Paul Slavens

The regulars know the drill, but for those who haven’t been to the Live Oak on a Wednesday night, here 'tis: You write down the idea for a song that you’d like Slavens to write on the spot and perform; you hand Slavens the piece of paper with a monetary contribution, and he lines up the papers (and the money) on his keyboard. If you put up 4 bucks and the someone else puts up 5, that song gets played first. Bidding wars ensue; there is shaming.

Once Slavens settles on the highest bidder and puts the money in his pocket, the sorcery begins. No matter how absurd the song subject, Slavens writes a song — and his backing band jumps in and improvises accompaniment, backing vocals. Real mind-reading kind of stuff. The on-the-spot songwriting is hilarious and inspired.
Paul is also well known in the North Texas area for his work as a multi-instrumentalist with bands like Ten Hands, the Baptist Generals and The Travoltas. He also frequently performs an Improvisational Musical Comedy show and won the 2011 Dallas Observer Music Award for Best Jazz Act. In 2011 he released Alphabet Girls, an album of original songs.
Paul is also a composer, and his works have been performed at the Dallas Museum of Art, the McKinney Avenue Contemporary and numerous churches, campuses and schools around the area. Paul also works as a a commercial voice-over artist and actor with The Kim Dawson Agency.
Paul’s program on KXT has received Best of Dallas awards from the Dallas Observer in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and has been nominated every year since 2005 for Dallas Observer Music Awards .