Langhorne Slim
When the Sun's Gone Down

A young bastard child of America...

Langhorne Slim from Pennsylvania moves to the big apple where he earns a degree in commerce from New York State University, taking Brooklyn as his permanent residence. After a couple of self-produced EPs, he lands at the Narnack Record label where he finds the opportunity to create a complete album, accompanied in the venture by his trusted rhythm section, consisting of Malachi DeLorenzo on drums and Paul "the War Eagles" DeFiglia on bass.

"When The Sun's Gone Down" is a true folk-punk-country gem, which perfectly outlines one of the (best) paths traditional American music can take to renew itself while remaining faithful to its own tradition. There are some ballads that "betray" these origins born around the fire on nights when pioneer caravans camped in a circle and the evening revolved around guitars and banjos soaked with firewater, so "Mary" is sung with a poignant voice or "Drowning", which melancholically unites Woody Guthrie with Uncle Tupelo with a lopsided bitterness, is at times moving. In "Checking Out" they go "indie" while in the final "I Love To Dance" they descend to the borders with Mexico to participate in a Fandango, with choruses and trumpets creating the best party one could attend in an abandoned pueblo on the edge of the desert... and up to this point, we are still in normality. The album's most disorienting parts begin right with the country-core of the opening "In The Midnight" where the trio goes power to express an urgency repressed for many (too many) years, in the hyper-exasperation with which they (we) ask "And If It's True", in the anger of the Gypsy folk-punk of "Hope And Fulfillment" or in the more direct one of "I Will" or in the furious suicidal quadrille of "Set Em Up".

I think this might suffice for curiosity, but as a final pearl, I mention the splendid ballad "I Ain't Proud" where warm lines drawn by a very soft slide alternate with the darkened melodies of Langhorne Slim's voice, here more subdued, yet always lopsided and sharp.

And with these premises, let's allow the sun to set on the American Empire.