Del Sinchak talks about his life and career at Peppermint Productions in advance of his final concert at Penguin City Brewing Company on New Year’s Eve.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning Valley’s polka king is ready to hang up his accordion at 88 years old.

Del Sinchak, a three-time Grammy nominee, will play his final concert on New Year’s Eve at Penguin City Brewing Company in Youngstown.

“‘I’ve had a band for 74 years now, and I’m at the age where I just think it’s time to move on,” Sinchack said while sitting in the studio at Peppermint Productions, the spot where he recorded all of his polka albums (except for the live ones). “My fingers aren’t what they used to be and I’m having a harder and harder time lifting the equipment, so it’s time to move on.

“I’ve had a great run, no regrets. If I had my life to live over, I’d do the same thing.”

Not only did Sinchak have success as a performing and recording artist, but his influence and impact has rippled through the Mahoning Valley’s musical history for nearly 70 years.

Sinchak becomes a Saint

Sinchak started his first band, the Polka Serenaders, with Joe Fedorchak when he was in eighth grade. But before Sinchak became a polka king, he was a Saint.

WHOT-AM DJ Dick Biondi was doing record hops in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll in the mid-1950s, and he needed a live band for those gigs to go along with the records he spun.

“Dick approached me and said, ‘I can give you some work if you change your name. I don’t think Del Sinchak would be the name of a rock ‘n’ roll band. Let’s make it Del Saint & the Devils. To really make an impact, how ’bout if you wear a turban?’ ”

Sinchak switched from accordion to keyboard, and the band was a success. The group was part of a hit single, even though neither Sinchak nor Saint was on the 45 label.

“The Edsels approached us and said, ‘We need a band to back us up on ‘Rama-Lama Ding Dong,'” Sinchak said. “That became quite a hit for us, and we got a chance to go on tour with the Cavalcade of Stars. We played with some great artists — Conway Twitty, LaVern Baker, Chuck Berry. It was a great experience for us.”

The song didn’t have a keyboard part, so Sinchak played the cowbell on the recording, which peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Del Saint & the Devils released a couple of singles under its own name (“Rock Yea” and “Tangy” can be found on YouTube, and the 7-inch single that contains both has sold for as much as $100 on Discogs).

One of those singles was released while Sinchak was in the Army.

“One afternoon I’m in the barracks and this disc jockey from Nashville goes, ‘We got this brand new record from Del Saint. I jumped off my bunk and told the guys, ‘Hey, that’s me, that’s me’ … so that was kind of a thrill.”

WAM! Back to polka

As rock ‘n’ roll’s sound shifted in the ’60s, Sinchak returned to his first love — polka.

He credited Cleveland polka legend Frankie Yankovic with initially sparking his interest.

“As a youngster, I thought, ‘Man, this is really cool,’ and I started taking accordion lessons,” Sinchak said. “That’s how it all started. He was the guy who put it in my mind that it was a great thing to do.”

After his run with the Saints, Sinchak worked at Dusi Music Center and started WAM, a recording studio and record label where some of the Valley’s first polka albums were recorded and where one of the area’s most famous musicians got his start.

WAM stood for Words and Music, and the original idea was that Sinchak would create songs for people who had written lyrics but didn’t have any music to go with them. Once the studio was built, bands started asking if they could come in and record. One of those musicians who used WAM was a young teenaged guitar player named Phil Keaggy, who would go onto a successful career with Glass Harp and later as a contemporary Christian artist and acclaimed instrumentalist.

“I sold him his first guitar on credit (at Dusi Music),” Sinchak said. “He was such a great young man. I told him, ‘I think you’re going to go places,’ so I gave him a Gibson Les Paul. He paid it off eventually.”

Decades later, when Sinchak went to see him perform while attending a convention in Anaheim, California, Keaggy brought him on stage and told the crowd, “If it wasn’t for this guy, I wouldn’t be standing here today.”

“I had a great career,” Sinchak said. “I told my wife many times, it’s amazing. You never know how many people you touch with your music.”

The Del Sinchak Band

Sinchak put together his own polka band as soon as the Saints were over. While he was recording other polka acts at WAM, it wasn’t until years later that he considered recording his own band at Peppermint with Gary Rhamy.

“Rediscover” was the first release, as in “rediscover the Del Sinchak Band,” he said. “Let the Sunshine In” earned the band its first Grammy nomination for best polka album in 1999.

