Courtesy Photo / Krause’s Café & Biergarten Revered polka artist Alex Meixner has moved to New Braunfels to increase the musical profile of Krause’s Café.
Accordionist Alex Meixner has been bringing his polkas with a rock-show energy to New Braunfels’ annual Wurstfest since 1999. The musician has become such a fixture, in fact, that he’s treated like a returning local every time he hits the city on tour.
Now Meixner is making those ties permanent by relocating from Florida to New Braunfels as part of an agreement with restaurant and music venue Krause’s Café & Biergarten. Besides playing shows with his band for special events such as Oktoberfest and Maifest, he’s tasked with bringing big-name acts to Krause’s, along with presentations on city history and culture.
“[Polka’s] been considered a dead genre for my entire lifetime,” said Meixner, the son of esteemed accordionist and band leader Al Meixner. “But I look at my crowd size at Wurstfest and at Oktoberfest in [New York City’s] Central Park. People are looking for an authentic experience. You want to make sure it’s the real thing. We want to present music in a fashion that connects with the audience and to the food.”
The younger Meixner, a multi-instrumentalist with formidable jazz chops, is among the artists incorporating wider influences into polka while trying to stay true to its roots. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his 2007 album Polka Freak Out, a collaboration with Bubba Hernandez of Brave Combo, another outfit known for expanding polka’s boundaries.
Chris Snider, Krause’s owner, said he travels frequently to Midwestern Rust Belt cities where polka bands have a strong foothold. While members of those ensembles haven’t heard of his venue or New Braunfels, “the one thing we have in common is Alex.”
Soul of the place
Snider sees higher-profile musical acts as a way to raise the profile of Krause’s, a longtime New Braunfels staple, reopened in 2017 under his father Ron, who died last year. The business’ moniker hearkens back to the original owners, but the location bears no resemblance to the old-school restaurant and coffee shop it was for decades.
During their time at the helm, the Sniders have created a German beer hall feel, adding a massive pavilion, long tables and benches. More recently, they built a covered beer garden and stage just outside the hall. The kitchen is also about to undergo a major renovation, and a weekend farmers market fills the parking lot every weekend.
Live music, however, became the soul of the place as booker Debbie Chandler filled the schedule with dozens of bands monthly, especially during the tourist season. The venue even keeps the sounds rolling in winter months thanks to gas fire pits throughout the biergarten.
Wednesday nights are always “German Nights” at Krause’s, but Meixner plans to bring even more polka groups to the stage throughout the week, including some for ticketed events. The arrangement — which augments Chandler’s ongoing efforts — is through Meixner’s talent agency AM Management, which he formed in 2014 to book bands at biergartens around the country.
Meixner and other touring polka acts couldn’t keep up with requests to play in late September through October, when hundreds of U.S. communities with Central European heritage put on Oktoberfest celebrations. That led to him connecting a broader array of groups with venues and festivals.
“I couldn’t be in 11 different venues at once the first weekend in October,” Meixner explained.
Rebuilding a scene
Once a year-round staple, polka bands have survived lean decades by playing Oktoberfests and U.S. festivals celebrating German, Czech, Polish and other Central European cultures. In Texas, church picnics in towns settled by those nationalities remain the bread and butter for many polka musicians, including touring ones, said Gary Mckee, editor of Texas Polka News and PolkaBeat.com.
“Polka was pretty much dead in the New Braunfels area,” except for the 10-days of Wurstfest, Mckee said. The reopening of Krause’s in its new form started to change that. “Krause’s has been great at keeping polka alive.”
Meixner is a genre star who will turn out audiences, but Mckee said he also hopes the musician’s new connection with Krause’s can help bring in top Midwestern acts such as Barefoot Becky & the Ivanhoe Dutchman.
Starting in the late 1960s, polka music became the butt of jokes, but it’s shedding its stigma as a broader audience, including young people, rediscover the form, according to Mckee. Dancing to the music, oft referred to as “aerobics with beer,” is packing venues again, and a big name on the circuit can sell out 800 tickets in just a few hours in the small Texas town of Hallettsville.
Mckee would like to see that kind of enthusiasm for the music become widespread throughout the year. And with Meixner now rooted in New Braunfels, that might come to be.