Lustige Leute Newsletter May 2022

Howdy Friends! 

May is here and it's already hot in Texas!  How has the spring been treating you?  Did you get some bluebonnet photos this year?  They sure were pretty! 

Ross and I are a few days behind with our paperwork.  I've been in overdrive, organizing a road trip for this summer (more on that below), and we didn't have internet access for several days while working out of town last week in New Braunfels, Muenster and Schulenburg.  Then we took a couple of days off this weekend to spend with family, and go out social with friends.  Our Niece was baptized on Saturday morning, which was a very happy occasion.  After that, we went to the Polish Festival to eat as much as we could, and to listen to the amazing musical stylings of Tekla Klebetnico.  Oh my, what fabulous music!  It was so good, we needed more, so we returned on Sunday after church.  Seeing friends, making new friends, eating Polish food and having a little time off put both of us in wonderful moods, and has us ready to take on the stack of work to be done! 

May performances: 

--The Sauer Kraut Grill,734 Crabb River Rd, Richmond, TX; Stubenmusi (pub music) with the Duo 

Thursdays May 12, 26;  6 - 8pm 

-- Rudi Lechner's Restaurant, 2503 Gessner, Houston, TX; 
Saturdays May 14, 28; 6pm - 9pm; Das ist Ross, solo 

-- White Horse Tavern , 400 N Main, Burton, TX; 

Sunday May 15; 6 - 9pm; Dinner and a Show;  $25 admission includes Allison's home cooking.  She will serve a pork steak meal with German potatoes, red cabbage and dessert.  Call / text ahead to make reservations: 979-277-5768.  The shopping will be done a couple of days ahead of time - make sure she has enough on hand to serve you. 

-- Krause's Cafe, 148 S. Castell Street, New Braunfels, TX; 
Wednesday May 25, 6pm - 9pm; Polka Wednesdays with The Duo 

-- Shiner Spring Picnic, KC Park, 102 South Ave G, Shiner, TX; 
Sunday May 29; 10:30am - 1pm - Outside; Wake up with the Das ist Lustig Duo, then stay all day and enjoy the polka party with many of your favorite Texas polka bands! 
Free Admission! 

The homepage of our website reflects every performance except the private ones.  Often when we're on the road, we don't have access to update our facebook pages, but will always (as long as my cell phone works) update the home page on our website if there is a last minute change.  You're always welcome to give us a call or send a text if you want to make sure we're going to be where our calendar shows we're going to be. 

Host your own Backyard party!  Call us for pricing and availability if you have something to celebrate this summer!  There are a couple of Saturdays left in June and August, and they could be yours.  We can play for you as a duo unplugged, or we can bring the sound equipment and specialty folk instruments.  It's always a great time to celebrate good times together accompanied by a little Bier and happy German folk music!  ...of course, in August, you might want to party in air-conditioned comfort.  We do house parties too - we're even housebroken! 

Looking ahead: 

-- Sauer Kraut Grill, Thursdays June 2, 9, July 14, 21 

-- Boerne Village Band Abendkonzerte, Gazebo, Boerne, TX; 
Tuesday June 7; 7:30 - 9pm;  Das ist Lustig Duo specialties show complete with Tanzenfest AND Boerne Village Band! 

-- Hollerbach's Willow Tree Cafe, 205 East 1st Street, Sanford, FL; 
Friday June 17; 7 - 10pm, Saturday June 18; 1 - 4pm & 7 - 109pm, Sunday June 19; 1 - 4pm & 6 - 9pm; 
Dinner and a Show with Das ist Lustig Duo 

-- Road Trip 2022, 11 days Dallas to Milwaukee with stops in Oklahoma, Missouri and Iowa;  Highlight of the trip is Germanfest in Milwaukee! 
Monday July 25 - Friday August 5; Lots of live music, lots of German and even Dutch restaurants to visit, wine tasting, and parties! 

