Erika Moedt always enjoys herself when Greg Reinwald and Vic Meister roll out the barrel.

Moedt and her friends — some born of German descent and others born of German appreciation — love the melodies created by the two Capital Region musicians.

Whenever Reinwald and Meister begin regular performances with accordion and woodwinds, respectively, people listening at the Mountain Brauhaus in the Catskill Mountain community of Round Top start to move. They find partners and then find the dance floor.

Greg Reinwald and Vic Meister offer the lively beats and lyrics of German songs with regular performances at festivals and places like the Mountain Brauhaus in the Catskill Mountain community of Round Top.
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“Contrary to what everybody says, we are not as stuffy as most people think,” said Moedt, who lives in Whiting, N.J., but makes regular visits to the rustic restaurant and dance hall. “We like to hear music; we like to sing. It goes back to our heritage; it goes back to our schooling.”

Reinwald and Meister are happy for their audiences. The guys often play weekend gigs at the brauhaus, about 60 miles south of the Capital Region. And with Oktoberfest celebrations still on tap in the area, more people will be exposed to the lively beats and lyrics of German songs.

It’s more than oom-pah

“It’s so much more versatile than other forms of folk music, and I’ve been exposed to all of them,” said Reinwald, 25, who lives in Schenectady. “German music has such a wide appeal. I think if more people gave it a chance, they’d find that they like it.”

On a recent Saturday night in Round Top, about 80 people sipped glasses of Warsteiner, Beck’s and other German beers. They sat at long tables covered by red and white checkered cotton tablecloths. In dim ambience provided by yellow lights that glowed on side walls, couples made quick spins as they waltzed around the room, occasionally stopping for claps and toasts.

Reinwald grew up in the Catskills, and learned heritage from grandparents.

“My grandmother was my primary musical influence; her name was Ludmilla Reinwald,” Reinwald said. “She and my grandfather emigrated here from Germany in 1952, and my grandmother was a very artistic person. She loved the arts — so her love of that she passed to me.”

Reinwald has made many trips to Germany to visit family members. He knows the language and culture fluently.

“For me, this is not something that just comes in October,” Reinwald said.

He says the country’s music has received an undeserved bad rap. People connect German bands to “oom-pah” music, and some will roll their eyes when an accordion is part of the act. But accordion works with Meister’s clarinet and saxophone. The mix produces two distinctive “voices” in a swirl of musical give-and-take.

“It’s enthusiastic and peppy,” said Meister, who lives in Colonie. “It’s enjoyable for sure, to my way of thinking.”

Meister, 67, who taught music in the South Colonie School District before retiring in 1998, has played in bands for the past 50 years. He has played German-style tunes since 1972, when he assumed leadership of the old Hofbrau Six band.

Two-man band

Reinwald and Meister, as the Mountain Brauhaus Band, have been together for the past four years. People from other cultures often sample the two-man band’s aural offerings.

“We have a lot of Irish people who come here — East Durham is right down the street,” Reinwald said of the Greene County neighbors. “Polish people too, we get all kinds of different people. German music is so varied.”

But musicians know they must please their core audience.

“German people are very particular about their music,” Meister said. “They want it to sound authentic; there’s definitely a style they look for. And it sure helps if someone can sing and speak German.”

Added Reinwald: “If you please them, they’ll love you. If you don’t play the way they like, they’ll get up and leave.”

Germans who know their keys and beats can tell when something is not quite right. Reinwald said music lovers of other nationalities possess the same talent.

“If, for example, I was to walk into a Polish club and try to play Polish music, they would know right off the bat I wasn’t a Polish musician and they wouldn’t like it,” he said. “And if I hear an Irishman trying to play a German song on the accordion, I’ll know it. It’s just like somebody would have an accent.”

Weekend gigs at the Mountain Brauhaus will last about four hours, until about 12:30 a.m. Their songs are all relatively short, three to five minutes.

“People are dancing — so you don’t want to go too long,” Reinwald said. “If it goes too long, they get tired.”

The dance hall will close in November. The local accordion and clarinet team has been welcomed at Albany’s German-American Club, Troy’s Germania Hall and the Canoe Island Lodge in Lake George.

People in all venues love seeing the guys in leder hosen.

Completing the picture

The “hosen” — knee-length leather pants — is part of the traditional outfit. On a recent Saturday night, the musicians wore suspenders, white shirts, black shorts and tall socks with stripes on the top.

“We don’t always wear leder hosen, but for most people it helps complete the picture,” Reinwald said. “It makes us look like hummel figures up on the stage, but people get a kick out of it.”

People listening and dancing also dress for the German music nights.

“It’s old tradition,” said Dan Alberg of Rhinebeck, dressed in white shirt, tan suspenders and tan leather shorts. “You party, this is your party outfit.”

Erika Rechner wore a blue and green “dirndl,” a full skirt that reminds Germans of peasant dress. For Rechner, the music is more important than fashion.

“It’s lively. It has a lot of oomph and gusto to it,” she said. “It makes you feel good. You can sit and just watch everybody have such a good time, and it makes you laugh. It makes you happy just to watch these people.”

She said people will travel to Round Top from the Albany, Poughkeepsie and Hudson areas to hear “Edelweiss,” “The Beer Barrel Polka” and “Ein Prosit.” The band also will play American standards.

“I used to drive up here every Saturday from Wappingers Falls, 66 miles,” Rechner said. “I moved up here six years ago. So it’s easier now.”

Time for fun

Erika Konig of Clifton Park, who was in the brauhaus with her husband, Edgar, says the music equals smiles and laughter.

“We’ve gone to Germany for Oktoberfest, and there are more Americans there than there are Germans. They all love it,” Konig said. “I think it’s just something people get into and have a lot of fun with.”

Reinwald doesn’t know that many people playing German-style songs. He said bands have become smaller, because restaurants and clubs can no longer afford to pay multiple instrumentalists.

“A lot of these places don’t exist any more,” he said of the Mountain Brauhaus, which opened in 1948. “This place has excellent acoustics, all the hard walls and cathedral ceiling. Its construction was as a dance hall primarily. So it still functions as that. You feel like you’re in Germany in 1955, somewhere around there.”

The native crowds might be getting a little smaller, too. Reinwald has studied his culture, and said German emigration to the U.S. is a lot smaller than it used to be.

German Americans like old tastes from home. The sound of German music in a wooden hall, and passing the time with a few glasses of beer, can bring them back to the river Rhine in no time.

“It’s an excuse to have a party,” Reinwald said. “There’s never a bad excuse to have a party.”