Stick your head out the window, and you can practically hear the sounds of a world sinking into a new Depression. Crash! There goes the stock market. Kablooey! There went the financial system. Thud! So goes your 401(k).

And, hold the phone … did Ijust hear an accordion?

In a world gone sad, maybe we could use something of an oom-pa-pa-pick-me-up. Perhaps some "Polka Therapy" is just what we need.

Reader Cheryl Thurston recently sent me my own kind of bailout package in the mail, containing the CD"Polka Therapy," which is a project put together by Thurston and her songwriting partner, Heather Stenner, and the Polka Therapy band.

Listening to the album did a lot for me, personally, to chase off some of the blues. It transported me back to simpler times, when Iwas a kid, running and sliding across the dance floor, through the legs of waltzing relatives, at wedding dances in Wilton. Or to weekends spent with my grandparents, driving home from church with "The Beer Barrel Polka" playing on the radio.

This effect was by design, according to Thurston. "I think the main benefit of polka music is just its 'feel good' quality,"she said. "Polkas are upbeat, toe-tapping fun."

The CD isn't just danceable harmonies, though. The lyrics, as written by Thurston, are lighthearted and incredibly funny. "I write a lot of different kinds of things, but by far the hardest thing to do well, I think, is humor," she said.

"Polka Therapy"isn't your standard polka album, though. All varieties of music have been chopped up and blended together with the polka and a healthy dose of humor, in songs like "Bad Day Blues Polka,""Acapella Polka"and "Beatbox Polka."

"Often, the humor I write involves the silliness of juxtaposing opposites, and Ijust thought it seemed funny to blend different genres of music with the polka," Thurston said. "I mean, really, what is more ridiculous than combining hip-hop with the polka?Just the thought of it made me smile."

Finding a middle ground between the genres could be tricky at times for the songwriting partners. "We had several versions of the 'Middle-Aged Hip-Hop Polka,'" Stenner said. "Fitting the tempo to the sound we wanted kept us both up late into the night on more than one occasion."

The end product was worth those late-night sessions. "During the production of the CD, my father passed away," Stenner said. "Writing these songs and being in the studio, dancing polkas, kept me up during one of the most sad times of my life. 'Polka Therapy' helped me get through it."

Thurston is equally thankful to polka music and having the opportunity to put together her own CD. "It was a lot of work but so much fun to write and record the songs and work with all the musicians involved," she said. "I'm proud of the CD both lyrically and musically. I think it's a lot of fun to listen to."

"Of course, we would also like to sell the CDs and make a little money,"she added. "That would be nice, too."

Do your part for the economy. Increase consumer spending, and visit www.polkatherapy.org to learn more about this polka-playing pair, and to purchase your own copy of "Polka Therapy."

(Columnist Kelly Hagen, a barrel of fun in his own right, can be reached at 250-8259 or kelly.hagen@bismarcktribune.com.)