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No one can blame Chardon Polka Band's Jake Kouwe for thinking in pairs.
Kouwe and his wife, Emily, who also is in the band, had twin boys who will celebrate their first birthday on Dec. 27.
They followed that 2019 release with a pair of CDs released last month.
"A Very Polka Christmas" features holiday favorites given a polka makeover as well as a couple of originals. "Oh No! Not Again!" mixes polka standards that are staples of the band's live show along with polka-fied renditions of some '90s rock favorites that most listeners probably never imagined played on an accordion or tuba.
Kouwe said the dual release was born out of necessity, a way to generate some revenue for a band that normally plays 200 shows per year and will end up playing about 30 in 2020.
Some of the songs on "Oh No!" were recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic with no set plan for when they'd be released.
"We knew we had that one almost finished," Kouwe said. "We were looking at the fall season, which usually is our most profitable. As it got canceled, 'What if we did a second album?'"
It didn't make sense to do two similar albums, so they decided to make the second one a Christmas record.
The coronavirus also changed the recording process.
"We're usually all in the studio together, all making eye contact, all weighing in -- 'No, you shouldn't play saxophone here; you should play clarinet,'" Kouwe said.
Instead just Kouwe and drummer Bob Young made the trip to Youngstown's Peppermint Studio. Young was in the drum room, Kouwe was in the main studio and Peppermint owner Gary Rhamy was in the control room.
"I made a list of 15, 20 Christmas songs, not knowing what we were going to do, just spitballing -- 'Hey, man, let's run through this.' 'Yeah, we don't like that. Different song.' Real rapid fire, throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.
"I'm throwing things at him we've never played before. On 'Santa Claus Is Back in Town,' I literally hollered at the drummer, 'Play that riff you play for 'Kansas City.' It should fit here, and you'll hear the changes. 'We Three Kings' is about five minutes long. 'Hey, this song has five verses and five choruses and a bunch of instrumentals. You have to shake it up to keep it interesting. That's on you because I'm just going to be playing the same chords.'"
Once the basic tracks were finished at Peppermint, they were sent to the other band members to record their parts remotely. Kouwe said he believes the album benefited from that process. Ideas musicians might have been talked out of if they were all together ended up making it into the final mix and took some of the songs in a different direction that Kouwe first imagined.
Kouwe credited banjo player Mike Franklin with taking the initial tracks recorded at Peppermint and creating the final product, something he hopes brings some holiday joy in a very difficult year. He said he needs that music as much as anyone right now.
"I'm thankful we did a Christmas album this year," he said. "Now that Christmas season has hit, I find myself pretty distressed that my Christmas spirit is going out playing music for people, and I'm not playing music for anybody face to face."
Kouwe described "Oh No! Not Again" as much more of a collaboration with Rhamy.
"Gary is a tremendous polka expert," Kouwe said. "You talk to anyone in the polka community, they're familiar with Peppermint and Gary."
The record started as a way to release some of the polka standards that concertgoers would hear at the show but couldn't find on any of the CDs at the merch table.
"'Beer Barrel Polka,' we play that every frigging show, we just never recorded it," he said.
But the CPB musicians never have been traditionalists, so they also recorded such songs as Smash Mouth's "All-Star" (which uses a tuba to replicate that bass riff), Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and Semisonic's "Closing Time."
Kouwe said Mitch Lawrence's decision to use a clarinet instead of a saxophone on "Breakfast at Tiffany's" gives the song a klezmer feel.
"Mitch plays the heck out of that one," he said.
Both CDs are available through the band's website, chardonpolkaband.com. And the band had been creating other items to help offset the loss of income from shows.
"My dad always jokes we're a T-shirt company that also plays polka music," Kouwe said. "We're very fortunate to have an incredibly dedicated group of followers, people who dig what we do and support us no matter what."