Thoughts on the passing of a Bakersfield music icon, and a review of Slim the Drifter Trio's The Guilty Ten - By N.L. Belardes
Traveling albums are as much about moving on as they are about celebrating country music pop culture. A really good traveling music album takes you to the road. You get in your car or truck and it's the first album you reach for to get you started on a long trip. It's what the best country music can do. It's simple, not too many instruments, and usually there's a really good crooner carrying each song. Ever hear of Dale Watson? He's a crooner of the Bakersfield Sound. His truck driving albums are as raw as they are necessary on some lonesome travels.
Yet there's a local crooner, one who has legendary Bakersfield status in the pool halls and bars. His name drifts on the echoes of the Bakersfield music scene. The city's musical leaders with the tenure of experience whisper it like they'd just seen him pass through town the night before...
"Rolling down the highway to where the angels made the day," comes the lyrics from Highway Song. It's followed by 45 R.P.M. on Slim the Drifter's new album The Guilty Ten (By Slim the Drifter Trio: Ethan James, Brad Coats, Slim the Drifter). It's the perfect ballad for a country drifter settled in Northern Nevada. One time rocker from Bakersfield, Slim the Drifter changed his musical tastes for country long ago, though his roots run deep into the rockier side of the Bakersfield music scene.
I saw Slim a few years ago at Riley's Tavern opening with some poetic lines for longstanding Bakersfield punk band, Active Ingrediants. Since then he put together a new band built from having performed at weddings. Thus Slim the Drifter Trio was born, a country band with haunting music about the dark traveled roads of Americana.
Ethan, Slim and Brad on the Oregon Coast
Just after Highway Song comes 45 R.P.M., a traveling song worthy of spinning...
Well I don't need no preacher just to tell me the truth. I dug my whole now how about you? Don't need no religion on the judgment day. What you need is the lord to be your saving grace... be your saving grace...a little more time. Got a funny feelin' wanna leave you alone, like a long black train that ain't headed home. Don't need no religion on the judgment day. What you need is the Lord to be your saving grace...to be your saving grace... a little more time...
In Little Bird, Slim sings, "I've packed up my suitcase cause I'll be travelin' on..." But it's Winslow that really begins the album's storytelling. You have to find a copy of the album to really dig into the crooning of Slim: "The Wildcat tattoo is still down there kicking... But me I don't go down to Winslow anymore..." It's a great line about moving on... keyboards drift through the song like wind across the desert floor. This is the song you want to hear when heading on a road trip to anywhere. Not just to Las Vegas or a slip into Arizona or Utah... you'll want to play it anywhere and more than once in a row...
Golden Boy starts with a slamming door and Slim saying, "Nice and pissed off..." It's classic. He sings, "Golden boy, make some noise. Born from the heavens above, Golden boy..." You can hear Slim whistle, talk and knock. He's right there with you, a spirit in the song rattling and crooning. "You and that man were making plans to go somewhere..."
Some songs haunt you. Atlanta is my favorite song off the album just because of it's ability to stick in my head. It carries with it a transient movement, as if you're with Slim haunting the record, spinning on a bus ride with his voice at a low sobering drone: "Leaving here tomorrow. A ticket to Atlanta. Maybe it was Dallas but I just got to go... About a funny feeling, I won't be back to see you. Please give my regards to every trick on the road..."
The dancehall piano church...
Where Tito Larrivo is a wandering song about someone gone, Dancehall Piano tells a straight up Sunday church story where a dancehall piano plays Amazing Grace. It's waltzing music is like passing endless creosote bushes and staring at a red sun through a bus window... "And the dancehall piano played Amazing Grace... how sweet the sound."
There are a few more songs on the album, and just as good as the rest. But you'll have to pick it up to find out... discover for yourself...
Slim the Drifter
Scott "Slim The Drifter" Sturtevant, born July 20, 1960, died Friday May 25, 2007. Although he'd sent his band's album to me some time ago, I just wrote to him and received a reply on May 12th about an interview.
Sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner.... If you would like to send me a list of questions that would be fine and we can fill in the blanks with a telephone call.
After getting a phone call Sunday about his passing, I contacted his wife, Debbie.
She wrote:
He wasn't in any pain and he was ready. Things were worse than he wanted to let on. He was a man with a huge heart and he was loved by so many. I lost my husband and best friend. But there are so many that lost somebody that meant so much...
These are sad times in the Bakersfield music scene without Slim the Drifter passing through...
Labels: Bakersfield music scene, country music, Slim the Drifter, Slim the Drifter Trio
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Sunday, May 27, 2007.
