Hiski Salomaa


Hiski Salomaa was a Finnish-American singer and songwriter.

Life

Born in Kangasniemi, Salomaa immigrated to the United States in 1909 following the death of his mother. He then moved to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where he made his living as a tailor. An advocate of syndicalism, he joined the Industrial Workers of the World and served time in prison as a conscientious objector during the First World War.
Salomaa's depiction of Finnish immigrant life was very popular among the Finnish
diaspora. An interesting feature of his writing was the use of Finglish, making his lyrics difficult to understand outside of a Finnish-American or Finnish-Canadian setting. Referred to as the Finnish Woody Guthrie, Salomaa's songs portrayed the immigrant experience of working-class Finns.
Hella Wuolijoki, the head of Yleisradio in Finland in the late 1940s, once broke a Hiski Salomaa record into pieces during a live broadcast because she so hated the song "Lännen lokari".

Legacy

Between 1927 and 1931 Salomaa recorded eighteen sides for Columbia Records. His best-known songs included "Tiskarin polkka", "Vapauden kaiho", and "Lännen lokari". Salomaa's recordings are considered an important part of Finnish recording history because during this period the recording industry was almost non-existent in Finland. In fact, in the years from 1917 through 1925 not a single record was released in the country.
Since the 1970s, Hiski Salomaa's recordings have been reissued in both analog and digital formats. In 1992 his song "Värssyjä sieltä ja täältä" was published in Mel Bay’s Immigrant Songbook, an American songbook with lyrics in both Finnish and English.