We are pleased to announce the release of our new album Springfield Slide! We are honored to be the recipient of a grant provided by the Illinois Arts Council.  The concept for this album was born out of the lush and diverse local music scene right here in Springfield Illinois.  I, Brian Steinhauer, have lived here my whole life except for my time away at music school. The local music scene has always been an inspiration to me.  It all started right in my own home. In a sleepy little Springfield suburb, in my childhood living room, there by the fire place on a stand was my father's Guild acoustic guitar. As long as I can remember, he always had it out and ready to play.  Growing up I met many musicians through my father. He would pack up the guitar and all of us and we would go to other family's home's for dinner and the guitars would inevitably come out and exchange hands while I listened.  

When dad was driving the old family van, sometimes he'd be faced with a yellow traffic signal.  I can still here the sound of that V8 Chevy Astro revving up and speeding through a yellow light.  Mom would yell all sorts of things at him.  "Wer're gonna get T-boned on my side." "They're gonna cut me out with the jaws of life." And he'd say, "Honey I'm Just tyin' to get where we're tryin' to go." 

or "It was more yellow than red"

Dad had a name for running through a yellow light:

The Springfield Slide. 

The songs on this album are about living in the middle of America. They are inspired by the people and the places many of us have come to know and love. The ways we find laughter and why we cry. It's about being conditioned by society to believe we deserve more but never knowing why we can't quite find it. It's about wanting to leave but never being able to go.  It's about finding  and losing true love.  It's never like it is in the fairy tales. You have to work for it. 

And ye who seeks, so shall ye find. I have sought out music in this town since before I was of legal age to enter the drinking establishments from which the music continuously flows out of.  I remember Old Springfield, back 30 years ago. Before the smoking ban.  I remember  late night jazz clubs with smoke so thick you wore it home. It was an early love of Jazz that led me to meet two gentleman that I am proud to have on this album. First, Frank Trompeter; a saxophonist.  He always blew me away with an avante garde streak with straight ahead notes.  I remember the first time I saw him lift his foot and wave it over the bell of his sax like a trumpet player waves a mute and I was mesmerized. I have listened to his countless projects over the last 30 years and loved every time I saw him play.

Second Frank Parker, a trumpet player born and raised in New Orleans.  Sometime in the mid 90's Frank became a Springfield transplant.  I still remember the first time I saw him play.  It was in the winter of 97 and he came in off the street with a long scarf and a trench coat and his trumpet case. He laid out the case and took several layers off. While the band was playing,  he assembled his horn and from the first note I could hear that soul of the south coming through. It sent my mind into visions of circus elephants dancing in a parade.  I didn't know he was from New Orleans but I KNEW that he had that sound. 

Bruce Williams played bass in my all time favorite local Springfield band NiL8.  In the early 90s they would play all ages shows and there would be a parking lot scene.  There were people everywhere, going in all directions.  Hand drums were beating loudly in a drum circle. The smell of patchouli incense and  body odors were thick.  People had blankets laid along a line on the ground and they were selling things.  Crystals, glassware, cigarettes.  Inside it was like a giant can of sardines. If you wanted to move you had to swim through a sea of people.  It was at that first NiL8 show that I found myself in a mosh pit. At one point I found myself in the center of the crowd directly in front of the stage.  I looked up to see Bruce playing the funkiest bass line I had ever heard. I felt it in my bones; right before I was blindsided by a fellow mosher. I survived the ordeal and it was adrenaline rush that I knew I wanted again. They were hard edged, funky and fast.  i have been a fan ever since.  

Bringing together some of these musicians that I have been inspired by my whole life is the genesis for this project.  Springfield Slide was a chance to bring some of these characters together and collaborate on my original songs. In the case of one song I wrote about the Buckhart Tavern--a place mired in lore--I was able to welcome Tom Woolsey on guitar.  Affectionately known as "Dooley," he plays a distinct electric style with an instantly recognizable tone layered with thick reverb and high gain tube tone.

Dooley played a monthly residency at the Buckhart Tavern in one of it's golden eras: When the Wolf Crick Boys played the last Sunday of the month.

The album has many other musicians on it as well and make sure to check back in for some more stories about the road to Springfield Slide. I'll be sharing tidbits here and there down the way.

​

---B

​

​