The Smiley Tillmon Band stays busy
People often look forward to taking it easy when they retire, but Moses Tillmon did the opposite after retiring from Midlothian School District 143 in Illinois in 2007.
“I started that job in 1977. After 30 years I retired so I had to find something else to do,” said Tillmon, who worked in maintenance and special education for the district.
“After I retired I started playing full time. I had been playing all the time but I play full time now.”
When a good friend who worked at Guitar Center in Country Club Hills, Illinois, suggested that Tillmon go to the Hideaway in Blue Islandfor a jam, he met bassist Tom Rezetko.
“Sometimes you have a rapport, a chemistry with some people. For some reason, me and Tom seemed to get along really well. We got to be good friends,” said the guitarist and vocalist, who uses the moniker Smiley Tillmon in musical circles.
After Tillmon and Rezetko sat in as guitarist and bassist, respectively, during an open jam at Harte’s Saloon in Evergreen Park, Illinois, The Smiley Tillmon Band began.
“Here we are 16 years later. We’re still together,” said Tillmon, who also performs with Rezetko of Chicago’s Beverly community as The Smiley Tillmon Blues Duo at House of
Blues Chicago.
The Smiley Tillmon
Band performs on Nov.
16 at 115 Bourbon StreetFront Stage in Merrionette Park, Nov. 23 at Hailstorm Brewing Co. in Tinley Park, and Nov. 26 at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana’s Council Oak Bar in Gary, all of which are venues the group has previously played.
The band also includes guitarist Kate Moss of
Elgin, whom Tillmon first performed with at Beverly Arts Center in Chicago, and drummer George Baumann of Lombard.
“We’re doing very well. We’re very blessed, doing a lot of festivals and parties. We get along well and that’s the best part of the whole thing. By the grace of God, I’m doing very well,” said Tillmon of Markham.
“The wonderful thing about playing — me and Tom talk about it all the time — is always trying to do your best and be honest with the people because you never know who’s out there. I never take it for granted.”
The Smiley Tillmon Band plays several genres of music including Chicago Blues, soul, rhythm and blues, funk and zydeco.
“My favorite is what the people want to hear. I try to go in and be prepared with a pretty good set list but it’s just my old-school nature. I’m a country boy. I like to do what the people like,” said Tillmon, who was born in rural Georgia and moved to Florida at age 10.
“When I go in there, the No. 1 thing to me is the people. Without the people it don’t make sense for us to be there anyway. If I know it, I’m going to play it and give you the best I can do. Everyone has their own way of doing things. My thing is I love the people and I love what I do. I’m still loving the game.
“It’s mostly covers but it sounds like originals when I get through chopping songs up. I got a way of doing things. I put my own spin on things. I respect other people but I don’t like to copy other people. When I do a song and people say, ‘I really enjoyed that,’ I say, ‘Thank you.’”
He began performing music in 1957. After backing Miami rhythm and blues singer Billy Miranda circa the 1960s and touring from Canada to New York with the calypso-oriented Sammy Ambrose & The Afro-Beats, Tillmon arrived in Chicago in 1962 and landed a music gig just two weeks later.
“When I got here, it was the blues — Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. I just had to readjust my chords. A classical C chord is the same thing as a down-home Delta chord,” said Tillmon, who had taught himself to play after buying a guitar for $10 at a pawnshop and purchasing a chord book.
“I ran into people like Lonnie Brooks, Jimmy Johnson and a lot of good players that helped me out because I was nervous. I’d never played the blues but I knew how it went. I didn’t act like I knew everything. Sixty years later I’m still into it so things are well.”
He played with Billy “The Kid” Emerson, Denise LaSalle and blues artists on Chicago’s South Side before choosing a full-time day job in the late 1970s to support his family, which includes five children.
“I put playing on hold, just for the weekends, and started a job at the school so I could have a regular paycheck and pay the rent. I wanted to play all the time but the gigs weren’t paying enough so I did what I had to do,” Tillmon said.
“When I got through working the 30 years, I was doing pretty good so now all I do is play.”
Tillmon, who was inducted as a master blues artist in the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame in 2017, said he prefers concerts in intimate settings.
“When you’ve got a big room, you don’t see faces. When I’m in a club where people can be right down front and I can see them and be silly with them, that makes me happy. I can really engage with the people,” he said.
“People can holler out their requests and sing along. It seems more like a party than a gig. I love it. I really do.”