SOLON — Nashville, Tennessee and Solon, Iowa have something in common. Nashville is of course known for music, particularly country and western, and has a historical district known as “Music Row.”
Solon has its own “Music Row,” of sorts, with three musicians who have found a degree of fame.
The latest is Chase Samek, a Solon native living in the Peoria, Illinois area. The 32-year old combat veteran of the Global War on Terror, and his band Whisky Bent, have been chosen to perform at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri as part of a battle of the bands preceding a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We had a show Memorial Day weekend, and our piano player, Mary Ann, she’s the business head of it, she just tells us, ‘Just so you know, if you guys can swing a Tuesday night, we’ve been invited to play at Busch Stadium.’ And we’re like, oh, OK, cool…let’s go!” They will compete against two other bands with the winner doing the opening pitch and having the opportunity to be the opening act for some national touring bands later this year.
In 1979 Hank Williams, Jr. wrote a song titled “Family Tradition.” In it he sang, “I am very proud of my daddy’s name, although his kind of music and mine ain’t exactly the same.” This mirrors Chase and his dad Kevin Samek, another resident of Solon’s music row.
Kevin was part of the band Windfall Jac, which was inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. The band, formed in 1975 (Kevin joined in 1977 and was with the group for a short time) and performed the Top-40 hits of the day with an emphasis on bands including Mott The Hoople, AC/DC, and Montrose in addition to a collection of their own music.
Chase on the other hand has gone country.
“I joke I play both kinds of music — country, and western.” Some would call it “classic country,” or even “old school,” as he is learning to master the steel guitar, a distinctive instrument commonly heard in country and western music of yesterday by such giants as Hank Williams, and less frequently in contemporary music. “At the end of the day, if it isn’t country and western, if just doesn’t get me going.”
“I never listened to country and western,” Kevin said. “I was a rock and roll guy. So, when they (Chase and his siblings) were growing up, they heard music all the time, but it wasn’t country. So, I just find it interesting. He’d listen to plenty of rock and sang jazz in school, but for him to play country and western, that kind-of surprised me.”
“Oddly enough, I despised country music (except for Johnny Cash) until I was 21,” Chase explained. “I had joined the Army and I was stationed in Kansas. I was scanning through the radio stations and heard Johnny Cash so I stopped there, and the next song came on and I thought that was pretty good too. It just turned out to be a classic country station, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is what country music is like,’ I can dig this.” Chase said he’d always wanted to be in a band, “since I was knee high. When I got out of the Army, I wanted to be the lead singer in a country band, but I refused to be in a country band that didn’t have a steel guitar. That’s when I learned that pedal steel guitars (the pedals and knee levers bend the strings) are virtually non-existent. It took me a year to even be able to find one.”
Denny Detweiler, the third musician on Solon’s music row, started teaching Chase how to play the unique instrument in 2017. Chase also became involved with a program sponsored by the Northeast Iowa Pedal Steel Guitar Society called the Jump Start Academy.
“Anyone who wants to learn how to play steel guitar, they’ll hook them up with a person who lives in the area that plays, they’ll give them the equipment they need for a year and get them started.” In addition to the mentoring, having access to a steel guitar is priceless. “Good luck finding one,” he said. “And even if you do find one, it’s not like a guitar where you can spend $300 on an amp and a guitar and get started on it. You’re spending at least $12-1,300 just to get your head in the door, and that’s just beginning.” About a week after the group put him in touch with Denny, “He just came walking up to the door, he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be teaching you steel guitar.’ I grew up in this house and had no clue that a steel guitar guy lived a block down the road.”
Denny and his band The Gamblers were also Hall of Fame inductees within the past year or so. The band plays classic and modern country, and “oldies” rock and roll. “They’re just a bunch of older people that’ve been picking and grinning since they were my age or even younger, and they’re still shot. They’re a little slower in their age, but they still play like they’re 20-30 years old. You don’t get to see people like that very often, especially in your back yard.”
The performance at Busch Stadium is part of the “Battle at Busch” series sponsored by the Cardinals and St. Louis radio station 105.7 The Point. The series, which has been held for over a decade, has typically featured local bands who compete for prizes including Cardinals All-Inclusive tickets, airtime on the radio station, and gift certificates to a St. Louis-area music store for equipment or studio time. Bands battle for a spot in the finals and are also able to raise funds for albums, equipment, or studio time while performing in the pregame festivities. The July 12 event starts at 6:45 p.m.
“I just feel lucky left and right,” Chase said. “It’s always one bread crumb leads to the next, to the next, and to the next. I always find it funny my friends try to catch up with me, they’re like, ‘So, are you a rock star yet, making millions of dollars?’ No, but I don’t punch a clock nine-to-five, and I make enough money to be able to do this fulltime, so I guess I’m doing all right.”
Chase Samek is learning how to master the steel guitar. This unique instrument, with roots in Hawaiian culture, was a mainstay of classic country and western music.