FOLK/Music The Polka Family Band, Polish polka

Saturday: noon Kenduskeag, 3 p.m. Heritage; Sunday: noon Heritage, 1:45 p.m. Kenduskeag

The Polka Family Band really is a family band. The father, mother and four children began performing together back in the 1970s in Southern California, playing traditional Polish polka for relatives and at small public gatherings.

Frank “Gus” Guzevich, originally from Mount Carmel, Pa., met his Mexican American wife, Manuella (Nellie), while serving in the U.S. Air Force in California.

Soon, the family included four children: Fred, Hank, Greg and Alicia. Nearly every summer, the family would travel back to Pennsylvania to visit the children’s grandparents and other relatives. Inspired by the polka music they heard there, the family decided to pursue music as a shared family activity.

Schooled in piano, Gus taught himself to play the accordion, and Nellie has been singing since childhood. Fred had a guitar in his hands at age 5; Hank took on the challenge of learning trumpet at age 9; Greg was coffee-can drumming at a very early age; and Alicia learned the clarinet.

Soon, the Guzevich family was playing for community gatherings and family outings during their Pennsylvania vacations. Upon their return home to California in 1978, a chance meeting in a local supermarket with members of the Southern California Polka Boosters Club resulted in a band “audition.” The home audition was a success and the band was invited to play three or four songs at the club’s annual festival during the headliner’s breaks.

In Southern California, the band’s reputation began to grow as more polka jobs were taken. In 1982, Jimmy Sturr hired the relatively unknown Polka Family Band to perform at the close of his festival at Action Park, N.J. It was now clear that this Polish group from Southern California had made the national polka scene.

After much soul searching and numerous family meetings, the family decided to move to Pennsylvania and pursue music professionally. So, in March 1988, like a gypsy caravan, the family headed east.

The current ensemble includes Gus Guzevich, accordion; Nellie Guzevich, bells and tambourine; Fred Guzevich, bass, fiddle and guitar; Hank Guzevich, trumpet; Kevin Solecki, accordion; Glenn Dydak, sax and clarinet, and Ralph Sabatini, drums. The group has recorded three CDs: “Fiddle Faddle,” “We Are Family” and “Polka Music Fan.”

All three have received Grammy nominations. The group twice has been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall. Recently, the band was invited to appear on “Polka Passion,” a nationally televised concert-documentary on PBS, alongside Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones and Karl and the Country Dutchmen.