Sunset Slim

by Michelle Broussard Honick

Sunset Slim’s river boat gambler look suits him well. After all, he was a champion professional poker player in Los Angeles and Las Vegas for a five-year hot streak before moving to Nashville to return full-time to the music business. He admits a big attraction to becoming a major player was that it was “the last outlaw thing.” Though his main game was Five Card Draw, he’s expert enough at Texas Hold ‘Em to have beat out 18,000 players on Poker Stars to win a seat at the World Series.

In May, Slim will combine both loves by participating in the “Pickin’ and Poker” tour at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Vegas to benefit the Academy of Country Music Charitable Foundation. He’ll play in the celebrity poker tournament then perform (with Andy Griggs, Bryan White, Ira Dean and Richie MacDonald) in an acoustic jam.

Here in Nashville, he’ll perform May 8th at Windows on the Cumberland (11 p.m.), on May 29th at Elevation (formerly Code Blue at 1907 Division, time to be announced), on June 4th at The Nashville Palace (7 a.m., “Breakfast with the Stars”, The Billy Walker Tribute Show) and from June 5th-8th at the CMA Music Festival (Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, specific dates and times to be announced). He easily grabs and holds the attention of the most jaded audiences at clubs like the Fiddle & Steel in Printer’s Alley with his own blend of blues, rooted country and rock music.

While recording his new album, All Bets Are Off, Slim sent his song “Sex, Trucks & Country Music” to the internet sensation “Fame Games”, which has over two million listeners. He was happily stunned when the hard-driving country song rocketed to the top of the show’s charts. To prove his popularity with the voters was no fluke, all the songs he’s sent in since also have zoomed up the charts.

Slim says, “Hip young Londoners based in Spain run the ‘Fame Games’ site, which mainly plays pop, rap, hip-hop and rock music. Thousands of songs are pitched to it, and for a country song to be so popular on it is amazing. ‘Sex, Trucks & Country Music’ was the most played song, and right after that I had the number one and number two songs on it. I think they’ve embraced my music and me as a character that fits in with them as eclectic. They say I have the widest range of approval because my music’s good and there’s no bull.”

In fact, “Fame Games” listeners are so wild about Slim’s music that he was named Best Overall Artist of the Year in their year-end Effigy Awards for 2007. He also was in the top three in six other categories (Most Popular Artist, Best Solo, Best Overall Vocal, Best Instrumental, Best Overall Song and even Best Profile).

He calls his music “traditional in a fresh space. I try to entertain and do songs that are funny but also songs with soul that are encouraging and uplifting.” Slim wrote, arranged and produced all the songs on his album, which will soon be available on his website (www.sunsetslim.com).

With his strong sense of humor and talent as a raconteur, the entertainer has some fascinating stories. One of the best is about the King himself. He was caught in a traffic jam in Los Angeles, saw a baby blue Mercedes limo parked in the street in front of a car dealership with four guys in black guiding traffic around it like pros. Intrigued, he stayed behind the limo instead of moving on and was rewarded by the sight of an emerging Elvis in a baby blue jumpsuit (to match the limo, of course). Slim called out, “Hey, E, you’re lookin’ good!”, then Elvis swung around, aimed an imaginary gun at him and said, “You’re beautiful, baby!” Slim parked around the corner, then sauntered back, only to pass a black limo that had pulled up. He did a double-take. “In the limo was a woman with an ermine hat, a white fur coat, long gloves and diamonds—in 110 degree heat! I couldn’t believe it–it was Mae West! Just 10 minutes after seeing Elvis–what a surreal L.A. moment!”

Slim also saw Howard Hughes in Vegas once when the billionaire had slipped away and was trying to be incognito. “It was during the two days he disappeared from the Desert Inn. He was downtown near the Gold Nugget and Horseshoe wearing 40s style pleated pants and a hounds tooth jacket with patches, holding an expensive little Oriental pearl pipe, with his long hair and long beard. I just had to say something to him, so I asked how he was doing. He mumbled he was okay and how about me. Then he realized somebody might actually have recognized him and took off.”

Slim isn’t a newcomer to country music. Besides singing and playing guitar in all types of clubs since childhood, he wrote the Grammy nominated Roy Rogers/Clint Black hit, “Hold On, Partner”. “When I called Roy Rogers to thank him for recording my song, he came on the phone right away and told me he was honored to record it because it was the kind of song that kept a guy from jumping in the river. Right after that, I was performing at the Palomino and a punk rock looking girl showed up–very unusual in an audience at that club–wanting to talk to me. She said she’d had a gun to her head in a motel, turned on the television so the sound would muffle the shot, then heard Roy and Clint singing ‘Hold On, Partner’ and decided she wanted to live. That shows you the power of music,” a still emotional Slim says.

His profile on “Fame Games” perhaps sums the gambling troubadour up best: “It’s the usual and unusual tale of a life on the lost highway.” Slim for sure is nowhere near to fading off into the sunset.