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Thank you for the post. Scott "Slim" would be pleased. He still loved his rock/punk roots but as he said "you got to slow down when you get old" He had a great time making this CD and loved working with Ethan and Brad. He was quite proud of the results. Atlanta was his favorite song on the CD too. Debbie
Scott "Slim the Drifter" Sturtevant passed away Friday night. He died in Reno after being Care flighted out of Fernley. Scott had been suffering from Cirrhosis of the liver for a long time and was diagnosed with the illness in 2000 at stage three on a scale of four. Stage four was already well underway when we left Bakersfield for the Oregon coast where we married and lived for a couple of months before heading to Fernley Nevada. Scott's liver was shutting down and conditions related to end stage cirrhosis began to slow him down before Christmas. His Condition rapidly deteriorated to a point that his body was becoming a prison. He was ready to let go of this life. He was tired of the pain and frustrated by the limitations of his failing health. Scott lived his life on his own terms, and did exactly what he wanted to do. He wouldn't have changed a moment. His only regret was that the end was coming so soon after having found peace in his life. He loved our little home and our family, us and the cats ("The Boys"). He never expected to live as long as he did and remarked that if he had known "I might have taken a little better care of myself". We joked that he hadn't planned well. Scott passed away surrounded by his brothers and their wives, a very good friend of our family and me. He was surrounded by love and went peaceful to that goodnight that he had come to long for. He died of cardiac arrest brought on by respiratory failure due to conditions related to cirrhosis. His wish was to be cremated and his ashes scattered on the Suislaw River on the Oregon coast. It was a place where we had stayed on our extended honeymoon and he loved it so much. His family and I have set the date of August 12 to meet and do as he asked. No memorial service has been set as of yet. Please remember Scott for the truly wonderful man that he was. My heart is broken, but I wouldn't give up a moment of the time we had together. Debbie
Even though my time with Slim was short he used to hang out with Misbliss at the time, and my band Butterfly Stitches were playing at Shantels house. We hung out for quite sometime and he was a character. Excellent conversation and was hardcore into music.
He will be missed.
R.I.P Slim.
-Mikee
Scott I will always consider my 3rd son,his passing is a personal loss..and Bakerfield has lost a legend."Book of Matches", so many more tunes,so many more memories. If anyone knows when he is to be burried,or memorialized please spread the word.
Sort of fucked up ya know?
He was a cool guy and I wish him the best in the afterlife.
Nice read Nick... respectful too.
I'm glad this post would have made Slim happy. The Trio's album is awesome! And it's nice to know my favorite song was his too.
There are a few more Bakersfield messages over here...
And even more messages over here...
I was fortunate enough to play a couple of shows with Slim and Mike Patterson around 96ish. It was raw stripped down, and lo fi for sure. He had this thrashed out fender guitar he called "a beater with a heater" and the folks that were at The Mint on those nights got to see him at his finest. His "Callin Cali" era music was THE SHIT! His girl at the time "borrowed" mine and forgot to give it back, so if anyone has it please contact me about a copy. I loved sitting around and talking about old school So Cal hardcore and hearing his crazy stories about my punk rock hero's when he was in LA and in the mix. Slim had a gift, and could craft a song. Most musicians can write a song, but very few have the ability to put all of the elements in perfect form like Slim did. I am glad he finally chased off his demons, and found happiness with Debbie, the guy definitely disserved it. I have a hundred more memories of Slim, but I will always picture him, raw voice, his beater, and his spray painted cowboy hat, playing by the light of the Mint's jukebox. Rest in Peace Slim.
Shantell
There's a great comment over here...
Another tribute link, this by Danny Garone and the Iron Outlaws
So many beautiful tributes for a Bakersfield legend. You can really tell he touched a lot of lives personally and through his music. Long live his memory.
I've uploaded a couple of Slim's older songs onto his Myspace music site. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=144167043
Here's the direct link: Slim the Drifter
Logan Molen wrote a nice piece on Bakosphere:
Slim founded Bakersfield's first punk band, Teen Suicide, but later grew into more rootsy genres. In the late 1990s, he had evolved into something of a post-punk Paul Westerberg. His songs periodically flirted with greatness, but never found the consistency that would put him over the top. His spirit and carefree attitude, however, inspired many around town and will be missed.
I was editor of Eye on Entertainment when we went through a redesign in the mid-1990s that gave it a bit more edge. I fondly recall putting a big picture of Slim on the cover of our second issue (teasing to a fun Robert Price story inside) and delighted in handling several complaints that came in from irate readers upset that we would give a "punk" more than a sentence. Good times.
Read his full piece
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