The Daily Times

A relationship brought Leslie Slosek to East Tennessee, but WDVX-FM convinced him to stay.

Now, he and his wife, Angie Reagan Slosek, have laid the groundwork for a musical future that draws on the rustic sounds of the East Tennessee hills and a little bit of vaudeville thrown in. Saturday night, the duo will perform at Vienna Coffeehouse in downtown Maryville, the latest stop on a long and winding road for Leslie.

“I’m from South Attleboro, Mass., originally, and I moved to Florida when I was 9 years old,” he told The Daily Times this week. “I moved to Tennessee about 15 years ago, and my big interest was in the type of music they played around here. That was back when WDVX was first getting developed, and you couldn’t even pick them up every day.

“When it came to bluegrass, my personality didn’t quite fit into it. But the Appalachian stuff that WDVX was playing, I had never heard it before. That and the hardcore folk, I thought, was great stuff.”

The relationship that brought him to the area didn’t last, but his relationship with music did. He’d been a long-time guitar player and even performed with his high school marching band, and while he struggled to master the six-string, he found it easier once he switched to mandolin and banjo.

“I started to put in enough hours to really do something with it,” he said.

After meeting with local producer Kent Bilbrey, Slosek recorded two CDs of music, eventually developing an on-stage alter-ego — “Thomas P. Katt,” inspired by a song (“Crabby Old Cat”) that itself was inspired by his pets at the time.

“At the time, they were quite obnoxious — tough old tomcats that have mellowed in their old age,” he said. “I was trying to market myself as Thomas P. Katt on my first two projects, and some people recognized me as that, but it didn’t really do much.”

Then, about a year ago, he met Angie, who was looking for a fresh start.

“I was going through a lifestyle change, and I saw that (Leslie) was looking for a female singer,” she said. “I’d spent the last 10 years being a homemaker, and previously I’d worked with foster children and before that children in a daycare setting. So I needed to find some excitement in my life.”

A native of Blount County’s Louisville community, she’s a descendent of the Jones family, which helped build Maryville College and donated land to the Fort Craig school. For the past 10 years, she’s lived in Knoxville, and she’s had a love for music since she was a young girl.

“I used to drive my mom crazy cranking the stereo up,” she said. “I’d always wanted to be a singer, and I finally gave myself the kick in the pants to do it.”

After meeting Leslie, he proposed she adopt her own on-stage character to compliment Mr. Katt. Thus, “Kittay O’Neal” was born. The two paid Bilbrey a visit, and their voices meshed almost immediately. A year later, they have “Le Cat Tales,” a 19-song album of rib-tickling tunes, harmonious duets and exercises in scratchy field recordings that sounds both antiquated and fresh.

“It gives me a voice I never had,” Leslie said. “I can be somebody else when I play music. I like humorous things, and I like to write songs about donkeys and outhouses and things that make people laugh. And with Angie, we both get to do that.”

You must be logged in to Facebook to comment. If you're not logged in to Facebook, a login window will open when you click "comment". Or you can log in now. You may need to refresh your page after logging in via that link.