FAWM: "Escape to Wisconsin"

Escape to Wisconsin

Liner Notes

John says:
I have been everywhere in this song, except the parts in the bridge.
I have never made a lounge tune before, and this was fun.

Nancy says:
Our writing rendezvous was on a snowy, blustery day so my thoughts turned to road trips. We imagined being the tourist bureau of weird Wisconsin roadside attractions and it escalated from there. I think it was always meant to be a lounge song.

The chorus is from two old Wisconsin tourism slogans. The bumper sticker was often modded to omit the "TO" and/or cut up ransom-letter style to form new words. The second slogan never really took off, but was shared with the newsletter below.

#lounge #travel

Lyrics

Escape to Wisconsin
Where you’re among friends
Wisconsin
The fun never ends

Enjoy our informational road signs
Like the one about sphagnum moss
The Fantasuites at the Don Q Inn
Offer shackles and a cross
We’ve got the vintage Gobbler supper club
Just off the overpass
Sample catchy old-world culture
With an authentic polka mass

Escape to Wisconsin
Where you’re among friends
Wisconsin
The fun never ends

We got the world’s biggest fiberglass muskie
Take a picture through his gills
A plaque where Elvis stopped a fight
With his mad karate skills
When you’re driving through Black River Falls
There’s a giant orange moose
Take classes at the Mustard Museum
Get a degree from Poupon U.

Escape to Wisconsin
Where you’re among friends
Wisconsin
The fun never ends

We’ve also got a dark side
Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein
And one infamous McCarthy
Not the one named Eugene … AND

Mount Horeb has a trollway
Milwaukee's got the bronzest Fonz
We touch two of the Great Lakes
But we miss, you, Lake Huron
Visit the Forevertron
The work of Dr. Evermore
There’s the upside-down White House
We think it’s a metaphor

This doesn't really fit anywhere else, but Sparta has a dual-purpose museum dedicated to Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton and Sparta’s own dubious claim to being the Bicycle Capital of America, and you know what? Good for them!

Escape to Wisconsin
Where you’re among friends
Wisconsin
The fun never ends

Comments

@disarming 19h

This is awesome. Love the graphics too! I sense a wkrp in Cincinnati feel. Such a deep knowledge of that great cheese state!

@deena 2d

I'm cracking up listening to this... so funny!!!!

@tfish77 3d

My god, the production! So wide I feel like I'm there in the room, with a full Wisconsin band all around me. This could be a cheesy throwaway, but the sound is too rich for that. "Hi-yah!"

I know someone already mentioned this, but... where's the cheese? (Apart from the arrangement, I mean 😉)

@beacon 5d

This is tremendous, and I love the whole concept. But how can you have a song about Wisconsin and not mention cheese even once?

@gwynjones 5d

Guaranteed to make you smile, if not chuckle into your hand or maybe at certain parts, laugh out loud...whatever, your day will be a lot brighter for listening to the joys within Wisconsin and this song for the win!

@atam94 5d

Okay, I think this might be one of my favorites this FAWM. Not just because I'm from WI and currently live in WI, but because of the vocal and instrumental delivery. It's so so good. EDIT: And the part about Sparta is phenomenal. My wife teaches there so it was extra comical for me. Yes, good for them!!

@jimdgreen 5d

very clever lyrics, that must have taken some effort to put together.

this is a FAWM 2025 highlight.

@philnorman 5d

The breezy tone, and the infectious jingle-hook of the chorus is a delight. Until I was stuck in a elevator and the chorus looped for hours. The verses are just right with the details but delivered with such levity that you can't help but smile. And then that catchy chorus hits again.

You should make a video for this to a montage of Cialis ads and 70s commercials, family vacation footage of these landmarks on Super 8, happy people with shining white teeth holding hands while sitting in a bathtub on a hill overlooking Wisconsin.

I want a college sweatshirt from Poupon U.

@gindark 5d

Wow from the first bar, taken to a time, and from the first words, very much a place. I feel like the tourist board of Wisconsin's social media officer would bite your hand off at the wrist to get hold of this wonderfully twisted ad for the state.
I really liked the spoken word part too, it just added. Can't actually pick a favourite lyric, though "we think that's a metaphor" and "poupon u." have to be up there. I'll have this as an earworm today!

@kahlo2013 5d

Outstanding!!!! I love everything about this!!!! Wonderful travelogue!

@sapient 5d

Damn, I think of all of these we've only seen the Fonz. Gotta come back with this as a ticklist...
Hints of the recent Donny Benet rubbing off on ya? I could absolutely see him in the promo vid for this tune hanging at all of these hip spots, fruity cocktail in hand 😎

@ndavies 5d

How delightful. The tropicalia is really selling me on this destination

@timfatchenMod 5d

Actually my Wisconsin friends with whom we roamed New Orleans (Wenzel at the Wheel) escaped FROM Wisconsin, to Minnesota... not sure that's an improvement? Anyway, much entertained here and if I ever make it back to the States and make it to Wisconsin, I'll know where to go! (The voice interpolation adds a little pizzazz too)

@sarahk 5d

Holy eff, I love y’all’s magic with words and music. As a lifelong Wisconsinite I also have experienced many of these delights. I’m calling the Discover Wisconsin tourism show to recommend they adopt your song. Thank you for a catchy tune I’m bound to hum for the next week.