Biography
c. 1941, Florida, New York, USA. An underrated but prolific Nashville recording artist, Jimmy Sturr is one of the leading lights in the renaissance of polka music in the late 20th century. By the mid-80s he was at last seeing some reward for several decades of live work and recording, with his 1986 recording I Remember Warsaw winning the first of the artist’s several Grammy awards. Despite the higher profile this brought him, Sturr insisted it was the music itself and its traditions he was promoting: ‘Polka has the stigma that it’s only for older people or only for ethnic people, sung in a native language. But we’ve Americanized the polka (so) all the singing is done in English.’ Part of the new audience opening up for polka came in the shape of traditional country music fans, who lapped up performances by Sturr’s band at the Grand Ole Opry. Sturr followed up the breakthrough success of I Remember Warsaw with a...
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