'Button
box' buddies in Grammy running
By Kelly Urbano
[ A reprint from the Warren Tribune Chronicle (Warren,
Ohio) on Sunday 2/21/99 ]
When Ray Kovac was 6, his father died and left
him two accordions.
Kovac said he "messed around a little bit," but was discouraged
by his inability to master the "button box," an accordion with button keys
on both sides. His father, the late John Kovac, was so proficient
on the button box in the 1930s that he was inducted into the Cleveland
Polka Hall of Fame posthumously.
It wasn't until more than 30 years after inheriting his
dad's button boxes that something finally clicked between Ray Kovac and
the instrument.
"I was in my 40s, and I would watch Polka Varieties on
Sundays, and I would see these kids playing the button box with no problem,
and I thought, 'I can do that,'" Kovac said. "Then, I just
started playing. It was the first time, it just...happened."
Now, more than 26 years later, the accordion sounds of
Kovac and his friend and button box partner, Al Romain, appear on Del Sinchak
Band recording "Let the Sunshine In," nominated for a Grammy Award for
Polka album of the year.
Both Lordstown residents brought their button box accordions
to the Tribune Chronicle recently and explained how difficult it is to
achieve the right sound with this type of accordion. As opposed to
the traditional keyboard variety of accordion, the buttons make one sound
when pushed in and another when released.
Kovac lifted his accordion out of its box, and before
it makes a sound, what is immediately striking is how beautiful it is.
Made by Cleveland resident Anton Mervar in the 1920s,
Kovac's instrument is jade green, with elaborately detailed paintings of
angels and flowers in various shades of green and blue.
And it's heavy. Wearing the piece over the shoulder
for about 30 seconds is enough to make one's shoulder ache.
"Yeah, it hurts after a while," Kovac said.
Negotiating the hulking instrument while pressing it in
and out to generate the wind that makes the sound -- all the while pushing
the buttons -- takes coordination.
There are four rows of buttons on the right side of the
instrument that make the melody sound. Each of the four rows represents
a certain key. Because there are only four rows, each accordion only
has four keys.
"So if someone wants to sing in A flat, I have to use
another button box," Kovac, whose accordion has notes G, C, B, and B flat.
Two rows of buttons on the left side play the bass sound.
Romain said he started on the keyboard or "piano accordion"
when he was just 7 or 8. His Polish uncles on his mother's side of
the family, inspired his interest. Despite the Polish roots of the
keyboard accordion, Romain said he's always preferred the Slovenian sounds
of the button box.
Kovac and Romain started playing their button boxes together
in the 1970s, "Strolling" at Octoberfests and polka masses and playing
at weddings.
The pair play less and less at weddings, though, something
both attributed to a greater use of disc jockeys.
They met in 1976, after Kovac's son came home from school
to say a classmate's father (Romain) also played the button box.
"Al knows music more than I do," Kovac said.
Bother said their children had a proclivity toward rock
music.
The Grammy Awards, which Kovac plans to attend, will be
televised.
Even if they don't win, the musicians say they are heartened
by having played on one of the only five Polka albums to be nominated.
"Just to be nominated is an honor -- a thrill," Romain
said.
"Even if we don't win, we know we've achieved something,"
Kovac said.
