Langhorne Slim on Big Macs, Playing Hard Softly, and His Touring Dream

Photo credit Kate LaMendola

Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?

We tour in a rented sprinter van these days. In the beginning, we toured in my grandmother’s Toyota Camry. It was a musical clown car with an upright bass in between the driver and passenger seats. Drums, amps, guitars and three of us young lads in the band. It reeked of farts and smoke and we loved it. We broke down but always got back up. My grandfather gave me a AAA card.

How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?

The options have improved considerably over the years. In the early days it was challenging. I don’t eat meat and used to resort to Big Macs without the beef. Actually tasted pretty good but not sustainable for 20 yrs on the road. Now it’s easy to find good, healthy vegetarian food. I only wish the highway exits weren’t owned by the same huge corporations. Imagine every exit across the country having local, independently owned food, shops and hotels. A new adventure every 50 miles. What a dream.

How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?

I rarely break ‘em anymore. I’ve learned to play hard softly.

Where do you rehearse?

We’ve never had one. We rehearse new songs at soundcheck or prior to recording an album.

What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?

“Lesbian Friend” – she has dirty blonde hair, she has a beautiful face, I have dreams about her, I dream of her wearing lace”. I was 12.

What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?

Stocking coolers at Wawa. The only job I’ve ever enjoyed is playing music. I’m very happy that I haven’t been fired yet.

How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?

I don’t track that tho perhaps I should. My financial outlook and goals have shifted as I now have a family to support. I want to make enough money to support my family and to not worry about having enough to support us.

What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?

Langhorne Slim has been writing and performing songs with an earnest, unguarded intensity since the late ’90s, when he traded the Philadelphia suburbs for New York City and the road. His music pulls from early blues, folk, country, and rock and roll without planting a firm flag in any of them, held together less by genre than by a restless, searching quality in both his voice and his writing. Over nine albums and years of near-constant touring, he’s built a following that tends to be genuinely devoted — the kind that comes from watching someone perform like they mean every word.

Nashville-based now, Slim has been candid about the harder stretches — addiction, recovery, the particular disorientation of spending your life moving — and that honesty runs through his records without tipping into confession for its own sake. His most recent album, The Dreamin’ Kind, produced by Sam Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet, trades some of his acoustic-leaning tendencies for electric guitar and a fuller rock sound. It’s a shift in texture more than character — the songwriting still centers on the same preoccupations: love, memory, belonging, and the road.

Connect with Langhorne Slim online and on the road.