Milwaukee band Albatross, recently profiled here on OnMilwaukee.com, has caught a case of Christmas fever and recorded a holiday tune of its own, "Christmas in Wisconsin."
The song is getting some spins on WLUM and WMSE and everyone that attends the band's Dec. 17 Christmas party gig at Senor Luna's will get a free CD of the tune.
"In late November I brought the idea to the band of doing our own original Christmas song and was very pleased that they were in favor of it," says guitarist Bob Lukomski. "We generally are more of a hard rock band, with a few pop songs for good measure."
Lukomski says the song captures the spirit and feel of Christmas in blustery Wisconsin.
"The song itself is filled with imagery of the Christmas season here in Wisconsin," says Lukomski, "although it could apply to some other places as well -- those that have snow.
"(Singer) Nicole (Szydlowski) even has a reference in the song to Candy Cane Lane, (although) without actually saying the name. This is a soothing, sit-by-the-fireside-with-your-girlfriend kind of song, and we are extremely pleased with how it's turned out."
Writing the song wasn't that hard, Lukomski says. But getting it onto tape was a little more challenging. Especially with a pretty obvious deadline looming.
"It took a bit of doing to find someone who could record us on short notice. We found such a person (Jeff Taylor), then wrote and recorded the song as quickly as possible and now have the song circulating in various radio stations."
If you can't make it to the holiday party, Lukomski says there are some free copies available at CD shops in the Milwaukee area.
Albatross' Web site is my.execpc.com/~agc.
Senor Luna's is located at 1901 S. Calhoun Rd. in New Berlin.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
