Big Creek band member releases first solo CD
Tim Prososki, a member of the popular Protem-based bluegrass band Big Creek, recently released his first solo CD. The project features instrumental tunes and hymns including "How Great Thou Art" and "Orange Blossom Special" as well as several original tunes played on guitar and dobro. The CD is available for $10 at the Ozark County Times and Polly's Styling Salon in Gainesville and at Theodosia Pharmacy in Theodosia.
Tim was in the third grade at Karen Western Elementary School in Omaha, Neb., when he landed in teacher Clay Friis's class titled "Learn to Play Guitar." From the first day, learning to play guitar "was all I could think about," Tim said.
Seeing how deep his interest was, his parents, Ken and Marlene Prososki of Omaha, signed him up for weekly private lessons with Friis, and his Uncle Gene Reinig bought him his first guitar, "probably at K-Mart, because that was where he bought almost everything," Tim said.
Recognizing and using his gift
"I was so excited when he brought it in. I hadn't learned how to play a note yet, and I cried because I wanted to be able to play him a song, and I couldn't," he said.
It didn't take him long to learn to play. His teacher, Friis, still remembers Tim's dad telling him he would "go into Tim's room late at night and tell him that was enough practicing. He had to make him unplug his amp and go to bed," Friis said.
Tim's attitude about playing was "his biggest asset," Friis said. "He seemed to know that his talent was a gift and he was just using it."
In response, Tim credits his love of music to Friis, who was "encouraging and made learning fun," he said. "He had high expectations of me. I remember one time when I wasn't prepared - hadn't practiced much that week - and he told me I was wasting my parents' money and his time. I hated disappointing him, and that never happened again."
While most of his friends were listening to pop and rock, Tim was a big fan of country music and grew up listening to Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty and George Jones. When he was in the fourth grade, Friis brought some fellow musicians to Tim's home for a basement jam session. One of the musicians was steel guitar player Chuck Lettes, who since then has shared the stage with artists like LeRoy VanDyke, Doug Kershaw, Johnny Lee and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. "I sat at his feet all night," Tim said. "I wanted to learn to play like that."
'No looking back'
As his skill developed and his love for country music grew, Tim set his heart on having a steel guitar. "He would literally throw fits wanting us to buy him one," said his dad, Ken Prososki. "But they were really expensive - not like buying a regular guitar. Finally we bought him a three-legged lap steel."
After that, said Ken, "there was no looking back."
Friis taught Tim as much as he could about playing the steel, "but it wasn't long before Tim was showing me how to do stuff on it," he said.
Friis organized an elementary school jazz band - the Midnight Ramblers - and Tim and the rest of the young musicians performed concerts all over the Omaha area. They even cut an album that helped them pay their travel expenses.
After elementary school, Tim, with his older brother Rick playing bass guitar and his younger brother Ronnie on drums, started playing weekend gigs with their Uncle Gene Prososki, who sang and played guitar. "We were busy almost every weekend," Tim said.
Attending Omaha's Fourth of July celebration when he was 15, Tim heard country band Cimarron Express, a well-known Omaha band that had won several categories in the country music contests Tim had competed in as well.
"I told the band leader, Ron Walters, I was still playing steel guitar," Tim said. "He knew who I was and told me he would talk to the band about hiring me if I was interested. Of course, I was! I wound up with the job, but I couldn't drive yet, so they had to pick me up for practice and haul me and my equipment to the gigs."
During Tim's 16 years playing guitar and steel guitar with Cimarron Express, he won the "best instrumentalist in Omaha" award and had a closetful of trophies from music contests.
In 1981, he married another Omaha resident, Norene Loftis. They had two daughters, Jessica (now Workman) and Jennifer (now Yarger), and Tim worked a full-time job at an Omaha bank while also performing with the band five nights a week. Most nights he didn't get home until 1:30 a.m. and had to be up again by 6.
Norene remembers one Friday night when she was watching Tim play his steel at a night gig somewhere. "His eyes were getting heavy, and I could tell he was about to go to sleep, but he never missed a lick," she said.
Tim enjoyed what he was doing, but it was getting hard for him to keep up the hectic pace. "Plus, he was starting to get tired of playing in the bars," Norene said.
Regaining a love for music
In 1989, Tim's in-laws, Delmar and Lorene Loftis, moved to Pontiac, where they had purchased property. "We had vacationed there, staying with Norene's grandparents, Basil and Bonnie Coffey," Tim said. "We dreamed of getting out of the city and we loved Bull Shoals Lake, so we started thinking about moving to Ozark County."
Their house in Omaha sold two days after it was listed, and they also sold most of their furniture. "It was sad saying good-bye to the band, but I just couldn't do it anymore," Tim said.
He was so burned out that he had no intention of touching a musical instrument once he was in Ozark County. "I was planning on selling my guitars and amps," he said. "The last thing I wanted to do was play."
But it was the first thing his father-in-law wanted to do. Delmar, who played mandolin and guitar, wanted to get together with Tim and the Terry brothers, Verl and Ronnie, for a jam session. "To be honest, I remember dreading it a little," Tim said, "but I loved Delmar and would have done about anything for him."
As it turned out, the men had so much fun playing together and singing gospel music, Tim now says "it was one of the best things I ever did. Delmar got more joy out of music than almost anyone I've ever known. He helped me get back my love for playing."
Later Delmar, Tim, Verl Terry and his wife Barb, Ronnie Terry and Mary Jo Keller, who all attended church at Frontier Baptist in Pontiac, formed a gospel music group named Sonrise and performed for several years at churches throughout the Ozarks.
Doris Pinckney joined the group when Mary moved away. Barb died of cancer in 1996. In 2006, Delmar died of Lou Gehrig's disease, leaving his guitar and mandolin to Tim's daughter, Jessica.
A few years ago, while visiting his friend Ron Yarger in Protem, Ron pulled out a dobro and asked Tim to give it a try. That was Tim's introduction to bluegrass music - and a new style of playing. "Playing good bluegrass is difficult," Tim said. "It's fast and clean - no room for mistakes. I didn't know how much I would like it until I tried to play it."
Ron, a long-time member of the recently disbanded bluegrass band Big Creek, shared CDs from his bluegrass music collection, and Tim spent countless evenings studying and practicing runs. Shortly after that, Ron and his son Zack, Tim and his daughter Jessica, and Don Yarger and his son Cody formed a band. They adopted the name Big Creek and now play bluegrass music, especially gospel bluegrass.
"I've spent a lot of years playing in smoky bars, and it feels good to be playing for God," Tim said. "I still have a lot to learn, but I'm having a great time."
