Show Review: El Drifte, Slim Stone, and Thelma & the Sleaze at the Hook and Ladder
Three stellar acts each delivered their distinct blend of country and rock at this high-energy Minneapolis show.
All photos by Tom Smouse, 2021
Slim Stone at the Hook and Ladder. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
I couldn’t quite believe it when I first saw the announcement for this show. One of my favorite—but most elusive—Twin Cities acts returning to Minneapolis for one single solitary show in 2021. I’d all but given up on ever seeing him perform again—you can read my only partly tongue-in-cheek elegy, “The Ballad of Slim Stone,” if you want to get caught up—so this was an unexpected gift.
I snatched up four front-row seats for me and a group of friends, and beseeched the ever-generous photographer Tom Smouse to capture the night better than I ever could. When you’re a Slim Stone fan, every show you see might be the last, so you have to savor it in whatever ways you can.
September 23 was just-right weather for an outdoor show. The Hook and Ladder Theater in Minneapolis—which thankfully survived both lockdown and being next door to the Third Precinct police station that was destroyed in May 2020—has been one of the standout venues during the pandemic, erecting a huge tent for their “Under the Canopy” series and flexing their safety protocols to match the ever-changing COVID-19 conditions this past year and a half. They’ve nailed everything, from excellent sound to well-spaced “pod” seating to food offerings from a revolving variety of vendors.
Stone was sandwiched between two other acts and back when I used to see him a lot, I might have waited impatiently through them. But my musical horizons have expanded to an unrecognizable degree, so I was excited to check out the other two acts as well.
And I was not disappointed. All three infused rock and country into a sort of hybrid sound, but each act did it in a completely different way, so it was a lively and varied night of music.
El Drifte
First up was El Drifte, aka “the Drifting Reverend” (yes, he does officiate weddings from time to time, according to his website!). Born and raised in Minnesota, he’s been on the West Coast for the past several years, and it sounds like a happy accident that he was in town to be able to play this show. It was his first show since pre-pandemic, so he had that charming blend I’ve seen so many times since things started opening back up: a touch rusty but radiating excitement at being back on stage.
I’ve heard many blends of country with rock, but there was something special about El Drifte’s take. Rather than a more amorphous blend, the melodies, lyrics and vocal delivery of his songs were pure throwback country while his instrumentation was unrelenting rock ’n’ roll. As if to reinforce this hard dichotomy visually, he was flanked by a rocker on bass (with a Low Rats sticker on his instrument, so he could very well have been from that buzzworthy local band) and a guitarist wearing a classic country-Western button-down.
Some of the rock sound that night may have had to do with the backing band he happened to be playing with, since I found at least some of his recorded music to be more like 75 percent country and 25 percent rock. But either way, he’s a fun and charming artist with a great throwback country sensibility. Check out “Drunk on Jenny Lynn” from his self-titled EP below.
Slim Stone
There was a short break before Slim Stone took the stage, and I was excited but not hyperventilating like I used to while waiting for him to come on. For one thing, I fully expected him to be out of practice; every band I’ve seen fresh out of lockdown has sounded a little rougher than usual, and his hiatus had been even longer, with no sign of musical activity like livestreams or new records. And, honestly, I was pretty sheltered musically when I first encountered Stone; I’ve been exposed to so many great artists since then, expanding my own musical horizons as well as becoming much better-educated about Americana and music in general. I wondered if he’d really seem that special with my new, slightly more worldly outlook.
Friends, if I’d known what I know now, I’d have been freaking out as usual waiting for his set to start. Slim Stone was back—breakneck guitar, wild vibrato and all—no rustiness detected. Sadly, his slide guitarist/drummer Rico “the Butcher” didn’t play with him—though Stone did point him out in the audience—but fellow itinerant singer-songwriter Birdie McLeod did accompany him with some slide, tambourine and harmonies.
I hadn’t listened to Stone’s songs for a while, since I’m always listening to a steady stream of new music to write about these days, so I was struck all over again by the sheer genius of his lyrics. He’s got that Hank Sr. gift for the tragicomic turn of phrase, for taking simple words and a working-man perspective and somehow making it all sound unexpected and completely original. If you find yourself laughing while a little stab of sadness pierces your heart, you’re probably listening to one of those two guys. And Hank Williams Sr. is my favorite artist of all time, so I wouldn’t say that flippantly.
I think it’s absolutely criminal that Stone is so obscure, but it’s hard to build a steady career and also go where the wind takes you at a moment’s notice, so I don’t think it’s entirely the listening public’s fault here. Regardless, I heard after his set that he’s planning to record another set of songs, and I’m thrilled. So many of my favorites of his aren’t available except as blurry bootlegs I recorded on my phone at loud bars, so I’d be so happy to have studio recordings of them. I did manage to take slightly less blurry bootlegs of two of his unreleased songs, “O Mississippi” (see below) and “The Ballad of Slim Stone,” to tide us all over, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too long. (The latter had slightly different lyrics, so I’m guessing it’s one of the ones he’s refining for his upcoming record!)
After maybe eight or 10 songs—not enough, I tell you, but every one a favorite that I knew by heart—his set was over. This would’ve been the point where in my past life I might have left, or semi-politely listened to one or two songs by the headliner while finishing my drink. But I’m a reformed woman, so I was actually excited to hear the main act: a Nashville all-woman queer rock band called Thelma & the Sleaze.
Thelma and the Sleaze
This band won me over in a matter of minutes. With lighthearted raunchiness (“This next one’s about one of my favorite things—datin’ a stripper,” drawled lead singer LG before a song) and a healthy dose of down-home charm, this five-piece outfit (two guitars, a bass and two sets of drums) delivered a high-octane Southern roots-rock set infused with blues and punk that brought down the house.
While it was heavier on the hard rock than the Americana, there was no way not to enjoy this act—and as a queer woman myself, it was especially awesome to see them dominate the stage with exaggerated swagger that was both funny and empowering—yeah, they were poking fun at macho rockstar attitudes, but they were also the real deal. Check out one of their more recent singles, “Pain,” from Fuck, Marry, Kill, below.
Thelma & the Sleaze capped off a perfect night of rock and country delivered with a wink and a ton of heart by all three acts. I came away an even bigger fan of Slim Stone, but I’ve also got two other acts I’m always going to catch when they come to town.
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Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the main music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym @taberkeley!
