p2pnet music: Slim Sandy
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Slim Sandy, Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
“Low-fi, mono, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.” That’s how one-man band Slim Sandy describes his music.
Recorded on an elderly reel-to-reel, his songs have an ambiance and quality which make them sound like they’re from the fifties and sixties, which is exactly the way he likes it.
Because Slim Sandy is a street musician’s street musician, a man who throws his three-quarter size Kay guitar, made back in the fifties, pedal-powered suit suitcase drum, as well as another small case of harmonicas in various keys, into a bicycle trailer before he heads downtown from his house in the suburbs of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, BC.
We’ve seen — and heard — him playing around town in Victoria and when we were at the Victoria Street market a couple of weekends ago, there he was.
We got to talking and he explained he’s been playing solo since about 2003.
“I played in the Crazy Rhythm Daddies from 1988 to 2005, as the singer/guitarist, and from 1985-1994 I was the drummer for Ray Condo,” he says.
“I also played drums for the Howlin Hound Dogs from 2000-2005. All three groups were doing mainly 50’s rock and roll, or rockabilly, but the Daddies also did 30’s and 40’s jazz, like Slim and Slam songs, and some western swing by legends like Bob Wills.”
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- Rock and Roll Ball
- Swamp Gal (Big Daddy Bo, bass, Rockin’ Reverend, drums)
- Bowlegged Daddyo
Not surprisingly, we also got to talking about the vagaries of the corporate music industry.
“The music biz can be hard,” he says. “I’ve known a few who have gotten an offer, get an album out on a ‘major’ label, and then when it doesn’t become a big hit, they’re just dropped, and they go back to scraping by.
“It’s an emotional roller coaster, and it all distracts from the music.
“The biz seems to be a winner takes all system, without much opportunity for musicians who might appeal to a particular niche. Rather than a system that makes multi-millionaires out of a chosen few, why not a business that would provide a reasonable living for the many talented musicians that exist? It has to do with how the major labels pour a lot of resources into marketing a few selected acts, one of whom they hope will have a mega-success, which is where all their profits will come from. It’s the same in the film business.”
Slim Sandy, born in Quebec to Swedish immigrant parents, grew up in the Chateauguay Valley.
He studied cinema in university and these days works as the director of MediaNet,a media arts center in Victoria.
He’ll be one of the featured performers at a High Rockabilly show in Spain in September, any also be at the Viva Las Vegas rockabilly festival, the premier rockabilly festival in the US, in April next year.
The four tunes are from an early CD and two from his latest release.
And they prove you don’t need a million dollars’ worth of equipment, a high-priced, cocaine-snorting producer and a ‘major’ record label behind you to make good music.
“This is a good foot-stompin’, beer-drinkin’, truck-drivin’ disc (although not all at once, please) that should more than satisfy any alt-country fan,” said John Threlfall, Monday Magazine, Victoria, of Peter’s new album “Rough and Ready”.
Here’s his home page.
Cheers!
Jon
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June 9th, 2008 at 11:22 am
sounds kinda like the west coast equivalent of Bloodshot bill. both are one man bands, both play old timey music. sounds good to me.