Roger Bright: Beer Garden Polkas

Let’s celebrate the New Glarus’ musician born on February 12, 1935

Feb 09, 2024

There is no debate. The best polka festival in Wisconsin is the New Glarus Polkafest. Sure, other festivals may be bigger or older. But the charm and the music you’ll find under the big blue tent in downtown New Glarus in early June is the best Wisconsin has to offer.

For just over 30 years, the New Glarus Polkafest has been held in the memory of Roger Bright who was born in Wisconsin’s “Little Switzerland” on February 12, 1935. Bright was a polka Hall of Famer who was a prolific, lifelong musician who released 15 albums, produced 35 albums for other bands, and recorded with Frankie Yankovic. He was also the host of the Roger Bright Show on WEKZ-AM 1260 in Monroe, Wisconsin on Sundays. WEKZ is still on the air and plays classic country.

If I had a time machine, I’d hop in and zoom back to a time when Roger and his band played on the stage at the New Glarus Hotel. You can find some more fun photos of that stage on drummer and DJ Craig Ebel’s website.

I’ll play some of Bright’s Slovenian-style-with-a-Swiss-vibe songs from the Beer Garden Polkas album which features Joey Miskulin (accordion), Roger Pulver (banjo), Bobby Lorenz (piano) and Karl Gmur (string bass) with vocals by Gene Tebo and Robbie Schneider.

Listen to this week’s episode of Polka Time with DJ Shotski to hear “So You Think You’re Smart” by Roger Bright as well as “Home, Home Why Go Home?” The show will air LIVE on 98.7 FM WVMO on Sunday, February 11. Tune in on your terrestrial dial in Monona or on Madison’s east side or stream it online. The show will rebroadcast on participating stations the following weekend.

All stations stream on the web at the links below. All times CST.