NC singer-songwriter, Heidi Sidelinker on folk, americana, and rock with host Greazy Keyz on Local Music Somewhere

Greazy Keyz: Hey there, welcome to another episode of Local Music Somewhere from rBeatz.com. I’m your host, Greazy Keyz, with a very special guest today, Heidi Sidelinker-Schiliro. Welcome to the studio today. 

Heidi: Thank you for having me. 

We’re gonna talk about some of your music, what you got going on, and with a live performance and maybe an unreleased song today, right? 

Yes, indeed. 

Fantastic. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself and your history, Heidi. 

Well, I grew up in Hickory until about college age and went to App State and had to make sort of a pivotal decision on what I wanted to do and I bounced around. And I enjoy learning and education in general, but I couldn’t find that one thing. And music kept echoing in the back of my head and I thought, I don’t know if I can make a career out of this but this is something that’s really pulling me. And my father was a musician, so he was, yeah, he was more, I guess, a one-hit wonder, you could call it, he was in a band called The Barracudas, 1968, they had one gold record.

Fantastic, what was the song? 

It’s called “No Matter What You Do.” It’s very beachy, no matter what you do, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Baby, it’s true, it’s a great song, time period you know it was it was popular and it just a one hit wonder being a band didn’t they weren’t famous didn’t make a ton of money but it was really in my father’s DNA and in his musician and then a band teacher later in life. 

So growing up for you did that mean traveling on the road with the band or was that already kind of gone? 

That was all gone I think when he decided to have children, he and my mom got married and they you know, had my sister and I, it was more of, okay, we’ll get it like a real job. That was sort of the mentality. And, you know, he was a band teacher, but he always loved music. There was always music in the house. And I have his vinyls, you know, when I was a teenager, I would listen to his records in my room with my black light on. 

Absolutely, yeah. 

Really dug into his musical tastes and my mom’s tastes from the ’60s and ’70s, which is really a solid basis for my musical journey. 

Very cool. Probably instruments around the house, just available to you to kind of sit down and play, right? I love that, I can relate to that for sure going up. So from App State, you spend a little time there, maybe not everything you expected, so you want to pursue music on your own, correct? 

I did, it was the dreaded phone call, I think, for any parent that was like, gosh, I’m not really happy. I don’t know what to do. I don’t, you know, want to disappoint you and I don’t want to quit, you know? I’m not a quitter, but I’m not feeling anything. I’m not drawn towards anything. But, you know, I think I had this big biology test or something…and at the time I was like, you know, I just can’t do this anymore. This is not where my heart is. 

I called my parents and I said, I think I want to quit school and play music.  They were super supportive and just said, we want you to be happy and follow your heart. And whatever you choose to do, we’re going to support you. But you just have to do it, you know, do it the right way. You gotta work hard. So I did. And that was the beginning of a journey that’s still continuing. 

I love that background and what a great pair of parents to, You know, to give you that love and support whenever you feel like maybe you’re not in the right place.

Right and especially since, you know, my father was a musician, he was in a band. I don’t know all of the details, but he quit a band and quit playing music to get a real job, something that could really support him and have a family and my mom and my sister and myself. And so I think that is the general mentality of music, not always, but it’s a side thing where, you know, there’s only one in a million who make it. So I had to kind of cross through those barriers in my early 20s and change that mindset to, I can really do whatever I want to do, but I need to do it right and I need to work hard and so I started writing music. Back then it was CDs. I’m sure you remember CDs in a press kit and you would hand deliver them or mail them out and then get a phone call back or an email back or whatever. And I made tons of phone calls and just every coffee shop, every bar and just played, played, played and played. 

Absolutely. So from your time at App State, didn’t you move to Charlotte, right after that? Tell us about that, that transition.

You know, I left. Gosh, I left out of state. I actually left the college when I stayed in Boone. I love the mountains. That’s also, I mean, that’s my calling. I think eventually I’ll be back in the mountains as well, really. 

Yeah, I’m a mountain person for sure. 

Yeah, it’s just so beautiful and I feel so connected there. I wrote a ton of music and it’s where I feel like where my soul is, is up there. So I lived there for another year or two with a partner at the time, a boyfriend at the time, when I was young. And that didn’t work out, so when I left the mountains and decided to sort of just take music on the road, I literally took it on the road. I got in my car, I saved up a bunch of money, and got in my car and I drove for three months and did a road trip and hit basically every state that I could between here in California and then back again. Just trekked my way across the country.

And you were able to play music?

Played music, I had my black lab with me so we toured and traveled around and I just wanted to go and see what was out there. Part of that was I think I had felt that for many years you know I remember being 12 13 14 and saying I just want to get in my car and just go.  My mom said, “well you know one day when you’re old enough. It’s terrifying for me as a mother.” it’ll be alright, the time will be right. And that was the right time. And honestly, that was the most important trip of my life. It changed my life. 

I believe that. 

You know, because I had a lot of time to center, re-center and reflect. I camped, I slept out in the canyons of Utah. I was out on Cus Bay, Oregon. I spent time out with some Native Americans and out under the stars and playing music. It was just a really life changing trip. 

