Rick Hartmann got his start in polka music as a boy listening to and following the Verne Meisner Band from Whitewater, Wisconsin. Hartmann’s father, a trustee honor roll member of the Cleveland Style Polka Hall Of Fame, was not only a member of Meisner’s band, he was his cousin. Hartmann played tuba throughout high school, but drums were his passion. He got the chance sit in with Meisner for the first time when he was 12, and at 15, he played his first few shows with his uncle Jerry Hartman’s band from Whitewater.  In 1973 he became Meisner’s full-time drummer.  Six years later, when Meisner’s son, Steve, decided to start his own band, Hartmann was asked to join, and has been there ever since.