Singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim can't stay in one place for long. A restless spirit, he strives for adventure. He bears a resemblance to musical drifter Woody Guthrie, but he's more rock 'n' roll rambler than itinerant folksinger.
"I just try to let the spirit move me and be present when inspiration is in the air," he says.
His songs are his lifeblood. With soulful delivery and a joyful swagger on stage, he makes sure each word counts.
"It's my release, instead of [how] some people do yoga or paint or something," Slim says. "The analysis is done in the song. I choose not to analyze it after it's written."
Even when he's sleeping, his mind is far from idle. He says he heard the name of his most recent album, 2012's The Way We Move, in a dream.
"My keyboardist, David Moore, he spoke to me in a dream and said, 'This is what the album should be called.' When I woke up, I named the record that," Slim explains.
The title fits his songwriting and his perpetual motion. When he was 18, he moved from his tiny hometown of Langhorne, Pa., to bustling Brooklyn, N.Y. He later went to Portland, Ore., where he stayed until the album's release.
Though he's wandered a lot, Slim is anything but a loner. He's had plenty of company in the past year. His band, the Law, have helped push his songs to the next level. They've also become his best friends.
"They're great musicians, [and] they put the fire into the songs," Slim says.
As the popularity of The Way We Move grew, Slim and company got caught in "a bit of a whirlwind," playing back-to-back tours with the Lumineers and Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. Now he's touring with Lucero.
Playing Conan was a recent high point, especially when Conan O'Brien strapped on Slim (in chair) is a wanderer, but he's not a loner.