My year as a solo artist

I've played a lot of music in the 10 and a half months since I last played a gig with the Big Eddy Springs Blues Band. I played bass in that band for 11 years, from 2000-2011, and it was a lot of fun. But 11 years is a long time in band years, and I think all the guys were ready for a change.

We played our last gig together on Sept. 16, 2011, in Madden Theatre at North Central College. It was a great show, sort of a "last waltz." I really enjoyed the fact that Ron was able to rejoin us on drums. Frank, who had replaced Ron a year or two earlier, was unable to make it. I've known Ron since high school and we have a special chemistry as a rhythm section, and when he had to take a leave from the band it definitely lost a lot of appeal to me. Rich, our keyboard friend since high school, came to the same conclusion at the same time. I wanted to perform and record more than the other guys Towards the end we disagreed a lot on material choices and other matters, but it ended well and we all remain friends.

After the "breakup" I wanted to do something right away, so the first thing I did was call up my good friend Chuck "Hound Dog" Wessell. I went to visit him and his wife Melissa in Louisville, Ky., on a beautiful warm weekend in late October. We recorded 14 songs (12 originals) in 3 hours at his house Friday night, with me playing my Martin acoustic and singing. Then I played Hound Dog's upright bass and sang backups and we were done! The next day we went to a bluegrass BBQ and had a lot of fun. When I got home I printed up some CDs and gave them to friends and other musicians. This was my "Louisville" CD, and it was the first time Chuck and I had worked together since 1996.

I started playing guitar a lot, two to five hours every day. Rich, Ron and I got together a couple times at Rich's house but then Ron had to take an extended leave. I looked for open mics to play as a solo act, and would go to the third Thursday at Chicago Street Pub in Joliet. It's a great community of musicians there: Too many to name but people like Joel, Tom and Becky, Matt Biske, Bill, Don, Sledge, Pat, Kevin, just a ton of great people.

Someone told me about an acoustic open mic on Wednesdays at Tribes Alehouse in Mokena, so on Black Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving 2011, I went and checked it out.

It was hosted by John Condron, a musician who I'd heard of with his band The Benefit, but hadn't met before. We hit it off right away. He's been very supportive and encouraging. I started going every week and could tell I was making progress. Not only as a guitarist, but as a performer, because there's really no other way to deal with the jitters than to just do it and get used to it and gain experience. I've met a lot of other great players there, too, like Scott, Max, John Greene, Karl, and many more.

All through the winter I played a lot of guitar. I met a guy, Eddie, who had a Boss loop pedal, and that seemed cool so I went and bought a nice one. At home that would help me practice leads a lot. I also watched a few learn-to-play-guitar videos on YouTube, my favorites were this guy Marty from NextLevelGuitar. I like his teaching style. I wrote and recorded a few songs, too.

One Saturday night in February Noah told me about a WGN radio contest to write a song about the Cubs. I've always been a fan of Steve Goodman and wanted to write a Cubs song for some time, so I knocked one out in an hour, literally, and emailed the demo to the radio station. Monday morning some acquaintances called and sent me notes on Facebook saying they heard Jonathan Brandmeier play it and talk about it that morning! He spent 8 minutes on it, and while the callers' responses weren't overwhelmingly favorable (and I didn't make the finals) it was a thrill to hear it played on WGN.

During the winter and spring I also made two collections of older demos and had fun compiling them and making cover art for them. I made a few copies and gave them to family and friends. My goal is still to get into a studio and make professional recordings, but in the meantime demos don't cost much. I record them myself mostly, on a Tascam cassette 4-track that captures an authentic analog sound, and my only costs are the CDs, labels and inkjet printer cartridges.

As for performing, I picked up a gig as a solo act when I played a big shindig for the closing of George Kay's music. The mayor was there, and a bunch of well-known local artists and bands. I saw Skip Griparis, who is a Lewis theatre alum. He got up and sang Route 66 with a band. I got to play one song, so I did the Everly Brothers tune Cathy's Clown, since Cathy Kay took over running the store after her husband George died many years ago. It was videotaped, too, but haven't seen it yet.

