Bruce Bradley Mielke 11146 State Highway 15 Brownton MN 55312 (320) 587-7283 eve (320) 328-4122 Work Samples Audio: La La La Polka Die Kleine Kneipe Strawberry, Raspberry Polka To hear the work samples, Windows Media Player is required. If you do not have it installed, you can download it for free here: Download Windows Media Player

Bruce Bradley Band European music The band provides German, Slovenian, and Polish music in their authentic forms. We also sing in all three languages. The band provides lively European music with a danceable tempo. We dress in lederhosen or Slovenian attire. We appear at festivals and fairs all over the United States. We received the Minnesota Ballroom Operators Band of the Year award in 1996, 1998 and 2002. We have produced five recordings and do a weekly radio program of ethnic music. Our goal is to leave our audiences with a fun-filled appreciation of our music. Available: The band is available seven days a week at any time of the day. There are no mileage restrictions. Space: We need approximately a 20 ft. stage area or larger. We provide our own sound equipment, but require a 110-volt power outlet. Fee: Negotiable

Additional Information:
Folk music exists in a state of change. Players are influenced not only by the history of their style. They are affected by other styles they encounter, as well as technology, and the music business. If they ignore those forces, they run the danger of becoming irrelevant to their audiences. The Bruce Bradley band reflects two of Bruce's desires: to be involved with the Minnesota ethnic music style he grew up with, and his hope to secure a place in the future for this music.
Bruce remembers fourteen years of piano lessons as a child. His father once traded a pony for an accordion, and he had lessons on that instrument also. All of this background paid off in 1969, when a chance encounter with a band from Las Vegas led to a lengthy career in music. The encounter occurred in Olivia, at a restaurant called the Sheep Shed. As part of hospitality arrangements for its business colleagues, the Trojan Seed Company brought in the band for a two week run. However, the band lacked a keyboardist, and Bruce was in the right place at the right time. When the band left town, Bruce left with them. In time, Bruce became the music director for this group, which played Caesar's Palace, performing everything from Hawaiian music to top 40 covers.
After thirteen years, weary of the constant travel, Bruce returned to Brownton determined to play ethnic music at a professional level. The exposure to the world of professional music affected his presentation. While Bradley respected the established styles of polka music, Bradley viewed embracing whatever was popular with audiences as a key to success. That philosophy included playing many of the tune types and tunes that polka bands would play. However, while it plays polkas and waltzes, the Bradley band considers itself an ethnic band, and emphasizes its singing in sing in German, Czech, Slovenian and Polish. In addition, the group enjoys combining its style of playing with popular music from Europe and the United states. For example, the group performs "Yakkety Sax" as a polka, and it recasts a recent popular song from Germany, "Who the Hell is Alice," as a polka played with a rock beat.
In addition to the midi-accordion, he band's current instrumental lineup also includes keyboard, sax, clarinet, banjo and guitar, and a drummer, and they are adding an alphorn player/yodeler. Their instrumentation indicates their fondness for polka music in general, but not for any specific style of polka. Although they are from the area of New Ulm, they do not feature the concertina, the instrument typically identified with New Ulm music. The band feels that German-based polka music is well represented on the piano accordion played through a midi synthesizer, and that the instrumentation helps the group approach Slovenian-based polkas and waltzes, as well as popular music, effectively.
Bruce believes that their style of ethnic music is a living musical entity. The synthesis that is the Bruce Bradley band is a response to changes in the market designed to keep it that way.