Do you know what I think of when I hear Sam Russell’s voice? Reckless abandon. Thirst for life. The kind of friend who will lead you on a wild adventure to the very edge of your sanity, the kind that transforms you and changes your whole outlook on life but leaves him already looking for the next adventure. I don’t live anywhere near Seattle or Kenosha and have never met Sam, but there’s an electric fear of complete liberty that shoots through me and brings the cold sweats when I hear him really tear into a song.
“Wisconsin Polka” – a cover of the 2017 classic by our dear friends The Foghorns – is the opener on the Ball of Wax Winter Spectacular (aka Volume 58!) and, bumping right in on an understated waltz-time beat, it couldn’t be more fitting for the job of introducing us to the wonders ahead. The arrangement of the first few verses soothes like a December evening dinner around the kitchen table, with Russell’s voice barely holding back the passion that you know is coming and allowing a bit of fiddle to lead the proceedings between verses.
That passion I mentioned? It comes in spades, backed by a choir made of up the aforementioned family dinner party and joined by possibly every neighbor in the area. Sprinkled judiciously with accordion, horns, and additional percussion, “Wisconsin Polka” builds in intensity with each round, and wonderfully pulls off the trick of changing an earlier stanza into accompaniment for a late-song refrain, and leaves one feeling as exhausted, filled with fire, and buzzing as that wild transformative adventure.
Sam and the Harborrats will play this and other seasonal (and unseasonal) favorites at the Ball of Wax 58 show on Saturday, November 30th at Conor Byrne. Be there!