Keith Stras was born in Chicago, on October 9, 1961. At an early age, Stras seemed to be interested in entertaining people. His late Uncle Ned Locke, a 25 year veteran of Chicagoland television and radio, was responsible for Stras being bitten by the limelight bug. Ned, a Circus Ringmaster on WGN’s “Bozo Circus” can also be credited for Stras’ other love, the circus. Stras, half Polish and half Italian, was first…
Joey Miskulin is one of Cleveland-Style Polkas’ greatest pillars of musical talent. Plying his many skills in a myriad of ways. Joey has enhanced the quality of Cleveland-style music far and wide. In his most memorable role, Joey, the child prodigy discovered by Chicago’s Roman Possedi, became Frank Yankovic’s featured accordionist at age thirteen, beginning an association that would last over thirty-five years. Frank’s insistence that Joey be included in a Columbia…
*Deceased in 2017* It all started when Jerry Goetsch was a small child, his dad played in a band in the area and his sister and brother also played musical instruments. At 12 or 13 years of age, he began to fall in love with the top polka bands at that time, listening to idol Romy Gosz, Lawrence Duchow, The Six Fat Dutchmen, and Whoopie John. Listening to them was a dream for him.…
Wanda S. Pietrzak was a singer who achieved national acclaim in polka music’s only mother and daughter team, “Wanda and Stephanie.” As half of “Wanda and Stephanie”, known as “American’s Polka Sweethearts,” she recorded many albums. She scored a #1 polka hit in 1971 with a song she wrote, “Lover Oh Lover.” Wanda Koziol was born in Lackawanna, New York and was raised in Chicago in the musical family of Frank…