1984
A
new album was released "Pod Lipo ob 20-letnici" (Under
the Linden tree for the 20th anniversary). Once again, they played
to two sold out concerts at the Tivoli concert hall in Ljubljana,
with recognition and awards from everywhere. Among the awards
were once again, two gold records. By this time, the Slak musicians
had garnered 12 Golden records from the Helidon studios, and two
from Jugoton, making a total of 14 golds. In celebrating their
achievements, they taped a television special entitled "20
let ansambla Slak" (20 years of the Slak Ensemble).
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1985
This year marked their fourth tour of North America, but prior
to their departure for the tour, they released two more albums;
"Iz bogate glazbene skrinje Lojzeta Slaka" (From the
rich musical cupboards of Lojze Slak) and "Mama prihajam
domov" (Mom, I'm coming home). On their five week tour, they
played 30 venues, while at the same time they made radio and talk
show appearances almost daily.
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1986
In early April, the Helidon recording studios prepared a banquet
in the Tabor hall, in Maribor, to commemorate both their 13th
gold record with the label, and to present the ensemble with the
first Platinum Record ever awarded to a Slovenian group, for sales
of over a million copies. At the end of November, Lojze Slak was
a special guest on the Cleveland radio program Tony's Polka Village,
which from the very beginning, played Slovenian music exclusively,
both original Slovenian, as well as the American variety.
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1987
After a one year hiatus, the Slak ensemble released another album,
"To smo mi, prijatelji" (This is us, all friends), much
to the excitement of their many fans. They went on a promotional
tour of Slovenia, and in the process attracted many new fans to
their brand of music.
In May of that year, the ensemble participated in the first "Alpski
Večer" (Alpine Evening), held at Bled, where they once again
thrilled their many fans.
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1988
Because of work commitments at his legal office, Franc Sever,
(double bass player) retired from touring with the ensemble. He
was replaced by Tone Štritof from Kamnik.
RTV Ljubljana released a 60 minute video featuring the Slak ensemble
performing some of their music.
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1989
This was the 25th year of the Slak ensemble, and in celebration,
the ensemble released another album, "Raj pod Triglavom"
(Paradise under Triglav), as well as another video "25 Let
Ansambla Lojzeta Slaka" (25 years of the Lojze Slak Ensemble).
Ljublana TV aired a program featuring the Slak ensemble, which
was filmed in one of the most beautiful places in Slovenia - in
Triglav National Park, and featured scenes filmed in Trente, Dolenskih
Gricev, and Kostanjevice.
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1990
The Lojze Slak Ensemble went on its most memorable tour across
the pond, with a one hour performance in Nashville, the Mecca
of country music, a place where many can only dream about performing.
They were guests at Disneyworld in Florida for a week, and also
played for a week aboard a Caribbean cruise ship, entertaining
the many tourists with their special brand of music, as they cruised
between Miami and the Carribean Islands. In the five weeks they
were on tour, they played more than 30 shows, hosted meetings
with special friends and guests, and had appearances on radio
and TV programs. There was also a film crew from Ljubljana TV
following them around, filming and documenting the tour for a
couple of episodes of their series Videomeh.
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1991
At the beginning of the year, the ensemble said good-bye to long
time band member, guitarist, clarinetist, and the Slak sound man
for the first 25 years of the band, Niko Zlobko. To replace him,
Lojze recruited Milan Ferlež, a well known and accomplished jazz
guitarist, with many years playing as a studio musician.
Janez Habjan, the third voice in the vocal quintet Fantje s Praprotna,
retired from the group for health reasons.
Lojze Slak went into the studio in May to cut a solo album of
12 well known arrangements, entitled "Stari Spomini"
(Old Memories), while at the same time releasing an album with
the rest of the ensemble, entitled "Zvezda, ki se utrne"
(A Falling Star).
The year was a restless one, where politically, Slovenia declared
it's independence. That year, for their New Years Videomeh show,
the Slak ensemble performed a new song which would become one
of their greatest hits in recent times - "Srecno, mlada Slovenia"
(Best of luck, young Slovenia).
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1992
In the spring, the ensemble release another album, named after
their new hit song Srecno, mlada Slovenia, while in the fall,
the ensemble produced another program featuring live footage of
the customs and ways of the people of the Dolenska region, where
Lojze has his roots. The show was entitled "Boš videl, kaj
dela Dolenc" (Come see, what a Dolenc does), and was broadcast
over the entire country of Slovenia.
Before the year was through, they released another album featuring
their holiday tunes, entitled "Slovenija naj bo jutri lepša"
(Slovenia will be even nicer tomorrow).
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1993
The
Slak song, "Srecno, mlada Slovenia" was the most requested
song played on the Slovenian airwaves, and to commemorate this,
RTV Slovenia presented the Slak ensemble the Gold Videocassette.
In Novo Mesto, Lojze once again performed the show "Boš videl,
kaj dela Dolenc" (Come see, what a Dolenc does), under the
title "Kmecka ohcet" (Farm Wedding). This was also the
year, when the baritone singer of the Fantje s Praprotna, Janez
Kalan, retired from performing because of health reasons.
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