One of my all time favourite category-defying bands is Trout Fishing in America. The name already gives it away – they took their name from the title of a peculiar countercultural novel by Richard Brautigan. The slimster challenges anyone to read the book. And not laugh uproariously during the experience.
Trout Fishing in America claims to provide “music for people who take their fun seriously.” Well, they have a worthy equal on the musical stage – Toronto’s own Polka Dogs. They have been around for a quarter century or more, though not always present in the public eye. Unique, certainly, consider that there is probably no other performing group in the world that is comprised of banjo, accordion, tuba, trombone and drums. Our own Tiina Kiik is the accordionist, heard most recently with Roosi Lindau during Estonian Music Week. At that time the slender one was able to score a copy of Polka Dogs’ brand new CD The Bee. As a humourous aside Jaymz Bee, leader of the Royal Jelly Orchestra, JazzFM91.1 radio figure was not only at Sassafraz, where Tiina was playing, but prominent throughout EMW.
The leader of Polka Dogs is composer/producer/banjoist/lyricist/voca...
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