Langhorne/Hunter preview

Langhorne Slim/Jana Hunter
Beat Kitchen/Schubas, Chicago
Friday, April 7, 2006

Langhorne Slim and Jana Hunter really don’t have much in common musically, unless you count being solo performers bastardizing old folk idioms. One’s a baby-faced loverman the other’s burdened with being the record label premiere overseen by some fanciful hipsters.

Easily the more accessible of the pair, child of the ’80s Slim plays music for children of the ’90s — the 1890s. The difference on When The Sun’s Gone Down (Narnack) is a stomping on the old timey blues revisionism associated — fairly or not — with Jack White. Probably more for fans of Micah P. Hinson, The Baptist Generals, and maybe Scott H. Biram, Slim’s specialty is sex. Skip James, Son House, and Woody Guthrie all had some sort of blues, sure, but they also craved the comfort of a woman, something Slims spends a lot of energy on, even if it means admitting “I Love To Dance.”

Forget dancing, it’s a wonder if Jana Hunter has ever stood. Collected over 10 years, Blank Unstaring Heirs Of Doom comes in and out of focus as the first album for Devendra Banhart and Andy “Vetiver” Cabic’s Gnomonsong. Hunter, formerly of Matty & Mossy, first appeared solo on the esteemed Golden Apples Of The Sun compilation Banhart assembled for Arthur magazine and even then didn’t fit the neo/freak folk mold. Instead, Blank moves slothlike through the ether, picking up transmissions, hardwired for static. Terribly disengaging at times, the lethal culmination of “K” has me curiously longing for more.

Langhorne Slim opens for Lucero at Beat Kitchen’s late show; Say Anything headlines a 5:30 performance. Jana Hunter opens for Rosie Thomas.

— Steve Forstneger

Click here to download Langhorne Slim’s “She Don’t Want.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly