Slim Critchlow

Slim Critchlow gained recognition during the early 1930s as a guitarist and vocalist specializing in historic cowboy ballads, after beginning his radio performances and forming a connection with the folklorist John A. Lomax. At that time in his early twenties, while employed as a ranger for a national park located in Utah, he initiated live broadcasts from a station in Salt Lake City, employing material and an approach that surpassed in genuineness the film- and disc-driven versions of western music. During the initial years of the 1960s, he achieved recognition amid the resurgence of folk music by appearing at various festivals and completing a number of recordings. His instrument was an eight-string guitar featuring doubled upper strings, and his performances captured between the late 1950s and early 1960s featured a soothing yet lively and easygoing vocal delivery, primarily utilizing melodies that dated back to the final decades of the 1800s. At sixty years old, he passed away in 1969, just prior to Arhoolie's issuance of a collection drawn from his sessions; this same collection appeared as a compact disc in 1999 after incorporating additional previously unheard tracks.