Hi! My Name is Chad by Chad Przybylski and The Polka Rhythms
It may speak of polka music's prime demographic that the latest album by Pulaski's Chad Przybylski and The Polka Rhythms arrives only on compact disc. It’s old-time music delivered in a (relatively) old-timely format. But there’s still something to be said about the plastic physicality of a CD jewel case, especially when it allows for the clever illustration of what looks like the pattern for a concertina-festooned Hawaiian on its insert.
Przybylski and his Rhythms prove themselves more than clever on Hi! My Name Is Chad. In case the bandleader's last name isn’t a giveaway, the band specializes in Polish-American style of polka; consider them a Northeast Wisconsin extension of the innovations advanced by Chicagoans Eddie Blazonczyk and Lenny Gomulka. What this quartet does with their squeezeboxes played double-time and vivid brass adds unique wrinkles to formula.
Intermittently throughout its 14 tracks, Hi! Presents music-making as a kind of benign obsession, strong enough to keep Przybylski occupied in his garage with his instrument and inspire his whole crew to play for free beer. Expressing love for the music also results in a fun recasting of a Johnny Cash song, wherein The Man In Black’s flattop box (guitar) is traded out for a polka squeezebox. Among the album’s other country remakes is a rendition of a Buck Owens piece that could almost pass for the result of a Texas Tornadoes and Los Lobos jam session. And if a touch of Tex-Mex crossover isn't inclusive enough for a 21st century polka album, an oberek celebrating camaraderie among folks of Polish descent leaves room for namechecking “a German guy named Fritz!”
Polka may never return to being a peer-approved go-to music for Wisconsin youth, as it was in pre-rock and roll times. But with Przybylski's friendly, conversational vocals and the big, canny sound The Polka Rhythms proffer, Hi!makes the case for old-time music deserving more than the niche appreciation of specialty radio shows and the like.
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Chad Przybylski and The Polka Rhythms will appear Saturday Sept. 21 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Mob Craft Brewery’s Mobtoberfest.
