Red Ravens Celebrate 55 Years as A Band With Show at Heritage Fest

Fifty-five years ago, Jodie Hermes, along with Lawrence Svetlik, gathered some friends and formed a band, The Red Ravens, to continue the music legacy of Lavaca County. The original members were Jodie, Lawrence, Leroy Rybak, Daniel Matula, Eugene Mucala, and Thomas Hermes.

As a model for their style, the Ravens blended the sounds of the Vrazel Polka Band, the Leo Majek Orchestra, and the Joe Patek Orchestra.

They played their first dance at a wedding in Nada Texas, and they have just kept on playing and playing and playing all over Texas at many more weddings, church picnics, and public celebrations.

A conservative estimate is that the Red Ravens have set up their equipment around 4,000 times in their five decades of bringing dancing pleasure to their fans from Houston to Corpus Christi to Ennis to West, out to San Angelo and over the Gulf waters, and all dance floors in between.

By the 2000s, the Red Ravens blend of Czech polkas and waltzes, country, group (line, seven-step, and garden waltzes) were drawing loyal, large crowds to their dances. A favorite of their performances was the red glasses dances in which dancers and musicians don red plastic glasses with flashing LEDs to dance a waltz and speed up the flashing for a polka. The darker the hall the more it resembles a flock of red fireflies on a spring evening. It’s just plain fun. The waltz was a rewritten waltz, entitled, the Red Glasses Waltz and the polka is the Looking Looking Polka.

The earlier version of the band had recorded multiple LPs and cassettes. The more recent lineups of the band have produced six CDs and performed on many cruises.

The ability of the members to perform on multiple instruments has given the band the ability to stretch out musically from hardcore Czech polkas to a little rock and roll, with some Cajun and a little bit of folk rock thrown in between. The current members of the Ravens are: the founding member, Lawrence Svetlik, bass; Dennis “Shane” LaLa, saxophone and guitar; Vincent Garcia, saxophone and keyboard; Daniel Jobb, percussionist; David Wendel, guitar; and Mason Nesvadba, accordion, keyboard and tuba.

On Saturday, Oct. 18, The Red Ravens will play a special performance at the Texas Czech Heritage & Cultural Center’s annual Muziky, a finale that caps of the two-day Heritage Fest. The Muziky will take place at the Sanford Schmid Amphitheater. Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. with the performance starting at 7 p.m.. John Dujka will be the Master of Ceremonies, sharing stories and memories of the bands 55 years of making music and smiles mixed with the band playing a showcase of tunes that travels through the years.

The Heritage Fest begins on Friday night with music by the Dujka Brothers from 6-9:30 p.m. on the deck of TCHCC. Saturday will begin at 10 a.m. with the Car and Antique Farm shows, demonstrations and activities, three venues of music with Lavaca County Line, Mark Halata & Texavia and The Vintage Drafts. Concessions will be available. TCHCC is located at 250 West Fairgrounds Road, La Grange. Call 888785-4500 for more info.