A mild-mannered advertising and marketing communications professional by day, Steve Temkin is by night a fearless and forceful blues singer. Born in the middle of the last century in Chicago, Illinois, he took up playing guitar and singing in his early teens. Having survived the Great Folk Music Scare of the 60s and early 70s, he then forswore doing so in public again, and, with the exception of only a few lapses, remained true to his promise for decades.
Whether it was a case of early-onset middle-age crisis or an example of undermedication or a combination of both, Steve began associating with a group of friends and neighbors who had joined together in secret suburban basement rituals reviving their dormant musical skills. Soon, the semblance of a band formed, and while Steve kept his performing past a secret, he did aid and abet the endeavor, becoming the unofficial sidekick and promoter of the band whose name he is responsible for.
(Historical note: Originally, members of the band thought it prudent, once they had committed to performing publicly, to have a different band name for each performance to discourage reprisals. Steve presented a list of nearly 50 names, among them "The Underwhelmers," "Nine Inch Males," "The Above Average Weight Band," "Armed and Hammered," and "The Pesticles." After unanimously choosing the SlackDaddy name for the first gig, the band stuck with it.)
Over the years, Steve's contribution to the band was visual rather than musical, including a logo, website, T-shirt, posters and other promitions that satisfied his inner P.T. Barnum and helped make the SlackDaddies appear to be a well-established force on the local musical scene. As the band gained experience, bookings and fans, Steve continued to work in the background as an unofficial SlackDaddy -- until the fateful evening at an open-mike niteclub when alcohol and a dare mixed, propelling Steve onto a stage facing the business end of a mike.
Having been outed as ham, Steve was occasionally invited up by the SlackDaddies to take the mike at gigs for a number or two. After watching Steve at jams and open-mike nites expand his repertoire and learn not to scare small children, the SlackDaddies eventually extended the invitation to join the band officially as a vocalist.
While strongly influenced by the blues masters of the Chicago scene -- Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf -- and legends like B.B. King, Steve occasionally dips a toe into the waters of Motown and 60s era R&B. And no matter what critiques his performances receive, the ones that encouraged him the most were of his two teenage sons, who judged Dad's work as "awesome."