In addition to playing acoustic originals in Mokena every Wednesday night occasionally I'd perform at Thirty Buck, a bar near my house, with keyboard player Tim Placher. Every couple months we'll do a tag-team show, where he'll play 45 minutes to an hour then I'll have a turn. Continuous music for five hours. I play mostly covers, bar music. Once I took my acoustic and couldn't get it to work. Luckily it's close to home so I ran home and got my electric. Turns out there's a 9-volt battery in the acoustic that needs to be replaced every so often!

Another funny thing that happened was once at Tribes I went to get up to do my three or four songs, and my guitar was gone! There was a similar case next to where it was, and it turned out a bar regular known as Jack Bauer grabbed mine by mistake. John and the owner Nile had a good laugh about that. The next day we met at the bar and switched back so it all worked out.

I continued playing guitar a lot through the spring. In May I performed at Chicago Street Pub, playing an hour of originals opening for Chris Corkery. A couple friends came out but it was a small crowd. That was when I realized it was better to perform without the loop pedal, so I put that aside for shows.

Also I started going to some blues jams with my electric guitar, a 1972 Gibson ES335 with a walnut finish. I bought it from Hound Dog in the 1980s. One place I went was the Uptown in Westmont. My old friend Snapper works there as a bartender on Sundays, and Mojo Mark Cihlar (another name from the 1980s Westmont days) hosts live music every Saturday. One week it'll be a band, but every other week is open mic. I went a couple times, and it went well. I played songs like My Babe, Give Me One Reason and 20 Flight Rock. It's a good jam because it starts early (8 p.m.) on a Saturday night, which is rare.

The second time I called up Big Eddy and had him meet me there, since he lives nearby. That was fun, we played Seventh Son and some other songs. I also went to Harlem Avenue Lounge and met Rich there. I got up as second guitarist to Pistol Pete, and while I had fun I realized I have a long way to go before I can hang with the real deal. I may not ever make it as a lead guitarist, but my rhythm playing, singing and songwriting have come a long way.

All through the winter and spring I was writing and recording and by the end of June I figured I had enough material to finish my first collection of new solo material in 16 years! I took some cover art, made copies for friends and have been getting a good response so far. I call it "Rough Road."

This summer's been really hot and I've lost the inclination to practice scales and work on my leads, though I'm still playing and singing a lot at home, originals mostly. In July it was fun getting together with Ron at Rich's Jam-O-Rama party. There weren't a lot of musicians there for this fifth annual affair, so I did a lot of "heavy lifting" again, meaning I got to play a lot! I like getting together with Rich and Ron--they're my oldest, best and dearest musical friends.

Lately I've discovered another opportunity to gain experience performing in front of people, both originals and covers, solo and with other artists. It's called William Alexander Wine Bar in Lockport and they have on open mic on Sundays. A friend I know through Rich, this incredible music teacher who plays electric cello named Tom Culver, was guest-hosting, so I went and checked it out. The first week I played acoustic covers. The next week I played acoustic originals. The third time I had the acoustic, did some originals then some other musicians joined in on some covers. Then I brought the electric and just jammed blues and rock covers with other guys. Again, while my leads need work, the rest is coming along nicely and I'm having a lot of fun.

So, that's what I've been up to in the 10 and a half months since I parted ways with the Big Eddy Springs Blues Band. I hope to keep writing, performing and recording, getting together with good friends and making new ones.

It's been awhile...

Hey, y'all. I haven't updated this for awhile but I've been having a lot of fun playing music, composing some new songs and writing a memoir about growing up the youngest of 12 kids during the 1970s. Read more here: http://tedslowik.wordpress.com. Cheers!

Recording a new acoustic demo in bluegrass country

On Oct. 21 I took a day off work and drove down to Louisville to see friends Chuck and Melissa Wessel. We met in the 1980s when they lived in Lemont. Chuck and I did some playing and recording together back in the day, but we hadn’t worked together in 15 years. He recorded demos of a couple of my originals in 1996, when they lived in Edwardsville.

I’ve always loved Chuck’s recordings. He uses quality mics and equipment and has a lot of experience, so he knows where to position mics to get the best sound. Yet he’s constantly trying new things to see if it can sound better. Plus he’s a lot of fun and easy to get along with—so is Melissa!

