Feb 3, 2021
This week on The Show On The Road, a wide-ranging conversation with the peripatetic, Pennsylvania-born, confessional folk songwriter Sean Scolnick, who for the last fifteen years has become a troubadour truth-teller of the Americana circuit, amassing a devoted following performing as his many-hatted, impish alter-ego: Langhorne Slim. LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS • SPOTIFY • STITCHERHost Z. Lupetin caught up with Slim to discuss his much awaited new LP,
Strawberry Mansion (just released last week via Dualtone), which is named after the neighborhood in Philadelphia where both of his grandfathers grew up. Coming out of a deep creative funk, Slim produced a record of many entwined reckonings. A flurry of twenty-two diaristic sonic sketches, incantations, and emotive story-songs follow his struggle with mental illness, sometimes in real time, his pandemic isolation, and sobriety. It’s an overall hopeful collection that shows Langhorne may finally be finding his true calli
Listen • 7:58
On Strawberry Mansion, Langhorne Slim dives into the aftermath of his struggle with addiction, hometown memories and mental health.
Langhorne Slim is a singer-songwriter by trade but for more than a year, he could barely write. Slim recalls only writing about a song and a half, and even then it was nothing presentable to others. He had quit drinking years before, but found himself addicted to prescription pills. I had been numbing myself . to the source of my own creativity, Slim says. Really, to the source of love, you know? So, Slim went into rehabilitation.
When he got out, it seemed like the world was falling apart: First, a deadly tornado hit his neighborhood in Nashville, Tenn. then, the pandemic. To his own surprise, however, being forced into isolation was just what he needed. Something really incredible happened. When there s so much noise and chaos outside, and to start to feel like I was taking a deep breath again, Slim says
New Music Reviews (2/1) KEXP
Each week, KEXP’s Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases. See what s coming up this week below, including reviews for new releases from
Arlo Parks,
Collapsed in Sunbeams (Transgressive)
This young London artist’s promising debut full-length is a dreamy blend of R&B, trip-hop and dream-pop inflected with folk, jazz and other styles, combining acoustic guitars, atmospheric synths and gentle downtempo beats with her honeyed vocals and lyrical reflections on the emotional challenges of transitioning to adulthood while offering solace and hope to those similarly struggling.
The Weather Station –
This week during New Tunes at Two, we’ll check out new music from Langhorne Slim, Aaron Frazer, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, and Brighter Days Ahead. Join us Monday through Thursday during the 2pm hour as we enjoy new tunes together.
Monday, our feature disc will be Langhorne Slim’s album
Strawberry Mansion, which is a collection of 18 songs written in March, April and May of 2020. He describes that time as, “The beginning of a new world. The unraveling of an old one.” Strawberry Mansion is the neighborhood in Philly where his grandfathers grew up. He shares, “It’s become a place of myths for me. A place that’s dirty but sweet, tough but full of love.”
Rolling Stone Langhorne Slim Works Through America’s Anxiety and Addiction Problem on Liberating New Album
‘Strawberry Mansion’ finds the songwriter ruminating on his own battles with panic attacks and pills
By Harvey Robinson
Sean Scolnick still remembers the doctor’s reaction when he asked for a refill of tranquilizers. The Americana singer-songwriter who performs under the name Langhorne Slim was on a solo tour of Europe when his prescription pills to combat anxiety ran out. The doctor was dismayed by how quickly Slim burned through his prescription and how freely the drugs were administered in the U.S.
“I was in a country where I didn’t speak the language and I found out they don’t prescribe that. I went to a doctor and I said, ‘OK, here’s the deal. I’m on this medication and I’m all out of it.’ Of course, I was out of it because I was taking it more than I was supposed to,” Slim says. “[The doctor said], ‘We only prescribe th