Langhorne Slim in concert at Telluride's Opera House

It’s a Dylan thing. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman to a middle class family in Nowhere Special, Minnesota. Brooklyn-based Langhorne Slim was born Sean Scolnick in – and here’s the punch line – Langhorne, Pennsylvania. But we all know the line from Shakespeare about a rose. Regardless of his name, the fame of this singer-songwriter-guitarist is being etched in stone. Rolling Stone. “Damn near perfect,” said the magazine about Langhorne Slim’s third album, Be Set Free, on Kemado Records.

Rave review of Slim’s live shows boil down to one thing: the words rule. Across a range of styles and genres that amounts to a oftimes sardonic, always modern take on traditional folk, country, and blues, the thread is tight, barbed prose. Less is more in “Oh Honey”: “Been leaning on you without reason or truth/ Now I’m dreaming of leaving my demons/ and the first one I’m leaving is you.” From his love song, “Colette”: “I wasn’t much of a fighter, or a lover/ You said don’t get excited, but take cover.” Poets like that tend to rise above the crowd.

But if you are part of the Friday night crowd at the Opera House, one of the standout qualities of Slim’s live shows is a genuine gospel-like musical experience full of little miracles: “hold your heart” moments mixed with a “raise a drink” dance vibe, merry melodies offset by wrenching lyrics. Slim can sound alternately like early Beck, the entire soundtrack of “O Brother Where Art Thou?” the Cramps, Creedence, even Cat Stevens, but always, he sounds distinctive and great.

Since March 2008, Langhorne and his band have headlined at over 200 shows, playing major festivals from Lollapalooza to Bumbershoot, Bonnaroo, and Austin City Limits Festival to name just a few.