“The music provides a foundation for your relationships,” Roznowski said. “Music helped me build bridges and relate to people.”
Roznowski will perform 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Player’s Pub. Admission is $5.
In addition to writing and performing original music, he has worked in broadcast media and film.
His music fits into the Americana genre, Roznowski said, and it draws from styles such as blues, country and folk. He said he was encouraged to write music by listening to artists like Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams.
“It was really when I was growing up that singer-songwriters were dominant in America,” Roznowski said.
There are so many individuals who have different takes of Americana, Roznowski said, and he likes working with the genre to make a creative expression.
Although he is originally from upstate New York, Roznowski said he has lived in Bloomington since 1977.
Roznowski said he enjoys being involved with Bloomington’s music scene.
“You have a number of people in different genres of music,” Roznowski said. “People love living here.”
He has taken voice lessons with an IU faculty member who taught opera, Roznowski said, although he does not perform classical music. He has also performed with jazz musicians, including local jazz pianist Monika Herzig.
He said it’s nice to have the flexibility to learn different approaches.
He started writing his own music while he was in a band in Bloomington, and he eventually began performing and recording in Chicago and Nashville, Tennessee.
He was an outsider in Nashville, Roznowski said, but the environment was inspiring.
“There’s a lot of free floating inspiration,” Roznaski said about his experience in Nashville. “It’s like a Walmart of music.”
Roznowksi said the connections he has made in Bloomington would probably not be as readily available in large cities such as New York or Los Angeles.
He said it has been enriching to work with such a variety of professional musicians and he finds it easy to make connections in Bloomington.
Player’s Pub is an intimate venue, Rowznoski said, and the performances have different dynamics.
“I really love the venue,” Rowznowski said. “It’s set up in a way that it accommodates different types of music.”
Rowznowski said he will alternate between piano and guitar at Wednesday’s performance, but he has also performed at Player’s Pub with a larger band.
At his last performance at Player’s Pub, Roznowski said, he encountered the person who gave him his first gig in Bloomington.
“You make relationships over the years, even with people who’ve seen me years ago,” Roznowski said. “It’s really sweet.”
