Alfred Vrazel – Pioneer Category – Inducted 2014

  Alfred Vrazel was born to parents of Moravian descent on September 6, 1940 on their family farm near Cameron, Texas.  His interest in music started early in life.  At the age of 10 he persuaded his parents into buying him a 2-row Hohner button accordion.  Three years later and after a lot of practice, Alfred, along with his brother Anton, and their three cousins, started a band they named “Vrazels’ Playboys” later becoming, as…

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Johnny Vadnal – Living Category – Inducted 1987

  *Deceased in 2008* Even to aficionados, most polka bands sound familiar.  If you tune in to the middle of a song on the radio, you will have a hard time distinguishing one band from another.   This is not true of the Johnny Vadnal Orchestra.  It has always had a unique sound, different from everybody else in the polka world, mostly because of Vadnal’s way of playing the dominant accordion instrument.  Vadnal’s accordion has…

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