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Words by: Jim Welte
Langhorne Slim :: 08.06.08 :: The Independent :: San Francisco, CA
Music's barriers to entry have come crashing down in the past decade. For better and worse, ProTools and its brethren have given anyone with a hankering for some crooning a chance to turn shower time into star time with relative ease.
As a result, it's harder than ever to standout as a singer-songwriter. But the easiest place to separate the pro from the faux is also the oldest: the writing. You can't fake the prose.
In an 80-minute set at The Independent, Brooklyn-based Langhorne Slim showed himself to be an outstanding songwriter, and proved that complexity is no necessity when it comes to potent songs. Backed by his band, The War Eagles - Paul Defiglia on bass and Malachi DeLorenzo on drums - Slim had the vulnerable, love-sick crooner down pat, from urging an ex to leave him alone on "Oh Honey" to walking-out-that-door fare like "Hummingbird." On the latter, Slim sang, "Been leaning on you without reason or truth/ Now I'm dreaming of leaving my demons/ and the first one I'm leaving is you." That's cold.
The set was well paced, the melancholy bits always followed by something decidedly more raucous with plenty of yelps and screams thrown in - think Credence meets The Cramps. Urged on by the superb playing of Defiglia and DeLorenzo, Slim infused roots music with a manic energy, much like a host of emerging artists in recent years, including The Avett Brothers, O'Death and Hoots and Hellmouth.
More than anything, Slim took on the persona of the honky-tonk preacher, particularly on the barnstorming "She's Gone," which he managed to squeeze in twice in the course of the night. That move, whether intentional or not, added to the night's decidedly casual vibe. Slim had plenty of busker in him, getting into several conversations with people in the sparse crowd, making up lyrics to several solo tracks to include current events and random asides, and even losing his train of thought on a few occasions. Two albums deep, Slim could afford to tighten up his set a bit.
But the messiness was a minor distraction from a host of excellent songs. Sounding at times like vintage Cat Stevens, Slim was at his best when he kept it simple. The love song "Colette" featured one such deceptively plain line: "I wasn't much of a fighter, or a lover/ You said don't get excited, but take cover."
Langhorne Slim has risen above the fray.
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