The tents are down and the dirndls are at the drycleaners, but this year’s Oktoberfest may be remembered for the birth of a new kind of festival music; polk hop, a combination of polka and hip hop.  

   The Kitchener Polka was recorded by Kitchener-born artist James Lanbro, (aka MC Jimi Maze), and is getting lots of play on Youtube. “It’s the next generation of Okoberfest music,” said Lanbro of his catchy kazoo-driven polka song that is geared toward younger people.  

   Lanbro wrote the Kitchener Polka in September 2010 for a show he did at the Boathouse for last year’s Oktoberfest. He decided to record it, and finished it just in time for this year’s festival. 

   On Thanksgiving Monday he shot the video that features stunning views of Victoria Park, downtown Kitchener and City Hall. 

   Lanbro explained that his first visit to the Oktoberfest parade was back before he was born, when his mom, Andrea, was eight months pregnant. “She said I kicked along to all the drum beats. I have polka in my blood,” Lanbro said with a laugh. 

   Lanbro hit the road when he was 18 years old, playing in pubs across Canada and in the United States. He changed his name from James Brown (which he thought might not be so helpful to his career) to James Lanbro, a combination of his mother’s and father’s surnames.  

   His father, Robert Brown, was a math professor at the University of Waterloo, and served as an alderman for the City of Waterloo from 1988 to 1994. His parents have now retired to British Columbia, but James still visits Kitchener to perform and see friends. 

   His four-member touring band is called Canary Mine. They describe themselves as “folk-hop rockers.” 

   The video for the Kitchener Polka was filmed and edited in 24 hours by Scott Ferrede of Core Photography.

   “James called me up out of the blue and said he wanted to make a video,” Ferrede said. 

   Ferrede had never made a music video before. He drew up some storyboards and recorded with a high-definition Canon 5D Mark II camera. 

   “I had known James for a long time as aquaintances, but this was our first real get-together as artists,” he said of the Kitchener Polka video. “Downtown Kitchener is such a gorgeous place this time of year,” said Ferrede of the filming.

   Ferrede was very happy with the result and hopes to make more music videos in the future. His company currently does mostly still photography. 

   In addition to inventing new kinds of polka music and touring with his band, Lanbro owns an audio production company in Toronto called Amaze AV. His company handles audio for rock concerts and other public events. He’s handled audio for five Canadian prime ministers, and even the Queen when she visited Ontario. 

  This Oktoberfest, he met Walter Ostenak at the keg-tapping, and got the grammy-winning Polka King to do the introduction for the Kitchener Polka video. 

* * * 

Click here to see the Kitchener Polka.