No doubt. Did that require a lot of planning on your end or did you just kind of go for it? 

You know, I didn’t have a cell phone then, which is so mind boggling in a way. To think about that.  It’s before having a cell phone, still using MapQuest or I don’t know how you… I had a paper map. Yeah, 

Yeah, paper map, I love that.

And I still have it, and it’s one of the giant Atlas ones. it’s a great big one where you have to actually pull over and put it on your steering wheel. And I just decided to not choose where I was gonna go necessarily. There were some places like Zion that I wanted to hit, some national parks and things like that, but I really just let it take me. 

A flow. 

Yeah, it was a flow. And so I just would drive and then wherever I stopped that evening to camp or to play or whatever, I would trace it on the map and put a little dot. That’s where I stopped. And then the next day I would look at the map and trace it and, and it was really magical. It was, you know, I took thousands of pictures and they didn’t all turn out, they were beautiful, but they didn’t turn out, there was no way to capture it all, I guess it’s all in me. I know I could talk about it and show photos and it really was just the experience of being out in the world on your own for the first time and you’re making your own decisions and it was really, it was an important trip because I came back and I knew that music was what I really wanted to do.

I love that. 

And then I also went on that trip and broke my arm. 

What?

So I was out in Cuspe, Oregon. It was the 4th of July I had my 100 pound black lab with me, sweetheart of a dog. She was sort of my guard dog. We heard some fireworks, it was the 4th of July, fireworks went off and I was headed to the beach to play music. All these people were out on the beach to play music with a bonfire and it was awesome. So I thought that’s where I want to be so I got her out of the car and wrapped her leash around my wrist and a firework went off. And I had my guitar in my hand and just at the right moment, she got spooked, ran around the back of my car and my guitar got stuck in the opened door and her leash was around my wrist. And so it just had nowhere to go. So it broke my wrist and I just continued, it didn’t break it, like a clean break. It was all these hairline fractures and spiral fractures and it hurt, but it was manageable and I finished, I was determined to finish my trip.

Wow. 

And so once I got home, I had to obviously get it fixed, and saw a doctor. And this, the reason I mentioned this is because my current band and group of musicians and friends that I’m playing with and love dearly. Tim Helfrich is one of them, he owns Summit. Him and his family were running Summit Coffee. 

Coffee shop slash music venue in Davidson, North Carolina. Be sure to check out Summit Coffee.

Yes, they’re all over now, I’m not even sure how many summits there are, but there’s so many, they’re popping up, you know, different summits, but the summit in Davidson was sort of the base camp. 

Exactly. 

So they did a fundraiser there because I didn’t have insurance at the time. And it was more than like $35,000 or something to go to Duke and get my arm fixed so that I could play music again. 

Wow, just so you could play, yeah?

Yeah, so Tim was really the fuel behind that fire. Billy Jones and Mike Orlando. Mike and I didn’t know each other as well, but there was a huge group of musicians and a community of music back then. This is 20 years ago, the more that supported me and came out and you know donated money and helped and it was just incredible. 

Fascinating. 

And that’s really why I’m still able to play music now. 

An incredible community, right? 

Absolutely. And it’s still now the basis of my community coming back. Yeah. 

So when you say coming back…you get through college, you have your incredible trip, you’re gonna commit to music. So then we’ll tell us the next chapter. 

Gosh, so I got my arm fixed, you know, I have to say Josh Pender, or Panda, and I were very close and played music together as Autumn and August, and he was very crucial in healing as well, because he actually wrote a jingle for, I think it was called Bloom, a grocery store called Bloom, and helped as well, and it, you know, so he was a crucial part of that. But I decided to pull away from the Charlotte music scene for a little while and join a band called Lowry. I was working at the Evening Muse. Joe Kuhlman was a wonderful sort of mentor at that point. Eric Scott Guthrie, Justin Fedor, all those guys I was playing in the New Familiars. I had a really wonderful community. Charlotte really, it was just kind of getting started down in Noda, But it was wonderful. But I just felt this pull to go somewhere else and see if I could expand a little bit. I think the road trip sort of stirred that up in me. 

Yeah, it makes sense. 

And so this band called Lowry came through the Evening Muse and they needed a female singer. And so they said, “Do you wanna come on tour with us “for a couple months and jump in the van?” Then I did and we went on tour. I think that was the three month long tour. We did a couple of really long ones. And I just sort of fell in love with that, you know, the touring and now collaboration with other musicians. And it was not my music that I was writing, but it was almost a relief at that point because it was just so wonderful to collaborate with other musicians and have a band. And, you know, so I moved up to New York City and that was the start of another journey.

Right. 

So I played music with Lowry for a good many years and we toured and traveled and made records together and I met my husband and had my first child and that was all happening in New York over about a 15 year period. 

Wow. And so you’ve made the journey back here to Charlotte, right? You kind of planted your roots back here? We were talking about, it can be challenging, especially when you’re gone or you move somewhere for so long, spreading your roots, and then uprooting can be kind of a challenge, you know? So tell us about that, how you came back to Charlotte and kind of got plugged back into the scene here.  

