Gunning for Nashville

Updated Tuesday, February 20, 2007 - 5:00am by John Benson

Location 

Cabana Jacks

Country music is a serious business for Uptown Country's Jim Sleek, who is hoping his Fremont-based band will get a shot at Music City stardom sooner rather than later.

"We've all been playing quite a few years," said singer-drummer Sleek, who drives a truck by day and plays music by night. "What we're hoping at this point is to get our own original music we've recorded in the hands of a lot of younger bands just now looking for material. And if we can get our originals to them and let them record it, it makes for a nice little part-time job for us. We could go to our mailboxes and collect some royalty checks."

Busy every single weekend of the year, and more so in the summer, Uptown Country - Sleek, Ed Byerly (steel guitar/vocals), Dan Long (guitar/keyboards), Mark Wilkins (bass), Toni Lee Brubaker (vocals) and Henderson "Hank" Hensley (guitar) - is a regular on the Northern Ohio music scene in clubs or at fairs and festivals, as well as earning headlining gigs in Nashville.

Already the outfit, which was formed in 1984 as a quartet, has opened for the likes of Grand Ole Opry stars The Oak Ridge Boys, Joe Diffie, Jack Green, Porter Wagoner, Bill Anderson, David Frizzell, Barbara Mandell and more.

"I'd say we really try to draw from our roots and that's early '60s music through the '70s and Merle Haggard, George Jones, Vern Gosdin," Sleek said. "We like to go back and do a lot of the early traditional country and throughout our show, we gradually bring everybody up to the '80s, '90s and now by doing Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, George Strait. We really pride ourselves on being versatile."

Such versatility has manifested itself on the sextet's three full-length albums, the last being 2003's "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff." Sleek said that album's title track is currently being pitched to Nashville players. He originally wrote the high-energy track for Sawyer Brown's Mark Miller, who incidentally has the song and is considering it for that band's next release.

Uptown Country plans on recording a fourth album this year, with the band's new song "In the Caribbean," which sounds like a cross between Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett, already in the mix. But studio time is the group's biggest hurdle right now as its touring schedule is packed.

The group is making its Sandusky debut Feb. 24 at Cabana Jacks and then a few weeks later returns to Nashville for more gigs. The band will also be appearing at "Fan Fair" this June in the Music City.Sleek said he can feel momentum building behind Uptown Country.

"Yeah, I really do," Sleek said. "We have a very unique group and we pride ourselves on knowing so much material that the fans of the Uptown Country band never know if we're going to center the night around older country or popular songs that are being played right now.

"All audiences enjoy our show because each one is different," he added.

Uptown Country

What do you get when you cross Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett? The answer: Kenny Buffett. I just made that one up on the spot. Very nice. E-mail John Benson at jbenson@funcoast.com.