Slackeye Slim – ‘Giving My Bones to the Western Lands’
James G. Carlson
Posted On March 17, 2015
Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joe Frankland, who goes by the moniker Slackeye Slim, has been wandering through today’s roots music underground, appearing here and there with wholly memorable and impressive performances and album releases. While Slim’s 2007 debut, Texas Whore Pleaser, failed to get the full attention it deserved, his second full-length in 2011, El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa, received a considerable amount of praise from both press and fans alike. Now, in 2015, he is back with a brand new album titled Giving My Bones to the Western Lands.
Unlike El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa, which was released by Farmageddon Records, Slim released Giving My Bones to the Western Lands independently; a practice that seems to suit and capture the essence of his endeavor rather well. This eleven-song collection of Slackeye Slim originals bears the sound and style that is unmistakably his – dark roots, cinematic Spaghetti Western country, and lonesome desert blues. In some ways his sound is almost like a cross between Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, JB Nelson, Sons of Perdition, and Those Poor Bastards. And it has occurred to me more than a few times that if filmmaker Robert Rodriguez were to make a movie based on Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, songs written and performed by Slackeye Slim would make an excellent soundtrack. Having said that, Slim has his own stories to tell, as proven by the narratives he delivers with his deep, gritty vocals, which wind through his compositions the way the Colorado River does a handful of states in the Southwestern US and a chunk of Mexico, so his songs could just as easily serve as the musical accompaniment to a film of his own making. And Giving My Bones to the Western Lands is not exception.
Frankland took a tremendously DIY approach to this album, recording the Western Lands songs in the dilapidated buildings of an abandoned homestead and in various indoor and outdoor locations around the ranch where he lived, and it seems his songs benefited greatly from the experience. And, as usual, Slackeye Slim takes one on a musical journey, this time through the Western Lands, starting with “Don’t Bury Me,” moving on to “Dan Houston,” “Oh Montana,” “Cowboy Song,” “The Western Lands,” and ending with “Juniper Tree.”
Giving My Bones to the Western Lands by Slackeye Slim is available here.
