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Fritz Scherz played his first gig at 8 years old. Neither he nor those at a party performance had any idea that he would be playing to audiences of thousands or receiving official recognition over the course of the next 47 years.

“It was really exciting, being a kid in elementary school and doing that,” Fritz said. “I had no idea how long it would go.”

Now, Fritz is the vocalist and accordion player for Fritz’s Polka Band, an award-winning Syracuse-area group that aims to challenge long-standing assumptions of the Eastern European genre. He plays with bassist and guitarist Gabe Vaccaro, guitarist Frank Nelson and drummer Tim Quinn, performing in roughly 50 shows a year around the Northeast. Fritz and Vaccaro spoke to The Daily Orange about their decades in the band.

The band plays more than polka staples, though. Fritz said their setlists also feature rock and blues songs, including a Jimi Hendrix-style rendition of “All Along the Watchtower.” Vaccaro said the band’s “polkas on steroids” are influenced variously by Buddy Holly, Sting, The Beatles and Hank Williams.

Over the course of 20 recordings, Fritz’s Polka Band has accumulated a number of accomplishments. The band was inducted into the Syracuse Area Music Awards’ Hall of Fame in 2010, performed twice in “Breaking Bad” and played with other polka musicians like Walter Ostanek and Frankie Yankovic.

Fritz started playing accordion at age 6, learning the instrument’s technical aspects from a teacher and songs from his father, Fred Scherz. The father and son often played and performed together. Growing up, Fritz said his peers sometimes made fun of his choice of instrument, but he soon learned to ignore their snickering.

“I would think, ‘laugh all you want,’” Fritz said. “‘I’m 10 years old, and I’m putting money in the bank.’”

The father-and-son duo were joined by Vaccaro in the 1970s. At the time, Vaccaro said that he had no experience with polka, but Fred told him he didn’t see that as an obstacle. After the two had a few successful jam sessions, he offered Vaccaro a bass guitar and a spot in the band; Vaccaro accepted.

Fritz, his father and Vaccaro formed the core of Fritz’s Polka Band in 1978, touring the region with a rotating cast of drummers and other guitarists.

The band changed drastically in 2009, when Fred was diagnosed with liver cancer. Before he died, Fred entrusted his son with keeping the band going, Fritz said.

“A couple weeks before he passed away, he opens up his wallet and hands me this piece of paper. He says, ‘Here, you’re going to have to finish this song, I’m not going to be able to,’” Fritz said. “After he passed away, I carried that in my wallet for a while.”

After Fred died, creating new music for the band was difficult for Fritz. Fritz’s late father’s lyric sheet moved from his wallet to the wall above his computer so he’d see it more often, but he still struggled to work on it.

Then, nine years later, Fritz suddenly found himself able to write again. The resulting song, “The Hands of Time,” was released in 2021 on an album of the same name. Another song on the album featured three generations of Scherz family playing the accordion: an old recording of Fred, Fritz live in the studio and Fritz’s son following along on his own accordion.

The band’s shared love of music and respect for their audience — along with the versatility of the accordion as an instrument — is a key factor behind its longevity, Fritz said. Fritz will often run his accordion through guitar pedals to alter the instrument’s sound. This particular technique was inspired by one of Fred’s favorite tricks, changing his amplifier settings to create what he called a “funeral parlor” sound.

“They just get intrigued by it,” Vaccaro said. “He plays so well and so fast. But then he kicks on a wah-wah pedal, and it blows them away.”

The band is particularly active during the Oktoberfest season, when they play several shows over the course of a single weekend. They were also regularly invited to Musikfest in Pennsylvania, the largest free music festival in the United States, and have been sponsored by Jägermeister. They’ve been recognized more than 10 times by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame, which both Fred and Fritz were individually inducted into.

Of all of these honors, Scherz said he was particularly proud of the performance featured in the Season 4 finale of “Breaking Bad,” the last show his father ever played. The gig had been recorded by a local TV station but was never aired until the episode in 2013.

“There’s a very important part before the end of that episode where Hector, in his wheelchair, in his bedroom, is watching my band on TV,” Scherz said. “And there’s my dad, right there, you can see him. That meant so much to me.”

More than 40 years later, neither Fritz nor Vaccaro have any intention to stop performing. They both love what they play and how their audiences react, Fritz said. They love the camaraderie created by touring and the opportunity to brighten other people’s lives through performing, Vaccaro said.

“This is more than just a band, and I’ve been in a million bands,” Vaccaro said. “It’s family.”

Published on February 9, 2026 at 9:11 pm