Hosting our trips:  We had to postpone Germany again, so we're going to Wisconsin for the Germanfest instead!   Won't you join us for a fun Road Trip?  This classic American pass-time takes us across 7 states in 11 days!  There's lots of fun planned for an exclusive group of 10 travelers (with Ross and Valina in the driver's seat) of a luxury 15 passenger Mercedes Sprinter!  Most importantly, we'll get to visit several German, and even Dutch restaurants along the way, see some amazing history in the Steamboat Arabia museum in Kansas City, taste some great wines in America's original wine valley, Hermann, MO, and experience one of the best German festivals the USA has to offer, the Milwaukee Germanfest!  They're celebrating their 40 year anniversary, and have invited the Zillertaler Schurzenjager to headline the event!  We'll spend 3 days visiting the festival, and you'll need all that time to experience everything this event has to offer.  See the attached brochure for details, itinerary, and pricing.  There are a few other photos attached as well to show you a little bit more of what we'll get to see and do together!  Four spots are already sold, so contact Valina for a registration form! 

If you'd like to join us for travel in the future, we'd love to hear from you!  There have been requests to return to Austria, The Netherlands, requests to do a Christmas Market tour, and interest in expanding our travel to different places around the US.  We tailor these trips to your wishes!  You can even ask us to organize and host a private trip for you and 15 - 20 guests!  We will be attempting our visit to Germany and Prague in the summer of 2024 if things stabilize.  Stay tuned! 

Website:  You can always find out what's happening with us at http://www.prostyall.com.  We update our calendar as information becomes available, and always keep the upcoming gigs and last minute changes on the home page.  The shop page https://www.prostyall.com/shop has koozies! (they fit party cups, pint glasses and Wurstfest cups!)  The famous "Prost Y'all" sign is in stock and available for sale too!  Won't that look awesome on the wall of your favorite relaxation spot!  We also have shirts; including the brand new "Das ist Ross" shirts!  Hat pins, and CD's that can make lunch at the office a little more like a Biergarten! Who doesn't love a 45 minute escape mid-day? 

Social Media:  You can find us on Facebook, and Youtube.  You can subscribe to our Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/valinapolka , friend us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/valinapolka  "like" us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prostyall/  We have an instagram, but don't know how to use it. 

Behind the scenes:  Like I said above, we just had the most wonderful weekend visiting the Polish Festival in Houston and listening to Tekla Klebetnica.  That is one heck of a world class duo.  It was also a wonderful treat to see so many of you at the Muenster Germanfest last weekend!  We had a crazy split shift style schedule, but it provided us a nice long day on Saturday to visit with everyone.  Something we both have been craving for a long time.   Ross' shoulder is no longer in constant pain, and he's gained most of his strength back.  I'm glad to see him able to relax, and able to lift heavy stuff again.  I'm strong, but not as strong as he is, and our equipment is heavy!  As many of you know, Jeff retired from drumming, so we've been searching for a new drummer, or two, or three.  Lynn had to back out of the performance with us in Muenster, so we asked Paul from the Alpenmusikanten to sit in with us, and what a treat that was!  I think Paul has a sixth sense for what's going to happen in songs.  It was like we'd been playing together all along.  We've continued our drummer search, and will be welcoming Eric Miculka back in the band for Fort Worth Oktoberfest, and hopefully Wurstfest.  Rick Weiss will join us for some of the Houston shows, and long road tours to Clyde, TX, Tulsa OK and possibly Kansas City, MO (all of these tours are currently in negotiations), and Michael Bahan will be with us in Addison, Tx.  We'll have our first rehearsal with Rick this Saturday, and we're excited.  He's worked with Robert Herridge, who will be in almost all of our Oktoberfest shows this fall.  The fall season is shaping up to be great!

That's all for this newsletter.  Your support and friendship means a lot to us!  We hope some of you will be able to travel with us this summer.  Stay healthy, stay safe, share a smile with a stranger.  We hope we get to "prost y'all" sometime soon!

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