Joey Miskulin | |
Birth Name: | Joseph Michael Miskulin |
Alias: | Joey the CowPolka King |
Birth Date: | 6 January 1949 |
Genre: | Western swing |
Years Active: | 1960 - present |
Associated Acts: | Riders in the Sky |
Joseph Michael Miskulin (born January 6, 1949) is an American accordionist and producer. In a music career spanning more than four decades, Joey Miskulin has collaborated with a range of artists including Johnny Cash, John Denver, Emmylou Harris, Paul McCartney, Ricky Skaggs, Ricky Van Shelton, Andy Williams, Frankie Yankovic, as well as many others. He is a performer, studio musician, producer and pedagogue.
As a child, the only child of Slovenian and Croatian parents,[1] in Chicago, Miskulin displayed early signs of musical prodigy, spontaneously showing an interest in the accordion by the time he was four.[2] Beginning music training a year later, Joey was performing professionally by age eleven with the Ronnie Lee Band, and had his first recording produced by Roman Possedi at age twelve.[2] A year later, the boy would meet Frankie Yankovic, forming a personal and professional relationship with the man known as "America's Polka King" that would last a lifetime.
Miskulin toured the United States with Yankovic as his featured accordionist for six years, writing and arranging songs between performances.[3]
In the 1990s, he rejoined Riders In The Sky, and with them is billed as "Joey the Cowpolka King".
Dolgan, Bob (2006). America's Polka King: The Real Story of Frankie Yankovic. Cleveland, OH: Gray & Company, Publishers.