It's Been Too Long For 'Too Slim,' But He's Back For Brews & Blues Festival

By Jim Or

Too Slim and the Taildraggers enjoy a pedigree deserving of their headliner billing for this weekend's annual Bonnie City Blues & Brews Festival at the Cottonwood.

The Seattle-based band's last two albums, Free Your Mind and The Fortune Teller, cracked the Top 10 of Billboard magazine's top blues album sales charts. The group has hauled in a load of awards in the Northwest – best album, best act and best band among them, plus inductions into halls of fame for three blues societies.

Critical acclaim has been bestowed upon T.S. And the 'Draggers across the continent as one one heck of an eclectic  band that moves about from blues, rock and American roots music on stage that lead man Slim refers to as “rootsy blues rock.”

So there you have it. The ensemble – Tim “Too Slim” Langford and Taildraggers Polly O'Keary (bass/vocals) and Tommy Cook (drums) – know how to please.

If that's not enough, Tim said from his Seattle home the other day that the band might, just might, have a little something special in store for Glasgow on Saturday night: the debut of a new song from its upcoming album. He says the trio is putting finishing touches on the tune, “Can't Dress It Up,” about the “impossible situations” that reality TV performers accept for the chance to be a star. 

“You are who you are, but they like to see you sweat,” he says.

Tim, who did New Year's Eve years ago at the old Crossing with an earlier formation of the Taildraggers, returns to Glasgow thanks to the persistence of Blues & Brews go-to guy Zack Burner (from the Glasgow Chamber and Sagebrush Lounge) to land the band for the festival after a few years of trying.

With this in mind, there's nothing like some Taildragger Trivia to get ready for the big show. Here goes.

That tattoo on Tim's right forearm. What's that all about? 

Answer: Those are flames. Tim had a tattooist in his native Spokane, Wash., put it on. “Oh, I just thought that would look cool when I'm playing guitar,” he says.

Now how does a a guy named Tim get known as Too Slim? 

Answer: Well, Tim is trim – and he was thinner when an old bandmate started calling him Too Slim back in the mid-1980s. “I'm still pretty slim,” he says. “I'm not as slim as when I started the band, but I'm still slim. The problem with a nickname like that is you have to live up to it. I've got to stay fit, you know.”

Another name question: Taildraggers? 

Answer: As the legend has it, the band was sitting around drinking brews back in the day when it settled on “Taildraggers,” the name of a song by the late Chicago blues musician Howlin' Wolf (Chester Arthur Burnett). The chorus from the song:

“I'm a taildragger,
I wipe out my track,
When I get what I want,
Well I don't come sneakin' back.”

Drummer Tommy and Bassist Polly, both from the Seattle music scene, joined the band last year. How are they coming along?

Answer: “They're really great players. A lot of fun. Good people,” Tim says. “I kind of feel it's a fresh new start with the band.”

Tim's musical influences?

He mentions the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Hank Williams, Lightnin' Hopkins, Merle Haggard, Tom Petty, B.B. King and Freddie King.

Too Slim and the Taildraggers have shared stages with such notables as Bo Didley, Robert Cray, Ted Nugent, Los Lobos, Blue Oyster Cult, Delbert McClinton, Heart, Steppenwolf, Jeff Healey and Travis Tritt.

At Bonnie City Blues & Brews, bands will perform from 6 p.m. to midnight. Also playing are rocker Dan Purser from Seattle and acoustic blues singer-songwriter Carl Banks (no, not the football player) from St. Louis. The Fort Peck Summer Theatre cast of “Forever Plaid” opens the entertainment at 5:15. Doors open at 5.

“I'm looking forward to the festival,” Tims says. “We're going to rock the house. Put on your dancing shoes.”

Orrdinary People appears in The Glasgow Courier. Please suggest special people to Jim Orr at 228-9301 or publisher@glasgowcourier.com.