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

Checking in

Hey, not much new to say, but I want to try to post at least once a week or so. Here's a picture from 2009 of me and American Idol finalist Gina Glocksen. She was at a party we played at the Corral, which is at my old high school, Lyons Township H.S.

I'm continuing to post a lot of demos of originals on my ReverbNation page, http://www.reverbnation.com/tedslowik. Check it out. It's been a log of fun digitizing all the material, some of which is from nearly 30 years ago! You build up quite a body of work over that much time, even if you only write a couple songs a year.

So, remember, this is a songwriting project. Try not to judge the material on the quality of the recordings, but rather the structure of the songs. I've got some more to post but imagine I'll max out at 30 or so. I've written about 70 songs total and have recordings of about 50 of them, but some just aren't even worth posting.

When I've finished posting demos of originals, not sure what I'll do. I might start a Big Eddy Springs Blues Band page on ReverbNation and get that material out there. I might post copies of various bands playing my songs over the years: Suspended Animation, Nobody Knows, George Barnes Project, even Big Eddy's done a couple of mine. We'll see. Stay tuned!

My Buddy Guy story

Three years ago I got the chance to interview Buddy Guy. I spent an hour talking with him at his club and it's probably the highlight of my professional career. At the time I was editor of The Naperville Sun, and the entertainment editor said she'd run the story if I wrote it. So I called down to his club and talked to a publicist and arranged an interview.
For years it seems, the stories would pop up during Buddy's January shows that his club Legends was closing, because Columbia College owned the land and wanted to expand its campus. When I went down to talk to him in late 2006 it was no different. We went upstairs to a lounge and had a great conversation. I'd ask questions but I think he'd heard them all before in different ways so when he'd answer he'd end up talking about something completely different. Which is fine when you're Buddy Guy! Usually he'd get into telling a story and it was great hearing it, even if he had told it a million times before, like when he was managing a club in Joliet and Sonny Boy Williamson was drinking all night but would still get up and play no problem.
So since I was there in a professional capacity it didn't feel right asking to have my picture taken with Buddy but I wish I had. He did autograph a book for me, a biography someone had written about 10 years earlier that was out of print by then. When I got up to leave he opened this little minfridge and pulled out a Mason jar with clear liquid--it was Kentucky moonshine. We did a shot together and it was great stuff, very smooth! I felt on top of the world. My article ran a few weeks later, got picked up by the Sun-Times (sort of--I think they just assigned someone to write it) but it touched off the usual round of buzz that Buddy's might be closing.
This year it looks like he's finally really going to make the move a block north on Wabash. I'm going to the show tonight and it should be very special--the last time Buddy plays a January show at the location where his club has been for 20 years.
Tonight will be special for another reason. A group of Slowiks has been going down to a Buddy January show for many, many years now. Frank typically organizes the expedition. Anyway, our brother Jim was at the show a year ago. Jim died suddenly about a month later. That show at Buddy's was the last time I saw him. I miss you, Jim.

Recordings

Now, a word about the recordings. They're pretty raw. There are no effects on the guitar or the vocals. Not so much as reverb. There are exceptions. My friend Hound Dog made some nice recordings over the years ("Coming Back for More" is my favorite). But the true solo stuff I do, it's usually just been me, some crappy mics and some lousy analog tape gear over the years in some basement somewhere.
Now you may ask yourself, why would I want to work this way? Well, it's not that I want to. If I could, I'd have a kick ass guitar amp with effects pedals and a full keyboard setup and a really nice sound board with cool digital effects and the latest, greatest recording equipment.
The deal is, over the years, I've had to pay bills, put food on the table, braces on the kids' teeth, that sort of thing. I haven't really had money to spend on expensive studio gear. But I have acquired a good Gibson electric guitar, a nice drum kit, some OK mics and my bass gear. This winter I borrowed a nice digital Fostex portable 16-track from Rich, and had a lot of fun with it. I recorded four new songs and new versions of about eight older tunes before the project kinda stalled out.
So, what your hear on ReverbNation are those recordings, plus some stuff from the vault.

Songwriting

OK, if you're reading this, you have to consider this one piece of the puzzle, one part of the bigger picture. I started this blog in tandem with a bunch of originals I'm posting on ReverbNation. You can find a bunch of my songs on there and download them for free. You can also find me by searching my name on Facebook, Twitter and iTunes.
If you listen to my music, you'll hear a lot of demos. Mostly it's me playing all the instruments. That's because mostly what I'm doing is getting the songs out of my head and onto tape. I'm no virtuoso, and no George Martin, either. If I had my way, I'd jam with a bunch of good friends who were really good musicians and we'd play a bunch of my songs and make a really good recording of them in a nice studio someday. But I've found it's not so easy finding the right group of people to make music with, let along your own music at that. Everyone has different ideas about material so you look for common ground. I don't try to push my originals onto the other band members too hard. I'll maybe introduce a new song once in a while and if it goes over well I'll know it right away. If it doesn't, I probably won't try again for a while.
Still, I write all these songs. I don't even really try to write anymore. I read this interview with Joni Mitchell several years ago where she said, "There's enough songs in the world," and that stuck with me. Many years ago I played acoustic guitar a bunch and wrote several songs a year. Nowadays I'll get the itch every few years and just start playing guitar and pretty soon I've got a batch of about four songs.
For me, the music always comes first, then lyrics. That's why it's called music, duh. Usually I'll get a tune in my head and be humming a verse or refrain for a while before I even pick up an instrument and attempt to play anything. A song typically evolves over days, weeks, months or years for me. I'll have a snippet, but I'm lazy. It takes work to finish a song. To some extent you gotta be either very brave or nuts to be a songwriter, because you can't help but relate a whole bunch of personal thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I try to disguise what I'm saying with clever workplay. Sometimes I think I'm being poetic. Sometimes I'm telling a story. Sometimes it's just nonsense.
The bottom line is, I don't care what anybody thinks. I mean, I do. I want you to like my music. I take constructive criticism well. But I write songs because I have fun doing it. And part of me feels like I have to do it. I pretty much know when a song is good and when it's crap--I can tell the difference usually. And I think I've written some pretty good songs. So these recordings I'm posting on ReverbNation, remember, are just the best versions of my songs that I can play on my own, all by myself. They're like pencil sketches, and you have to imagine what they'd be like as oil paintings. Did I tell you there'd be work on your part? If you want to bail, now's your chance.