Lustige Leute Newsletter May / June 2021

Howdy Friends! 

Sunny warm days and summer greetings to you!  (Can you tell I typed that when the weather was pretty?  Now, it's more like soggy squishy!)  If you're in Texas, it was feeling like early summer for several weeks, but now it's rain on top of more rain.  Guess we're making up for the dry spell since the snow in February.  Regardless of the rain, people are out and about!  Beaches, parks, rivers and dance halls have been quite busy!  It's so wonderful to be reuniting with old friends and hearing all of the laughter as people get together again! 

We had a lot of "invitation only" sorts of events early in May, I've been so busy in the office working on getting new venues scheduled in June and July, finalizing everything for Tomball's German festival and communicating with places in Europe that time just slipped by!  The band will be busy again through June, which is a good thing, and we're excited about it all! 

May / June performances: 

Thursdays May 27, June 10, 17, 24, The Sauer Kraut Grill at 734 Crabb River Rd, in Richmond, Texas from 6 - 8pm.  Stubenmusi (pub style performance - unplugged!)  Owner Eric is almost always there, cooking, serving and visiting with clients.  They have excellent food, and a great Bier (lots of import, and local craft brews, even some Altstadt!) and Wein selection!  Picnic tables outside if you like to dine in the fresh air.  We'll come out and play for you if you like, just ask us! 

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, June 4 - 6; Tomball German Heritage Festival in Tomball, Texas!  Located on Market Street between Elm and Pine. Three days of fun the way only Tomball can make it!  4 stages of continuous German and polka music with a little American and bluegrass sprinkled in.  Folk dancers, cloggers, contests, games, and a big celebration for the long awaited 20th anniversary!  We hope you can join us out there!  Admission, parking and shuttle are all FREE!  Ross plays solo on Friday night in the German Heritage Center.  The 4 piece band with Robert Herridge and Glen Renfro plays Saturday from 1:30 - 5, and Sunday 12pm - 2pm, all at the Grady Und Sandra Platz located near the corner of Pine and Market.  The festival is still free admission and still offers free parking and shuttle on Saturday and Sunday!   Need some motivation?  Check out this video made with many of you!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTs-9d-NbJo 

THIS ONE IS PENDING please check the website for updates before departing: Friday June 11; Bavarian Brauhaus, 109 N. Main, Bryan, TX, from 6:30 - 10pm.  No passport necessary!  Walk through the doors, and be immediately transported to Bavaria, as this restaurant's interior has been decorated 100% with fixtures and furniture imported from Bavaria!  Import beers, and traditional German menu too!  Since the place is connected to an Irish bar (where everything was imported from Ireland), you can even have a Guinness with your Schnitzel! 

Wednesday June 16; Momma's at Sengelmann, 531 N Main St, Schulenburg, TX, from 6 - 9pm.  Delicious American homestyle dishes, pizza, and daily specials.  Great bar with friendly service. 

Friday June 18; The White Horse Tavern, 400 N Main, Burton, TX, from 7pm - 10pm.  This is a brand new venue for us that we hope will be a fun place for you to join us!  The owner, Allison is also a musician playing accordion and singing.  She does a lot of the cooking and serving herself, so you're guaranteed a warm welcome and true Texas hospitality! 

Sunday June 27; Nathan's BBQ, 1307 Prairie Lea, Brenham, TX (but access to the parking lot is from the feeder rd of 290), from 3 - 6pm.  This will be our first time playing for this venue, and we can't wait! "The Brenham Banner-Press Reader's Choice "Best Barbecue" 6 Years in Row 2015-2020! "  Polka music on Sundays is a new thing for them, so come out and let them know you enjoy a little polka with your BBQ and Beer! 

Looking ahead: 

Thursdays at the Sauer Kraut Grill continue in July and August. 

