Pulaski – A Polka Town

While the “Polka Palaces” once found in cities like Cleveland and Milwaukee are long since gone, polka still has a following in more rural areas of Wisconsin—even if the crowds do tend to be middle age or older. Still, Miss Wisconsin Polka Booster Beth Ann Birno explained to the “Milwaukee Journal” in June 2005 that young people often absent at other polka venues can be found in high numbers in Pulaski. “Pulaski’s the best. I body surf there,” she stated. “We’ve got teenagers. We’ve got young kids. It’s a bunch of different people, and hanging out with the band members is awesome.” Jake Nowak, an 18-year-old accordion player in The New Generation Band from Pulaski, told the Shawano Leader in 2006 that he never has to worry about being made fun of for his interests. “Pulaski,” he said, “is kind of a polka town.”

Pulaski, like some Wisconsin communities, possesses a disproportionate number of polka bands, and some have boasted that the town of 3000 has more bands per capita than even Nashville. The strongly Polish community located just outside of Green Bay is still a thriving locale for the polka tradition. New generations of musicians continue to learn the traditional music there as well as develop their own unique styles. Pulaski Polka Days, held in July every year since 1978, is just one of the many festivals in Wisconsin to honor the dance, and, with thousands of people in attendance each year from all over the nation, also ranks as one of the biggest in the Midwest.

It is fitting, then, that Pulaski-born Chad Przybylski’s interest in polka began at a very early age. He took his very first concertina lessons at the young age of five. He formed his first two piece band, the Polka Partners, during his seventh grade year. The next year Przybylski added a third player to the band and rechristened his group the Polka Rhythms, at which his point his original Polka Partners bandstand was repainted to reflect the new name. The Polka Rhythms stayed together until his high school graduation.

When Przybylski reformed the Polka Rhythms in 1987, the band took on six members, adding brass to his original sound. The band lasted in this incarnation until 1994, at which point Przybylski again changed his sound and downsized back to three members. Since then, he has recorded eight albums and has played hundreds of events across both Wisconsin and the United States

Listen to Chad Przybylski & Polka Rhythms’s “Pulaski is a Polka Town” below!