Carl Finch (born November 29, 1951, in

Texarkana, Texas Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States, in the Ark-La-Tex region. Located approximately from Dallas, Texarkana is a twin cities, twin city with neighboring Texarkana, Arkansas. The Texas city's population was 36,193 at the 2 ...

) is a guitarist, keyboard player,

accordionist Accordions (from 19th-century German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed in a frame). The es ...

, vocalist, songwriter and record producer who co-founded the

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

-winning polka rock/

dance rock Dance-rock is a dance- infused genre of rock music. It is a post-disco genre connected with pop rock and post-punk with fewer rhythm and blues influences. It originated in the early 1980s, following the decline in popularity of both punk and disc ...

band

Brave Combo Brave Combo is a polka rock band based in Denton, Texas. Founded in 1979 by guitarist/Keyboard instrument, keyboardist/accordionist Carl Finch, they have been a prominent fixture in the Texas music scene for more than thirty-five years. Their m ...

in 1979 in

Denton, Texas Denton is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, Denton County. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the List of cities in Texas by population, 20th-most populous city in Texas, the List of Un ...

Career highlights

He co-produced the albums ''

Equal Scary People ''Equal Scary People'' is the first album by the American singer-songwriter Sara Hickman, released in 1988 on Four Dots. It was rereleased in 1989 on Elektra Records. Production The album was co-produced by Carl Finch. Critical reception ''Tro ...

'' for the singer-songwriter

Sara Hickman Sara Hickman (born March 1, 1963) is an American singer, songwriter, and artist.Houston Folk Music Archive(Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University)Guide to the Houston Folk Music Archive(Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library ...

and ''

El Gato Negro El Gato Negro (''The Black Cat'') is the name of two fictional American comic book superheroes created by Richard Dominguez and featured in the Azteca Productions' Universe. Both characters made their first appearance in '' El Gato Negro #1'' ...

'' for the ''

conjunto The term ''conjunto'' (, literally 'group', 'ensemble') refers to several types of small musical ensembles present in different Latin American musical traditions, mainly in Mexico and Cuba. While Mexican conjuntos play styles such as '' norteño' ...

'' musician Santiago Jimenez, Jr. He composed music for and appears as an extra in

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

's 1986 movie '' True Stories''. His instrumental "Mall Muzak" and "Buster's Theme" appears on the associated album ''

Sounds from True Stories ''Sounds from True Stories'', subtitled ''Music for Activities Freaks'', is the soundtrack to David Byrne's 1986 film '' True Stories''. It was initially released on vinyl and cassette, but was given a CD and 2xLP release in 2018. The album is ...

''. He co-wrote the music for the play ''Evelyn and the Polka King''. He produced the opening for ''

YuYu Hakusho is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. It tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is struck and killed by a car while saving a child's life. After several tests presented to him ...

'' and both the opening and ending themes for the

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

dub of ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was Serial (literature), serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 indi ...

'' and ''

Case Closed ''Case Closed'', also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 1994; its chapters are collected in 10 ...

''. He appeared in animated form, along with the rest of Brave Combo, on an episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' in 2004. He produced and, along with Brave Combo, performed all of the music for the 2008 animated PBS television series ''

Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns ''Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns'' is an American adult animated sitcom animated by Atomic Cartoons that aired on PBS. The series follows the adventures of the brothers Click and Clack from their auto repair shop, Car Talk Plaza. It sta ...

''.

Personal life

Finch is a vegetarian and does not drink alcohol. "I’m a vegetarian, and one of my goals is to take some of the emphasis in the polka thing away from the meat and the beer, and to focus more on the music," Finch said in a 2000 interview with MTV. "It’s a pretty big challenge, but I would love it if there were none of those stereotypical attachments that most people think about when they hear a polka. God, I would love that. It would be just perfect."

References

External links

Brave Combo official website
1951 births Living people People from Texarkana, Texas Polka musicians Musicians from Texas Record producers from Texas 21st-century American accordionists {{Texas-bio-stub