Friday July 9; The White Horse Tavern, 400 N Main, Burton, TX 

Sunday July 25 at Krause's Cafe in New Braunfels, TX 

Host your own "we're vaccinated" party!  Call us for pricing and availability if you have something to celebrate in July / August!  We're available to play for you as a duo unplugged, or we can bring all of our specialty folk instruments, have our fiddler, tubist or drummer join us, and even bring a party pack of Paulaner goodies with us to set the atmosphere, and fun gifts for the host! 

Hosting our trips to Europe will resume as soon as international travel is wide open again, and boy do we hope that will be possible in 2022!  We have postponed that wonderful itinerary to Germany and the Czech Republic once more.  We now will depart on Tuesday June 7, 2022.  That trip will end on Tuesday June 21.  A second trip will begin with departure from the US on Wednesday June 22 and end on Thursday July 7.  The second trip will visit Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany's Black Forest.  We are watching Europe closely for updates.  Things seem to be slowly improving with more vaccinations happening there.  We are bound by many factors beyond our control, but will do our best to provide you the best experience we can.  If you'd like to join us for travel to Europe in the future, we'd love to have you!  Our small groups have a ton of fun together!  There will be an option to go on both trips, so if you're interested, please let us know!  We'll make sure to give you all the details as they come in. 

Website:  You can always find out what's happening with us at http://www.prostyall.com.  We update our calendar as information becomes available, and always keep the upcoming gigs and last minute changes on the home page.  The shop page https://www.prostyall.com/shop has brand new koozies that fit party cups, pint glasses and Wurstfest cups!  The famous "Prost Y'all" license plate is now available for sale too!  We should still have enough to have them available through the weekend in Tomball.  Won't that look awesome on the wall of your favorite relaxation spot!  There's a photo of it attached to this e-mail.  We also have lots of shirts, hat pins, and CD's that can make great gifts for your Biergarten loving friends.  Check the calendar page for Oktoberfest dates; they're starting to confirm schedules.  We'll be in Addison, Fort Worth, Houston, Oklahoma City, and are pending to go to Tulsa, New Braunfels, and New Orleans! 

Social Media:  We can be found on Facebook, and Youtube.  You can subscribe to our Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/valinapolka , friend us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/valinapolka  "like" us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prostyall/  We have an instagram, but don't know how to use it, and we check in on our MeWe about once a week. 

Behind the scenes:  Yep, we are doing a few little side jobs here and there to help keep our bills paid.  We worked for 4 days making little repairs to sheet rock, painting and cleaning for my brother and sister in love at their new house before they moved in.  I used to apprentice under a friend who taught me how to do some basic sheetrock taping, floating, texturing and painting, so those old skills were put to use!  I enjoy painting.  Looking at the finished product is quite rewarding!  We finished that job May 7, and since then have been back to our music business.  While I've been in the office, Ross has been taking an old accordion apart and working on it to see if it can be restored.  It is a button chromatic accordion made in Sweden.  He's also learning to play a clarinet he bought in The Netherlands a few years ago and had restored.  I have no idea if either of those instruments will make it on the stage any time soon, but cross training is as important to us musicians as it is to an athlete or dancer.   I'm enjoying my workouts on my bike, going 12 miles 2 or 3 days a week.  It's a good way to train my body to endure high energy performances in the Texas summer heat.   I'm just about finished with the paperwork for the Tomball German Heritage festival coming up in 9 days!  Now I'm knee deep in building a tour to Switzerland and Germany's Black Forest.  The hotels are finally beginning to respond to my requests.  The one hotel who responded with a very warm and enthusiastic reply is the one we chose.  That's the kind of service we want for our guests!  I'm also protesting ridiculous high property taxes (which make no sense, because everything around us sold for less than asking price and for much less than the county appraisal last year!) and working on the songs I wrote last year.  Oh, and Ross and I are both now fully vaccinated, so we are genetically modified super humans!  ...well, according to the statistics, we're no longer a danger to anyone around us, and that's very important to us! 

We're thankful for you, our friends who enjoy and support our music, and who read our monthly mailers.  We're thankful things are opening up and people are getting out again!  Y'all stay healthy, stay safe and we hope to see you somewhere soon!

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