in New Ulm (the “Polka Capital of the Nation”), performing for the next 50 years. The band recorded fifteen albums on the Epic, Decca, Polka City, Pleasant Peasant, Czech Records, Oxboro, and Soma labels. As the demand for “old-time” music declined in the 50s and 60s, Scheid worked as a custodian at 3M in New Ulm and later tended bar at Turner Hall, but traveled with the band on weekends. Fellow musician and concertina player Donnie Klossner said, “The Elmer Scheid band was so popular around here, we usually didn’t have to travel far. When we were younger, many polka band leaders like Johnny Gag and Jerry Schuft wanted to play the concertina like Elmer Scheid because he had such a nice, clean style.” Elmer Scheid was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 1995.
“At the Mill” is the composition “Pode Mlejnem” by Czech composer František Kmoch (1848-1912):
Pode mlejnem, nade mlejnem
husy se pasou, husy se pasou, husy se pasou,
vem Jeníčku, vem flintičku,
zastřel některou, zastřel některou, zastřel některou
Under the mill, over the mill
the geese are grazing, the geese are grazing, the geese are grazing,
take Johnny, take the flintlock,
shoot some, shoot some, shoot some
Já ty husy nezastřelím,
já je dobře znám, já je dobře znám, já je dobře znám,
jsou to husy mé Mařenky,
tam já chodívám, tam já chodívám, tam já chodívám.
I won't shoot the geese
I know them well, I know them well, I know them well
they are my Marenka's geese
that’s where I go, that’s where I go, that’s where I go
Pleasant Peasant was a 1950s - 1960s polka label from Minneapolis, MN, founded by C. B. Brown, who also ran the Lodestar label. Many of the recording artists were descendants of German and Czech immigrants living in the area to the west and southwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul, which included the town of New Ulm, “Polka Capital of the Nation.” [Note: Robert Schumann’s 1848 work, “Fröhlicher Landmann,” is often translated as “Pleasant Peasant.”]
[At the Mill Polka, Elmer Scheid, Pleasant Peasant 44-61, recorded 1961, matrix KB 2692 A]
The flip side of this disk is Tony's Polka: • MINNESOTA POLKA: Elmer...
Polka Playlist: • Polka Time

[@CountryDJDave]

Love❤ that Scheid sound!