Langhorne Slim and his band of War Eagles are a cheery bunch of musicians and they're proud to be writing love songs. No we're not just talking about the gag-me-with-your-heart hopeless tales of unrequited love. Romance has many facets that are often deprived of fair light, but with Slim's full country outfit they aren't afraid to tackle these sides of romance with an admirable passion. They stomp their feet to their own beat and you can hear it well. Chances are the contagious zeal with which they play will have you doing the same.
Jumping into this album I wasn't sure exactly how to weigh it. So many musicians today take their work and emotions far too seriously and that's precisely what I was geared for. Imagine my surprise when the album's slapdash to-hell-with-it-all approach finally sunk in. It's a lot like taking a pair of scissors to an upside down inside out mess of knots and cutting the whole thing free without an ounce of hesitation. The instrumental attack has the potential to put one off slightly. It nearly did me with the kooky upbeat variety (listen for some accordion action) but as the album pushes onward the folksy imperfect yawl of Mr. Slim manages to form a beautiful kinship with his players and high strung critical thinking seems to become irrelevant. His voice is pretty non-traditional and your local tenor might cringe a little but the delight here is exactly in that; absolutely no need to impress a soul, this music has a healing purpose well beyond that.
I believe a lot of folk have been deprived of country's true beautiful colors with this era of "she thinks my tractor's sexy" pop fare. Classic country was the common man's celebration of heartbreak, hard times and life sung with such jubilant carelessness it smoothed all life's jagged edges over quite nicely. Langhorne Slim's self titled album is a celebration of all that. This album isn't coming across with a grand message to the universe. All it would care to offer us is some pure joy and I think that's more than we could ask for. So this is where country's gone...
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