Good songwriters aren’t much different from good carpenters. They study, create and refine. Given a cut list, they’ll turn individual pieces into a work of art. Greg Hise and Bennett Slavsky moved to Jackson to work with wood, but formed a deeper bond over their appreciation for music and flat picking. Heiss and Slavsky stopped by KHOL to discuss their experiences with Jackson open mics, definitions of success, and the necessity of having a local music store.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. -Ed.
Evan Ballew: Is it true that you first began playing together at Cowboy Coffee?
Bennett Slavsky: Yeah, we met through a mutual friend a few years ago, even before I moved to the Teton area and I was just passing through town, visiting some friends and that’s when I met Greg. We’ve known each other for a long time and then when I moved into town maybe three years ago, we just started playing together more regularly, started playing the open mics and started our little duo. Greg was already gigging a lot as a solo artist at that time. And I just kind of clung to what he was already building.
EB: Neither of you are from Wyoming, correct? What brought you out here?
Greg Hise: I was born in Texas. I lived there until I finished college and made a few pit stops on my way here, but I moved to Jackson in the fall of 2019 and I moved because I got hired at an awesome architecture firm. It’s been an excellent and wonderful place to call home.
BS: Part of the reason why I moved here was because of Greg. I had been living in Colorado for like my early 20s and was looking for the next place to go and I had done a big road trip, again was visiting some friends here and Greg was starting to build a home and needed some help. I had a bunch of carpentry experience and so that’s honestly a big part of the reason why I landed here. Not only are we a musical duo, but we’ve also been a construction duo in the past.
GH: We’ve shared a lot of times on the job site and also playing music together and probably have spent more time and grown together in ways that I don’t think either of us would have really wagered at the front when we first met. We’ve been lucky to get along really well and playing music together is great. We don’t really even get that mad at one another at work.
BS: We both bring different things (musically) to the table. It balances really well as opposed to working alone or playing alone.
EB: I’m curious to know how important you think it is that a place like Jackson has a space for musicians and songwriters to come together?
BS: I think the musical scene here is a really beautiful thing because it is quite a small community of folks that live here, but there’s a lot of musicians in town, there’s a lot of good players, there are a lot of good bands, there are a lot of good solo acts. And speaking to the Cowboy Coffee open mics specifically, which Greg hosted for many years and I’ve kind of taken over hosting this year, there are just like so many good players who are showing up, who are really just excited to have the opportunity to play three songs in front of a rapt audience. It’s a beautiful thing to have bore witness to over the last couple years: to watch these nervous bedroom singer-songwriters play at this open mic who are now playing two, three hour paid gigs every other weekend.
EB: Is there anything in the Jackson scene that either of you feel is lacking?
GH: It’s a somber note, if you’re familiar with the story, but I think everybody really misses having a music story here. Maybe in time we’ll see something like that again.
BS: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more with him. I would much rather go and buy overpriced guitar strings at a local shop than ordering them off the internet.
GH: Or to be able to find a different instrument, experiment with a different sound. Ben and I, we’re just two guys playing guitar, so we’re not exactly like a novel entity. I think there’s probably like a hundred guitar players and maybe two people that play pedal steel in this valley. There’s a lot of beautiful instruments and exciting things that we don’t always hear.
EB: What’s your definition of success for this project [The Buckskin Boys]?
GH: As long as we enjoy playing together in whatever setting that might be and we both feel like we’re able to broaden our skill set a little bit musically at the same time, that’s a success.
BS: Yeah, I think just the opportunity to perform is really, really special and I’m so thankful for it. I love playing with Greg, it’s so different than playing in a band or whatever. Just being a duet and locking in to each other’s voices and each other guitar playing. We’ve played a lot of gigs over the last three years and some of them have been to somewhat crowded bars and establishments and other gigs have been to literally empty rooms. Often we’re just kind of playing for each other and playing for ourselves. And so that’s how I define success. Within the context of our little duet here, success is to just keep playing and keep getting better. We never set out with the intention of playing on the radio or writing songs or whatever, we just enjoy picking. And so we take whatever gigs come our way. And it just kind of grows and develops very organically and very naturally.
Listen above for KHOL’s full conversation and live performance with The Buckskin Boys.
