Wisconsin’s Official State Ballad has a Family Story Behind It

Slice of Wisconsin: How the changing seasons and a little help from her grandmother inspired Shari Sarazin to compose the official state ballad  

You’ll find a deep connection to nature in her music. It’s also one of Shari Sarazin’s inspirations behind Wisconsin’s official state ballad. Her family’s story only adds to the beauty.

I think my grandmother is looking down from heaven, and she’s pleased.

Shari Sarazin, composer of Wisconsin’s official state ballad

Sarazin’s favorite season is autumn. It’s a time she describes as “hauntingly beautiful” and she recently wrote a song about it called Autumn Leaves. The piece is featured on the Southern Wisconsin-based artist’s newest album, Butterfly Wings. 

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LISTEN to the “Slice of Wisconsin: Official State Ballad” here:

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“I love this song. It symbolizes the changing of seasons and the life cycle of both nature and humans,” Sarazin explains. “I wish I could sing it all year.” 

She tells me her grandmother is the inspiration behind a life-long love of music along with a shared enjoyment of nature.

“She knew all the trees and how to identify the leaves,” Sarazin reminisces, while crediting those childhood memories as the inspiration for so much of her work.

One of Sarazin’s most recent significant achievements is winning a Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) Award for the song Oh Wisconsin, Land of My Dreams. This piece is also the official state ballad. It’s originally inspired by a poem her grandmother wrote in the late 1920s. Sarazin discovered it in some of her grandmother’s papers and immediately felt a connection to the words. 

“I quickly composed the music to accompany it,” she says. “It probably didn’t even take me an hour.”

But the process for getting the song recognized as the official state ballad took years. Sarazin had to dig into the legislative process and advocate in front of lawmakers for the official designation. She even got students involved. Yet in the end Sarazin calls it a labor of love.  

“I think my grandmother is looking down from heaven, and she’s pretty pleased,” she says.

WATCH the video for the official state ballad here: