Were polka to ever regain the popularity of its 1940s-’50s commercial heyday, Milwaukee bandleader/accordionist/singer Tom Brusky could be a star. His 16th album in about 30 years, Positively Polka, affirms his chosen genre while expanding on it, Based in the Slovenian style of his late hero and frequent Milwaukee visitor, Frankie Yankovic, Brusky gives nods to German, Swiss and Polish expressions of the polka and waltz tempo, too. Though Positively trades largely in instrumentals, there’s enough vocal variety to impress as well. Brusky is enough of a local booster to name tunes for locales in his home ’burb of Greenfield. He also has a reserve of chutzpah that allows him to polka-fy the theme to one of his favorite TV shows as a youth (hint: Erik Estrada should appreciate it). If his kind of old-time music ever commands the place it once held in the public imagination, it may be due to folks such as Brusky expanding upon it in engaging and cheeky ways.
