South River Slim, the tortured blues-soaked alter ego of Windsor, Ontario musician Sean Rivers, has released his brand new single, “Take Me To The Pines”. Featuring the backing of his regular outlaws Derek Impens (Drums,Bass,Acoustic Guitar) and Grady Caplin (Pedal Steel,Acoustic Guitar) and recorded at Impens’ South Bridge Recording Studio, South River Slim kicks off the cool season with an even cooler song that would have felt right at home kicking off the summer.
Although the driving groove may feel like a peaceful jaunt into happy memories, it’s more of a reminder to step outside the grind of the concrete jungles and get back into the air of the country and nature, going “Back To The Pines”.
After fighting a long and arduous battle with throat cancer, that began a decade ago, he continues to fight to this day. Rivers decided to take a final stab at his lifelong passion for creating music, throwing himself head first into the blues that rattled his soul during a lengthy illness, one that destroyed him physically and mentally.
He emerged a rock and roll pariah that had the helifire of Hank Williams Sr, the swagger of Keith Richards, and the unwillingness to compromise of Johnny Thunders – a dangerous combination for a man who was on a relentless journey to make sure that he never again left a story untold or a song unsung.
Since that time, he has had dozens of releases and numerous singles, and played hundreds of shows across North America, from Northern Ontario to Los Angeles, including dive bars to festivals, from the flashing lights of Casinos to the serenity of the Joshua Tree desert. He’s found himself on playlists from college to mainstream radio and everything in between, largely on the strength of his unimposed songwriting that refuses to follow the traditions of blues, country, and rock, but is stained to the very fibers of its roots by the genre’s greatest pioneers.
South River Slim is ready to embrace the cold winds that flow from his hometown of South River up near Algonquin, down through the strings of his guitar in his adopted haunts of Windsor, Ontario, as well as Welland and Niagara, as he entices all who hear his tortured pleas that perhaps its time to put down the phones and silicon screens of a white noise society. Sometimes in order to escape the drones of mediocrity, we just need to get ‘Back To The Pines’.
Follow Slim at Bandcamp.
Article submitted by Jaime Greer.
