Bassist Paul Sowinski

Photo by Len Villano.

Paul Sowinski recalls seeing The Beatles when he was four or five on The Ed Sullivan Show in his childhood home in Wausau and thinking:  “Screaming women – that’s what I want.”

Though “screaming women” is not the profile of most Door County live music crowds, Sowinski has made a name for himself and gathered a fan base just the same. In addition to a variety of musical pursuits, since 1990 Sowinski has been the bass player in one of Door County’s most popular and ubiquitous bands, Big Mouth & The Power Tool Horns, garnering him recognition wide and far.

The quiet, soft-spoken Sowinski initially took up guitar while in the fourth grade, taking lessons from a nun at a Wausau music store. “I learned a handful of chords and then quit – I couldn’t do the F chord because my hands were too weak and I had a lousy guitar,” he said.

Photo by Len Villano.

He started hanging around garage bands in seventh grade:  “I had a guitar and I knew [those] few chords,” said Sowinski. Those bands mostly covered popular songs by artists such as The Beatles, The Allman Brothers and Alice Cooper.

It was around this time that Sowinski played the first of what would be many paying gigs in his musical career. “It was a polka band for a wedding,” he recalls. “The leader played bass drum, hi-hat cymbal and accordion simultaneously. We got paid $40 and all the cake we could eat.” That would lead to a regular routine of two Saturday wedding gigs a month.

In high school, Sowinski began to get truly serious about his pursuit of music. He joined the jazz band, switched his instrument to bass (“they needed a bass player,” he says with a shrug), learned to read music and played both solo and with ensembles around the state.

From there, Sowinski matriculated to the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay (UWGB) where he further honed his chops while also expanding his musical horizons, playing in the UWGB jazz and concert bands, the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, small ensembles and string groups for holiday concerts.

He came to Door County by answering a job offering for a Dixieland bassist with the Great Lakes Rhythm Kings, who had a regular gig at Powell’s Country Inn in Fish Creek (now Sonny’s Pizza, across from the Door Community Auditorium).

When the Rhythm Kings dissolved in the late 1980s, Sowinski began playing with the late John Redmann in various groups, eventually evolving to become The Amnesians with percussionist Pat Judy.

“In 1990, [guitarist] Jay Whitney moved to Door County and started playing with us,” said Sowinski. Whitney stretched the groups’ repertoire to include songs by James Brown and Steely Dan. Horn player Woody Mankowski also joined, and Big Mouth was born.

“We had a steady job at the Nautical Inn in Sturgeon Bay,” said Sowinski. The band’s eclectic mix of jazz, R&B, funk, rock and blues proved to be a hit. With the addition of a horn section – “college friends of Woody’s”– their lineup as Big Mouth & The Power Tool Horns was complete.

Playing in Northern Door all summer at the Bayside Tavern led to private parties and weddings. These bookings pushed the band to grow their repertoire and tackle more musical genres:  Dixieland, Count Basie and R&B songs by Otis Redding and James Brown. “We were able to corner the market and appease anyone with any style of music,” said Sowinski.

At 21 years old – “we’ve lasted longer than the Beatles” noted Sowinski – Big Mouth remains a staple of the Door County live music scene, the band is currently booked well into winter 2013. The band has released and sold out of five Big Mouth CDs; with no reorder or new release planned, Sowinski jokes that the existing CDs are on their way to becoming collectables.

Besides headlining around the area, Big Mouth has opened for national artists such as REO Speedwagon, John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers, and Kansas. Asked about his most memorable shows, Sowinski easily names opening for the band America in Oshkosh in front of 7,000 to 8,000 people.

Sowinski, not surprisingly, has very eclectic tastes in music. He lists The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Mozart and Thelonious Monk among his personal favorites. His bass player heroes include Victor Wooten (founding member of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones), legendary bass player and composer Jaco Pastorius, Chris Squire from ‘70s progressive rockers Yes, and jazz bassist Ron Carter. Sowinski said that some of his favorite songs are by Frank Zappa, although he is modestly quick to point out that he can’t play any of Zappa’s complex fusion compositions.

With a degree in communications and certification in music education, Sowinski is also a full-time music educator. He teaches K-8 general music and band at Holy Rosary parochial school in Kewaunee in the mornings, and general music to 200 K-12 students at Kewaunee public school in the afternoon.

Paul and his wife Ginny Sowinski live in Fish Creek and are the parents of two fully grown kids, Alex (aka rapper/musician Enocent) and Rachel (a jeweler in Green Bay).

Jay Whitney, Big Mouth founder, has had frequent opportunities to get to know his bandmate very well:  “Paul and I travel together a lot, we car pool,” he said, traveling to gigs in Green Bay and beyond. “We’re the only ones [in the band] who live in Door County.”

“He’s an anomaly,” said Whitney. “A very gifted player, proficient in bluegrass, jazz, blues, pop. He can effortlessly go between electric and upright bass, which are two distinctly different instruments.”

Among the bass players Whitney has shared a stage with, he ranks Sowinski right at the top, due to his versatility. “He’s like a rock, and that’s what you want in a bass player. You want someone who can keep it all together.”

A quick check of the live music calendar any time of year in Door County and chances are good you will have an opportunity to see members of Big Mouth and Paul Sowinski somewhere on the peninsula. For schedules, photos and more information, visit www.bigmouthband.com.