Editor's note: This story was produced for the ear and designed to be heard. If you're able, WCMU encourages you to listen to the audio version of this story by clicking the LISTEN button above. This transcript was edited for clarity and length.
Rick Brewer: She's been called Frankenmuth's “Polka sweetheart” and one of the only few women to lead a polka band in the country. Linda Lee of Midland has spent the past 50 years dazzling crowds around America and at Frankenmuth's Bavarian Inn.
Last year, she received the National Cleveland Style Polka Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement award.
WCMU's Tina Sawyer recently sat down with Linda Lee to learn about how her decades-long journey in polka. She began the conversation talking about when her love for accordions started.
Linda Lee : Seven years old, my parents presented me with an accordion, a little 12 base. And got me into lessons never knowing or thinking that this was going to be my career.
LL: Yeah, my dad worked at a school and he took me to room to room. He was proud of me.
Tina Sawyer: That's Linda performing recently at the Green Acres nursing home in Mount Pleasant.
LL: Mother would drag me to church banquets and Eastern Star and she wasn't a member there, but she took me there wherever she could take me. Had me play.
TS: Linda continued her musical education through middle and high school in Bay City, and learned other instruments like sax and clarinet in the band. At Delta College, she was involved in orchestra and band, but her degree wasn't in music. She became a...
LL: Medical assistant. It's because I love spelling and there was a lot of medical words that took a lot of thought, like sphygmomanometer and this and that, and I'd like to spell and put words together. (Laughs) What a stupid reason. Well, about four or five years of that, and I thought, 'I pass out when I see a bag of blood. I don't think this is for me.'
TS: So Linda hung up the stethoscope, and that's when she met the love of her life, Roger, who later became her band's audio engineer, and started a family. She had three children, and it may have seemed Linda was done with music, but music wasn't done with her.
LL: The Midland County Fair Holiday 74, I think it was called, and we saw the musicians there and the guy was playing an organ-accordion. That was a turning point. Organ-accordion combination. My husband loved organ and I loved accordion, but this sounded like both. He decided to get me one.
TS: It's known as the Cordovox and was a newer type of accordion in the 1970s. Linda volunteered to play the classical tunes she knew how to play on it at Holiday 74 in Midland, and that caught the attention of one Midland City official.
LL: Then the mayor of Midland, Julius Blasey, he was the pivotal person in my life. He also coached the speed skaters like Eric Hayden. He called me up one day, he says, 'I want you to come to my house tonight and play.'
Wow. And he wants me to come over and play. Well when we got to his house, he had a garage full of people. He had planned a party. He did have a polka band there. He didn't put me on the spot. But he discovered that I couldn't play polkas! So I think a day or two later, he came over to my house with stacks of records... of Marv Herzog... 'you listen!' So he pounded polkas into me, and he was by my side, and he believed in me.
TS: And mid Michigan's "Polka Queen" was born. Linda then became very busy playing clubs and festivals all around Michigan. With family being the center of her world, Linda only had one rule...
LL: Well, I would not take a job unless my kids could go with me. I'm a mom. So when I had an afternoon job, the clubs were a little bit different. So then the daytime jobs, I'd take my kids with me. We decided to make them part of the show. The Brown family singers.
TS: The Brown family Singers sang along with Linda's band, The Golden Aires, for a few years. But like most kids do, they grow up and develop their own interests. Because of her love of entertaining, Linda and the band continued playing around the state and country. Then in 1991, the Bavarian Inn and Frankenmuth hired Linda as their entertainment coordinator. And made her band house musicians, and there they stayed until her retirement last year, Linda says. Although she's slowed down a bit now, there's just something about the music that keeps her playing.
LL: It's great music, it's happy music and we play for all generations. I still play in Frankenmuth. I retired from Bavarian Inn last September, from full time and decided to migrate into homes.
TS: Homes like Green Acres nursing home in Mount Pleasant.
LL: (Linda performing at Green Acres and talking to crowd) My name is Linda Lee. This is my husband, Roger. And then I got my dog with me. My doggie down here.
LL: At one of my places that I play...The one guy just stared. And I was told he was a famous drummer in New York. And so I really try to reach out to them so they would always set him next to me. He grabbed my hand, he wouldn't let go. They told me he played jazz and big bands. So I played that and he opened up and start tapping his foot. So I knew I crossed the barrier. That's gives me joy.
TS: And although effects of music on the brain are complex, some studies in music therapy interventions for dementia patients have found music like polka can offer some benefits to older patients who suffer from cognitive decline. But despite all the science behind it, Linda and her bandmates Tommy, Mike, Darrell, Devin and her husband Roger, and the many retired musicians who have helped them along the way, they play because it feels good and they don't really realize the impact that they do have.
LL: You don't know what you do for people. That's what I hear. You don't know what you do for us, and I really don't. I'm doing my thing. I'm having fun. We're kind to people. We love people, and that's just because we love our job and I love Bavarian Inn. They were good to me. And we don't know how long we're gonna be here. It's really important. Yeah, it's been a great...It's been a great life, 50 years in music. No regrets.
To find out more about where Linda Lee is still performing, click here.
