Winner of 18 Grammy Awards JIMMY STURR on WVOF's "Upper Room with Joe Kelley" Monday Jan. 11th, 2009

Monday, January 11  9:00pm
 

WVOF 88.5 FM Fairfield University Radio  www.wvof.org

WVOF's "Upper Room with Joe Kelley" hosts an in-depth interview and music special with 18 Grammy Award Winner Jimmy Sturr.Jimmy Sturr is a polka musician, trumpeter/clarinetist/saxophonist and leader of Jimmy Sturr & His Orchestra. His recordings have won 18 out of the 24 Grammy Awards given for Best Polka Album. Sturr's orchestra is on the Top Ten List of the All-Time Grammy Awards, and has acquired more Grammy nominations than anyone in the history of musical polka awards. His band is arguably the most popular polka band in America, and have their own TV show on the RFD-TV network, a network devoted to rural America.

When touring, the band rides in Jimmy’s forty-five foot customized tour bus. On their travels, they have been to the most prestigious venues in the world, including seven sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall and four sold out concerts at Lincoln Center in New York City and a sold out concert at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, Poland. The band has also played at many famous casinos.

Today, Jimmy Sturr lives in the house he grew up in, with his parents, in the upstate town of Florida, New York. The band usually attracts crowds of loyal fans wherever their travels take them. He hosts a syndicated radio show that airs on stations around the country, including WTBQ [1] in his hometown of Florida, NY, the station he once owned. Although Sturr is the Irish son of a local bank president, his fans don't seem to mind the "I'm Polish" persona that he radiates. Sturr's first radio job was hosting an hour of polkas on Saturdays on WALL in Middletown, NY. The station would sell Sturr an hour of time, which he would resell to area businesses at a profit. He would play polka tunes and promote his Polka record label and sell albums via mail. Sturr was an excellent radio host and salesman and the show was packed full of ads from businesses large and small, thus setting the stage for his future business success and providing Sturr with an intimate knowledge of local radio. He and his engineer AC would broadcast live from a local restaurant "The Jolly Onion Inn" in Pine Island on Saturday nights in the late 60's, always to a packed house.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Prince featured the "Upper Room with Joe Kelley " on his official website in 2004. This is the first radio show to have ever received that honor. The "Upper Room with Joe Kelley" has been on the radio airwaves since 1982. Joe Kelley is well-respected in the music business as a creative air personality and supporter of independent musicians . His website is located at www.upperroomwithjoekelley.com . The show broadcasts 24 hours/ 7 days a week there, and also, live locally, Fairfield University's WVOF 88.5 FM , on Mondays from 6-10pm NYC time. WVOF is an NPR-affiliated station and can be heard also via the web at www.wvof.org . The show features creative music in funk, R&B, jazz, blues, rock, hip-hop, latin, and gospel. In addition, Joe Kelley has interviewed renowned musicians such as Victor Wooten, Sheila E. , Foley (Miles Davis) , Robin Duhe (Frankie Beverly and Maze), Jef Lee Johnson, Jellybean Johnson, Monte Moir, Rhonda Smith, Bernie Worrell, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Bland (Prince, Maxwell, Nick Jonas), Larry Graham (Sly and the Family Stone), Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club), Steve Smith (Journey), St. Paul Peterson, JD Blair, Tori Ruffin, Kat Dyson, Eric Person, actor Jeff Daniels, Junior Giscombe, John Scofield, EC Scott, John Blackwell (Prince, Justin Timberlake), Mystic Bowie, Jonathan "Sugarfoot" Moffett (Michael Jackson, Madonna, Cameo), Tomi Jenkins (Cameo) and many others. Finally, "The Upper Room" hosts an in-house concert series.

Related web site: www.wvof.org