Back in 1988 Chuck played on and recorded an original, “Coming Back for More,” and it still sounds great. A lot of people over the years have said they liked that, and I think it’s as much the recording as the song. That’s a classic example of my attitude toward some of my originals. Sometimes when I’ve got a good recording of a song I think, “OK, that’s it,” and I’ll shelve it. Not play it live again for years. I was like that with “Runaway,” one of my earliest songs. I thought the live recording by Nobody Knows was the definitive version. I recently rediscovered that song and have been playing a new version on the acoustic.

So I drove the five hours to Louisville on a Friday afternoon by myself, listening to some old recordings on the way. I get there early evening, crack a beer and pretty quickly we start recording. Everything was one take. I think I stopped once or twice when I made a really bad mistake. I played guitar and sang. Within an hour or so we had recorded eight songs! Melissa got home from work and we kept going. We did a total of 14 songs, and he even had me go back and add a bass track. I got to play his sweet-sounding upright. I sang a little harmony while recording the bass, where it felt right, and the mics picked it up fine.

Here’s the track list:

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Runaway

New Way Home

I’m Low

Sparks Fly

Worst Day in America

Walk With Me

One Way Out

Mr. Deal

Someone Else

You’ll Be Free

Excited

Sand Castles

The Cave

I told Hound Dog my main goal was to make a four-song demo, so that’s why I included a couple cover versions. I think my arrangement of the songs by Procol Harum and Mumford & Sons are pretty representative of what I do live solo on the acoustic. The recording came out great—I’m really happy with it. I picked the four songs for the demo and learned to print labels for the CD.

The next day, Saturday, Chuck took me to a fish fry where there was bluegrass music. We drove about 20 minutes into the hills. It was a great day—sunny and about 70. We were the first ones there and pretty soon a bunch of players started showing up. Phil was the host. Chuck said they usually get together on Monday nights in Phil’s garage. They used to get together at a bar nearby but the bar was a dive and eventually closed so now they gather at Phil’s.

Everyone was real nice. There had to be six to 8 guitarists, three or four mandolin players and a couple banjo players. Chuck brought his upright bass, and another guy brought his. A couple guys—a guitarist and a mandolin player—just started and as soon as I heard them tuning up and playing I wandered over to get a better listen. So I had a great seat close to the action. I had my guitar but for the first couple hours I just sat and drank and listened as the circle grew.

The way they play bluegrass is really great. They sit in a circle and take turns choosing the next song. Sometimes there’s singing but a lot of times it’s just playing, and trading solos among the instruments: guitar, mandolin, banjo. People just listening like me sit outside the circle but close enough to hear. Guys wander in and out of the circle when they want a break. It’s real fraternal, laid back and fun.

I eventually worked up the courage to get my guitar out of its case. Chuck had given me a few tips about playing bluegrass, so I was ready. It’s all downstrokes, no strumming. It’s usually in the key of G, it changes to D a lot and sometimes A. I wasn’t ready to take a solo so I didn’t have to worry about that. I joined the circle next to this banjo player who was really good, Mark, and he muttered some encouragement my way. After a couple songs playing along the food was ready and everyone was getting up so I thought, “Here’s my chance!” I started playing a bluegrass version of the old Charlie Rich song, “I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water,” and I get a couple notes in and Chuck joined in with his bass and Jerry on mandolin. So I can say I played in a bluegrass circle!

Chuck and I were talking about how it’s so different from the way rock or blues is played. When you go to play an open mic at a rock or blues venue, you wait your turn, you get up, do your couple of songs then get off. Sometimes there’s crossover but if you don’t know the other players you’re on your own pretty much.

With bluegrass it’s more like, “All for one and one for all.” I’ve seen that in folk somewhat too, where a group gets in a circle and plays and sings together acoustically on their instruments. I visited the Two-Way Street Coffeehouse in Downers Grove recently and it was like that, only I was the youngest person there and the material was either too esoteric or unfamiliar. The people were all nice but it just wasn’t as much fun as the Louisville experience. With folk it’s about singing the words; with bluegrass it’s about playing the music.

