ERIC NOLTKAMPER
Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Slovenian-style Polka
Eric Noltkamper's life as a musician has followed an unusual arch - from one accordion-playing Yankovic to another. At 13, he was inspired by the popular music of "Weird Al" Yankovic to learn to play accordion and within a couple of years he was performing with "America's Polka King" Frankie Yankovic, whom Eric still considers the single most important influence on his career.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1972, Eric began taking lessons at age thirteen from Larry Hallar, a very popular St. Louis player and gained additional exposure to the polka music played at the Black Forest Restaurant in St. Louis and the Polish and Croatian halls in nearby Madison, Illinois. After teaching himself the banjo at 14, he was soon playing at picnics and dances with the founder of the St. Louis Button Box Club, Art Treppler, and his band. He had been playing banjo for only nine months when he was first invited to play with Frankie Yankovic's band, filling in for a band member whose vehicle had broken down en route to a gig in Saint Louis. Eric continued to play with the band, off and on, until Frankie died in 1998.
During his college days in Madison, Wisconsin, played second accordion with Gordon Hartmann and his fancy-fingered Polkaholic. It was Eric's first steady band work and it allowed him to mingle with many of Wisconsin's best musicians: Jeff Winard, Verne and Steve Meisner, and Eddie Blazonczyk (and his Versatones), with whom he later toured.
While touring with Hartmann in Ohio in the early 90s, Eric met Nancy Hlad, herself a button-box accordionist who had grown up in a Slovenian neighborhood in Cleveland. They married in 1998 and together run polkas.com, one of the world's largest polka websites, Eric runs GreenGuy, his own recording studio and teaches button accordion lessons; Nancy occasionally performs with Eric.
According to polka specialist, Rick March, "Eric is one of the outstanding younger musicians continuing the legacy of both the modernized style of Slovenian polka that Frankie Yankovic popularized beginning in the 1940s and _ like his wife Nancy _ is an excellent player of the diatonic button accordion in the earlier folk Slovenian style."
Eric's honors from the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame include Best New/Young Band (1999); Best New Band (2000); Sideman of the Year (2003); and Musician of the Year (2006). He also appears on six Grammy-nominated recordings.
Links
www.imspb.com/Home_Page.php
www.ericnoltkamperband.com/bio.htm
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