“I’ll never forget going to the Grammys and walking down the red carpet,” he said. “It was such a thrill. You see it on TV, but to do it yourself… People are cheering and screaming, and they don’t even know who you are.”

That’s only one of many highlights. The Del Sinchak Band played Las Vegas five times. It performed at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and on four cruises with the Jimmy Sturr Band.

The group’s loyal local fanbase accompanied it for many of those adventures.

“We did a job in Port Clinton and went over to one of the (Lake Erie) islands,” Sinchak said. “We had seven buses from Youngstown come with us. We played a music festival in Frankenmuth (Michigan) and took two buses. Every year, we took one or two buses to the Catskills when we played polka festivals there. I had a radio show at the time. I’d announce the trips on the show, and by the time the show was over they were booked. People came with us no matter where.”

DJ Larry Walk, who has known Sinchak for 60 years and booked him for events like the Bavarian Fun Fest in Sharon, Pa., and the Gateway Clipper in Pittsburgh, said Sinchak’s band always was popular with audiences.

“The consistency in his playing, his manner of playing, his style of playing, he kept drawing bigger and bigger crowds,” Walk said. “It made them the ideal band (for those events).”

Recipe for success

Rhamy said there were several reasons Sinchak cultivated such a loyal following.

“Del always had his band, his guys,” Rhamy said. “It was never, ‘I’ve got a job. Who can I get to play with me this week?’ He always had a solid band.

“Two, he had a good sense of songs. He knew what people liked, what songs worked. He was able to read the audience.

“Three, his vocals were always superb. He had a great way of phrasing. You listen to his recordings and, wow, it just seems so natural when he sings the songs. And let’s not forget he’s a great people person. He’s approachable.”

The band’s longevity also means that some fans have a lifelong relationship with his music. A few years ago, Sinchak said the band played five 50th anniversary parties for couples that it also had performed at their weddings.

And he’s been discovered by a new generation of musicians. Anthony LaMarca, a member of the Grammy-winning rock band The War on Drugs, recorded a polka song for his solo project, The Building, that featured Sinchak.

“Del and his music are so inextricably linked to Youngstown, which makes what he does unique and vital,” LaMarca wrote in an email. “It’s becoming harder and harder to find unique regional identities these days, but Del’s career has been an exception. His career and the polka / ethnic music scene here in general are a big part of what makes Youngstown Youngstown. What he does is so deeply Youngstown, but also so deeply American.

“I would be a very different artist if it weren’t for Del, and he’s a big influence on why I choose to live and make music here.”

Helen Sinchak

Sinchak’s loyalty to the Mahoning Valley is strong, but his 63-year marriage to his wife, Helen, who died in 2021, also was responsible for the area remaining his home base.

Shortly after they were married, Sinchak met an agent who said he thought he could break Del Saint & the Devils if the band relocated to Nashville.

“My wife said, ‘I ain’t moving to Nashville’ and that was that.”

Years later, when Sinchak was an officer with the Youngstown local of the American Federation of Musicians, he had a chance to run for secretary-treasurer of the national organization. His wife told him she had no interest in moving to New York if that’s what the job required.

“I didn’t pursue it after that. My family was more important than any job.”

Their bond might be best expressed in Sinchak’s song “Look at Us,” a tale of a couple lovingly looking back on a lifetime together. The pop ballad became one of Sinchak’s most successful songs, attracting airplay nationwide.

The Last Polka

While he can’t rule out sitting in with another band for a song or two sometime in the future, Sinchak said the New Year’s Eve show at Penguin City will be the final appearance of the Del Sinchak Band.

When asked what the final song would be, he said “Auld Lang Syne.” He hasn’t thought about which one of his songs might come before it.

“I think we’re just going to do our thing, play what we usually play,” Sinchak said. “I think that’s what they want to hear, the things we’ve done over the years, as a farewell.”

It may be the band’s last concert, but there still may be one more album. Rhamy will be on site New Year’s Eve to record the final performance.

“We’re hoping to do some of the songs over the years where we get audience participation,” Sinchak said. “If it sounds like what we want it to sound like, it will be our last album.”

If you go …

WHO: Del Sinchak Band

WHEN: 7 to 10 p.m. Dec. 31

WHERE: Penguin City Brewing Company, 460 E. Federal St., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: $15 for the show only and $50 for the show and New Year’s Eve buffet. Tickets are available online at penguincity.beer/events-1. For more information, call 330-755-0709.