Langhorne Slim previews Strawberry Mansion with an intimate live performance of “Summer Days”
Ahead of the release of his new album Strawberry Mansion, Nashville-based, locally-rooted singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim has released “Side A,” a preview of eight more songs from the record, including its lead single “Mighty Soul.” Slim performed each track alongside Mat Davison (fiddle) and Paul DeFiglia (bass) for an intimate live video series.
“Summer Days” and the accompanying videos for “Side A” show the trio on a vast, gloomy patch of land with overcast skies. Slim told The Key the landscape was formerly a golf course that has been renovated into a community park due to a Tornado ripping through it, the same one that sparked the cathartic writing process of Strawberry Mansion.
Strawberry Mansion is Slim’s most revealing and personal project to date, and “Summer Days” is a glimpse into the vulnerability and emotion embedded within the music. The beautiful set of strings surrounding Slim’s fragile voice form the narration of his highs and lows, “I’ve been running my whole lifetime / Looking for a better way / Another summer’s coming toward me / Gonna be some lonely summer days / Time goes around like a Ferris wheel on fire / Starts coming down when you can’t get any higher.” Slim spoke to The Key about the imagery within the lyrics of the track:
“I’ve heard the saying ‘wherever you go, there you are’ my whole life. My grandfather used to say it, and I always believed what my grandfather said. He was a Jewish Buddha of Philadelphia. It didn’t stop me from running though. I guess I had to figure some things out on my own, as we all do. I’ve been a thrill-seeker, town hopper, song chaser, booze devotee, love luster. A lotta things I’ve been and done in an effort to dance with some kinda divinity. The time comes, and it came for me, where I had to sit still and start to confront who I am without all the masks. I’ve spent many seasons of my life on a Ferris wheel on fire. It’s exhilarating, inspiring (sometimes), death-defying at other times, but more often it’s exhausting, selfish, and dangerous. A few months before a tornado came through Nashville and a plague hit the world, I bought a ticket for a different ride. It’s been good so far. I can still see the big wheel burning, but I don’t have to burn with it. That thing spins in the same circle all the time.”’
For the video series, although the stage is a vast, wide-open field, Slim’s presence on “Summer Days” holds enough spirit and authenticity to fill the whole space. Check it out below.