photo:
Clifton Henri; Gody Windischhofer (second from left) and his band
Nearly every night at the
Chicago Brauhaus, Gody Windischhofer holds court with his merry band of minstrels. A career musician originally from Linz, Austria, he has performed at the Brauhaus on a regular basis for 16 years. Windischhofer first came to America in 1991 to appear at the restaurant's yearly Oktoberfest celebration, after being discovered in a Swiss disco band by Brauhaus owner Harry Kempf.
How many songs do you have in your repertoire?
Oh, a couple thousand, I guess.
How many do you play per night?
Oh, this is so different; it is hard to say. The audience, they come to us; they ask their requests...They like Edelweiss, or they like the Chicken Dance four or five times! It's hard to say. And it depends, of course, how long we play.
Tell me about your connection to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Harry sent me—when was it, a couple years ago—to Austria to make a CD about the Brauhaus. And Hanneliese Kreissl, she's very well known for writing songs and bringing new talent up. With her help I made my first record...Hanneliese Kreissl wrote the words, and one song on the CD is about Arnold Schwarzenegger, right? And this song became a real big hit in Austria! And then our former [Austrian] consul, he came to the Brauhaus all the time and brought us customers. He said: Can I have two CDs? I said, well, one is for you, but who is the second one for? He said, I will send it to Arnold Schwarzenegger!
He said this is the only way that he'd get the CD...So I said okay. I sent him the CD; I was expecting nothing. But, shortly before Christmas, [Schwarzenegger sent] a letter, which is hanging in the Brauhaus. He was happy with it! [Laughs] It was nice.
I've heard you called The Austrian Elvis. How does one get that nickname?
Yeah, it's true! [Laughs] I always was a fan of Elvis. Even now I am a fan of Elvis. And then people ask me, you play some songs from Elvis? Yeah, I do. So I had copied him, I made fun of him, you know! And I still do that, because I am not Elvis, right? But it still sounded like Elvis. I like to try to sing like Elvis, and the people liked it! I guess somebody said to my boss, "This guy sounds like Elvis." It was a happy day, friend.
Where do you like to go in Lincoln Square when you're not at the Brauhaus?
There is a little coffeehouse on the corner called Bourbon Cafe. I liked to sit there for one reason: I smoke my cigarettes, but [now that's] history. All non-smokers now. But I was sitting [there] almost every day before I play. And I still will. And I will sit in there and nobody ever bothers me...But I sit there to think of what I'm doing in the evening. Like during the Oktoberfest, I do different games with the people, like yodeling contests and different dances. And I sit there and smoke and think "uh huh, this would be good if I do this, or I do that," so then I put dances in the program. Then when I start doing the shows, I have to wait till the people are finished eating, then I say, "Okay, zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke, hoi, hoi, hoi!," and making them happy, and they're getting louder and louder.
Probably many Americans only know of the Zicke Zacke drinking chant from television. How long have you been doing that?
We do that in Europe, in the German speaking countries. It goes back to since I was a kid. Oh, yeah.
I've also heard you do a powerful "Achy Breaky Heart."
Oh, yeah, we always do [that]. When you come with friends and are a customer, right, you know that fancy dance, the two-step, what is it called?
Square dancing, right?
Yeah, how the cowboys are dancing, and it starts with the little group. Then more and more people join in there. And now they automatically always regret that they are square dancing! Ah hah!
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