when the sun's gone down

The other night I went to Derby Guildhall to see The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. As you probably know, they're a self-styled indie-vaudeville act, a father, mother and daughter that go to yard sales and thrift stores buy up old collections of slides and write songs about them.

At first they were really funny and the songs were cool but after a while it was like they were beating me about the head with their SCHTICK. It got boring really fast and I started imagining the revenge that the daughter will visit upon her parents after years touring the world - I think she'll become a high-powered corporate lawyer.

The evening was saved by the support, Langhorne Slim, a man in a beat-up hat wearing a corduroy suit, belting out songs on an acoustic guitar. There was a marked absence of SCHTICK or GIMMICK. It was great.

Langhorne Slim - And If It's True

 
Langhorne Slim - Mary


Langhorne Slim - Loretta Lee Jones


How to describe him? A hillbilly Tom Waits? A white shitkicking country-blues artist? I dunno. He tells a great story. He loves to dance. His voice is a piercing, keening yelp, that grabs hold and demands attention.

He kept apologising that all of his songs were about love and lost-love and never-found-love. But that's what the blues is about, isn't it?

Visit Langhorne Slim
Buy "When The Sun's Gone Down" by Langhorne Slim