I left Lowry. We all sort of had, I don’t know, it was on a good note.

Yeah, sure, right.

It was just sort of exhausted what we left amicable. 

Yeah, absolutely. It was what it was.

And it was really beautiful and really wonderful. And then it was just time, you know? And I felt that pull. And intuitively, I sort of throughout my life have listened to those pulls. And so I  listened to it and I decided to just sort of be a mom. I wanted to have a break. And so I had my daughter, Amelia, she’s 10 now. 

Love that.

She was born and I just put music aside for a little bit and I started a jewelry business and I was a stay-at-home mom and homeschooled and loved every aspect of that. But I felt the pull again after a couple years of nursing and just being home with my daughter. I thought, gosh, I’m missing out. I have everything. You know, I’ve done all these things and it was music and it was just not going away. 

Right. 

So I started back up and it’s harder in New York. You know, they’ve got so many more people and they don’t want to pay very well. To be a working musician…It’s almost easier to be a studio musician, right? 

You know, it’s, it’s just a little bit different in a big city like that. 

So, um, I started playing music again and things were going really well. And I got pregnant with my son and then COVID hit the next month. 

Oh, wow.  March, 2020. 

Yeah, I mean, I’ll never forget that. Oh my gosh. And it was really such a scary time. Honestly, I had one child that was six, you know, and I was pregnant. I developed Bell’s palsy with my son. So my face was paralyzed on one side and then this new disease that had come. It was just overwhelming. And I felt like at that point, I had my time in New York, iit was just, the chapter was over. And my husband, I think, felt the same way. Dave was ready as well. And my husband’s a cinematographer and he’s just very talented and artistic and everything was shut down for the both of us so we couldn’t play music and we couldn’t work and we thought this is the perfect time if we’re ever gonna do it, we should just do it now. And I think that’s what everybody else was feeling too. But I said, I wanna go home and be closer to my sister and my mom and my dad and we could get back to this area and I could play music again. That was the thought process was like, I just link back up in that community and start again. And that’s what I did. And it was starting from scratch.  Late shows again and did all of that, it was almost like a repeat of being in my 20s, but with a different frame of mind.

I understand that. So now you’re here. Are you based out of Davidson? Is that where you’re kind of home base? 

Huntersville.

Okay great, great area there, and you’ve got a killer band. Let’s talk a little bit about your band now and what you got coming up this weekend.

Yeah, I do. I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing musicians and friends. I mean, these are just stellar people, including yourself. We’ve got the music community here is just so amazing. 

It really is a great community.

You’ve got great musicians, you’ve got great people, great venues, you know? So the sense of community is wonderful, but these guys, it’s Heidi and the River Down. Mike Orlando, Tim Helfrich, Edan Aldridge, myself. I’ve got Phil Skipper that comes up from Georgia and he plays bass with us. Sometimes I’ll play with Jim Brock, you know? But this current lineup with Edan and Tim and Mike and myself and Phil and Billy Jones, who is just, I don’t know if you know Billy Jones, but his personality is sort of the happy, loving. He ties everything together. 

Yeah, he’s an amazing musician and a sweet heart of a guy. 

So we’re just playing and writing music together and just sort of taking it day by day and– 

And this weekend you guys have a Ramble On Fest, correct? 

We do, we’re throwing a festival. 

You guys are actually kind of headlining and hosting it, right? 

Yes, yes. 

Love that.

It’s gonna be on Saturday in downtown Davidson at the car wash, the old car wash. And so it’s gonna be a lineup of musicians all throughout the day from noon until 10 pm. 

Fantastic. 

Heidi and the River Down will go on at 8 pm. And then we’ll do sort of a finale, but we’ve got a lot of really great musicians. 

We love to hear that. Well, Heidi, it’s been fantastic to have you in the studio. At the time has just flown right by. 

I know. 

We’d love to have you back in some time to kind of catch up, but we’re gonna take a short break, have a word from our friends and sponsors, and we’re going to have a live performance in the studio with Heidi Sidelinker-Schiliro. Thank you, Heidi. 

Thank you so much.

Welcome back. We’re live in the studio with Heidi Sidelinker-Schiliro, where she’s going to give us an explosive performance of an original song. And Heidi, if you’re cool, I’ll jam along with you. 

I would love that. 

Tell us a little bit about your song. 

So this is going to be the first song on side A of the new record coming out on Saturday. This is a record that’s a collaboration with a couple people, so I’m not going to say too much about it, but it’s going to be exciting. You know, it’ll be on all streaming platforms and this will be the first song.

We’re thrilled to have you in here, and I’m thrilled to play it along with you 

I love it. This is called “Help Me Love You”♪♪

Wow, Holly, what a beautiful song. Congratulations on the upcoming release and the festival coming up this weekend.

Thank you.

We’ll definitely love to have you back in the studio again soon to talk more about your music.

I would love that.

Thank you so much for being here on Local Music Somewhere, with your host, Greazy Keyz on rBeatz.com