Fashion Music returns

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM-- The way Erwin and Susie Walters' band started is, according to Susie, "a very long story."

But the way their band, Fashion Music, played its first set at Heritagefest was lively, invigorating and entertaining.

The band started with the Walters about 10 years ago in the town of Kraiburg, which is 30 miles southeast of Munich, Germany. It is Susie's second band with her husband. Fashion Music made its first Heritagefest appearance in 1997, which was also their first time playing in the U.S.

Its lineup is different from the traditional Bavarian set-up. Instead of the unaccompanied Oberkreiner style of music, Fashion Music acts more like a Bavarian rock band with electric bass and guitar, a drum set and keyboards.

Fashion Music consists of Susie playing the keyboards and sharing the lead vocal duties with Erwin, who displayed his accordion skills throughout the band's entire set. Helai Preis plays drums. Udo Frank plays electric bass guitar. Harry Grinn plays electric guitar.

In Germany, they mostly play rock music and Top 40 pop. But in the U.S., Susie explains, they switch roles and give audiences their own renditions of the standard polkas, marches and waltzes found at events like Heritagefest.

Fashion Music also played the role of educators on Friday afternoon. It wasn't too long after the band took the stage that Erwin quizzed the crowd on its knowledge of Bavarian culture.

"Do you know the Bavarian drinking song?," he asked the crowd in a thick Munich accent. "You take your glass in the right hand and raise it to the sky and you sing 'Ein Prosit - Gemütlichkeit'."

Erwin led the rest of the band through that time-honored chestnut a few more times before Fashion Music's set ended, but instructed the crowd on how do it only once.

He and Susie also made a valiant effort to teach the crowd a little Deutsch.

"When we say 'Danke schön', you say 'Bitte sehr'. Ready?," Susie asked the crowd.

"Danke schön," Fashion Music said.

"Bitte sehr," the crowd replied.

"Thank you," Susie replied.

The final lesson came with 'The Chicken Dance'. Susie ran down into the crowd and explained how to do it in German, using the German words for the appropriate part of the body that chicken dancers grab during the number.

"Most groups take a minute break in between songs, but they started and went right on through," said Dick Seeboth, Heritagefest vice president. "That was absolutley marvelous."

Fashion Music is the Walters' second band. Susie and Erwin formed their first band, Tropical Coconuts, when Susie was 23. She said they decided to call their second group Fashion Music because they wanted a name that both German and American audiences could remember.

"We play what people want to hear," said Grinn, who played his first set in American Friday afternoon. "That's why it's called Fashion Music."

For the five members of the band, music is a hobby and all of them have regualr jobs waiting for them in Germany. Susie does technical support for a Munich company. Udo programs robots. Harry sells fish and Helai sells kitchens, Susie said.

After their weekend in New Ulm is done, Fashion Music will go to Omaha and Chicago to play and will vacation in Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga, Tenn. before flying home to Kraiburg.