[lively polka music] - Gary Brueggen: I met my wife at a polka dance in Wisconsin.

There's the stereotype right there.

[both chuckle] The typical, you know, you're from Wisconsin.

Yes, I met my wife at a polka dance.

I was dancing before I was playing music, and that's the way she was too.

And Mason, our drummer, was that way, and my wife was that way.

- Matti Brueggen: Mm-hmm.

I remember going to dances and learning how to dance in my basement with my grandma and my mom, and that was really fun.

- Our family is of German and Bohemian or Czech heritage.

My relation came over in the mid 1800s.

They came here and most of them played instruments and settled around western Wisconsin.

Yeah, back in the day, they would carry their instruments and walk, oh, 30 whatever miles it was from Cashton to La Crosse to go play music.

So, it goes back quite a ways.

[bright polka music] I was, like, the 17th generation.

Started in the band, I was nine years old.

I played my first gig in April of 1982 on drums.

And then I gradually moved over to concertina, and here I am today.

- I think I officially joined the band when I was like, three or four.

It honestly just came really natural because I was going to dances so much and I learned to really love polka so much.

So, I was just like, "Yeah, I really wanna be a part of this."

- Gary: In our band currently, I play concertina, and then I run bass, and then my wife Brianne plays piano.

Our daughter Matelynn sings.

Our oldest son, Mason, is 16.

He's our drummer.

And then we have a nine-year-old son, Maverick, who also sings with us.

[bright polka music] This is a concertina.

The difference between the accordion and the concertina, an accordion, all of the notes in and out, it's the same.

The concertina is modeled after, like, a harmonica, where each note in and out, push or draw, is a different note.

[plays note] So, I'm pushing in a little bit and I'll do the same note, but I'll pull out-- - And it'll be different.

[lower note] Yeah.

- So, one note, push in, [higher note] pull out.

[lower note] - It's different.

- Like a harmonica.

There's no rhyme and reason to how they made the concertina.

It's like a typewriter, you know?

You would think a typewriter, A through Z and then type.

No, that's hunt and peck.

And that's the way a concertina is.

[plays note] So, the pushing is, that's a D. You pull, [higher note] there's an A chord.

And here's the D on a pull, [plays note] which I just did here on a push, same thing.

[plays note] And now, here's a G.

[higher note] And then, here's a C.

[plays note] Here's an F [plays note] with a B-flat [plays note] and here's an E-flat.

[plays note] Oh, and there's an A-flat too.

[higher note] It's not a simple instrument, no, no.

And in fact, I've been doing this for 40 whatever years and I'm still learning on it.

Like, if I'm at a festival and I have a chance to watch another player, odds are I'm gonna learn something.

I've been playing it self-taught for so many years that I'll see how they're doing a certain run, or they'll play something and I'll be like, "That's a really pretty chord.

I've never played that one."

And then, when we're off on break, I'll say, "How did you do that?"

We'll do it together, and then he'll show me.

So, I learn from watching others.

♪ One, two, three, won't you polka with me?

♪ ♪ Come turn that sad into a smile ♪ ♪ Four, five, six ♪ ♪ A polka will fix a broken heart ♪ ♪ In just a little while ♪ - I am currently learning saxophone and piano, which I'm hoping to one day join the band with those instruments.

I think just seeing all of the different styles of polka, and that it's so important to our family and it's in our heritage.

And I was just like, "I wanna be part of that."

- So, we're lucky because, like, even if you go to a Milwaukee Brewer game and the seventh inning stretch, you're gonna hear the "Beer Barrel Polka" and the "Chicken Dance."

So, it's a part of the culture.

So, like a German song.

[steady polka music] Very marchy.

Very, almost sounds like a big marching band, you know?

Where the Polish style, little more upbeat, instrumentation is gonna be a lot different.

Like, instead of tubas, you're gonna have bass guitars, or midi bass, depending on the band.

Trumpets or trumpet, sax, clarinet combo, bellows shaking accordions.

♪ Hey ♪ [bright polka music] The definition of bellows shaking, so, you know, they're doing this, da-na-na-na-na-na, I can't do... [rapid concertina notes] ...that because in and out's a different note.

I can mimic it though.

I can, [quick concertina notes] So, that's a version of bellows shaking.

You're doing it in rhythm with, like, the bass and the drums.

That's way easier to do on accordion.

You're just standing there and doing this.

- It's a lot of arm work if you do it that way.

- Yes, well, that's... Yep.

[Matti laughs] [Gary laughs] - I just think it's so cool that we can, as a band, let people let loose a little bit and give 'em a good day.

- Gary: There's no words that really describe how proud I am and honored to be able to do this with my family.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

♪ Dee da da da ♪ ♪ Dee da da dee da dee da da ♪ ♪ Yoo hoo hoo!

♪ [lively polka music] ♪ Somebody scream!

♪ ♪ Ah!

♪