49 songs in 46 days, for my Dad

I've decided I'm going to be wrapping up my little project on ReverbNation where I've been sharing many of my original demos. I started on Jan. 19 and for the most part have been posting a new tune every day or so. I've just about finished posting all the songs I want to share. Plus, I realized that Jan. 19 is my dad's birthday, and March 5 is the anniversary of his passing. So I'll post a song a day for the rest of the week, and dedicate this entire process to my father, Jozef Slowik.

It's been fun going back through old tapes and digitizing a lot of material. I'd completely forgotten about some of it. There's still more. I made a list of 69 songs I've written. I have recordings of most of them, but some of the songs are so lame I wouldn't want anyone to hear them. Still, I like listening to them on my iPod. The music has always been something I've just tried to get out of my head, and I'm happy that I've been able to do that and get some semblance of the songs onto tape, then CDs, now digital.

Like I've said, I'm no virtuoso. My recordings are often filled with mistakes, or out of tune, or hopelessly plagued by hiss or bad mixing. Oh well. My songs are pretty simple. The lyrics of some tunes hold up real well, while others sound ridiculous today. Pretty soon I'll probably get sick of listening to them again and I'll erase them from my iPod and forget all about them again for a few years.

So after today, I'll post four more songs over the next four days, in memory of my Dad, Jozef Slowik, Jan. 19, 1922-March 5, 2005.

Getting ready for a gig

Taking a break from the historical blog about solo projects to plug the Big Eddy Springs Blues Band gig 7 to 11 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 20 at Korner House, 2736 E. Higgins Road, Elk Grove Village, northwest of O'Hare, easily accessible from I-90, mere minutes from anywhere!

We're hoping for a good turnout. The band is really clicking these days after that great crowd at the VFW gig in Joliet. And if you can't make it to Korner House Saturday, come check us out Thursday, March 4, for "Spaghetti and Big Eddy," as we play the spaghetti dinner fundraiser at St. Ray's in Joliet, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Here's a sneak peek at the set lists for Feb. 20:

Set 1

Gypsy Woman
Good Morning Schoolgirl
Hoochie Coochie Man
Trouble No More
Cross-Eyed Cat
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

High Heel Sneakers
Little Red Rooster
Evil
I Ain’t Got You
I Want To Be Loved

Spoonful

Love To You

Set 2
Chicken Shack
Wang Dang Doodle

I Ain't Drunk
Mustang Sally

Sweet Home Chicago

You Need Love
Heartbreak Hotel

Caledonia

Messin’ With the Kid

Boom Boom

Killing Floor
Tore Down
Don’t Go No Farther

Chicken Shack...Closer

Set 3
Thrill Is Gone

Feeling Blue

Wig

Walk With Me

She's 19-Years-Old

Honky Tonk Woman
Ain’t Superstitious
Fool’s Paradise
Corrina Corrina

It’s All Over Now

Champagne & Reefer
Back Door Man
Stormy Monday

My Songs

OK, so here's a list in roughly chronological order of all the songs I've written to date:

I’d Like To Know
I’m Not the One
Blue Eyed Girl
Runaway
Living Day to Day
I May Need You
Before You Love Someone Else
I’ve Got News For You
Pains of Untruth (w/ Ron K.)
Mr. Deal
Sand Castles
Take My Word
Trying to Find My Voice
I Can’t Believe You’re Gone
The Cycle
Man At 21
We No Longer Communicate
Dead Meat
Day Off
King of the Mountain
Christine (w/ Bill. A.)
On the Way (instrumental)
Jennifer’s World
Song of the Day
Mary
Excited
Anthem
Girls Like That
Coming Back for More
Keep On Drivin’
New Way Home
Balcony
Kick the Can
It Ain’t Right
Goof Off
Rough Stuff
Wrong About It
We’ll Be Free
Act of God
Years Go By
Judgment Day
Feelin’ Blue
Hell and Back
The Way You Do
Ballad of Slowiks
Little Help
Long Time Ago
Hinsdale
Game of Life
Dream So Hard
You Never Listen
Seven Deadly Sins
Don’t Have What I Really Want
Dear Editor
Got It Made
ILBCNU
On the Shelf
Hopeless Romantic
Worst Day in America
Wrong Way to Fight
On the Internet
Something Wrong
Winning Blues
Love You Like My Own
Move On
Die For You
Sparks Fly
I Don’t Wanna Fight