To coincide with the long awaited opening of The Slim Dusty Centre and Museum in Kempsey in November, EMI Music is proud to announce the release of a new Slim Dusty album, The Den Tapes. Released on November 13th, the new album features all previously unreleased recordings by Australia’s legendary King of Country. These are the last known unreleased recordings by Slim Dusty.
The Den Tapes is a 10 song collection of recently unearthed solo material recorded on cassette by Slim himself in his small office ‘den’ at home. These unique solo acoustic recordings show Slim’s raw talent at its very best. His relaxed performances on this collection of home recordings are pure and simply brilliant…and it is simply Slim’s voice and a guitar!
For posterity no doubt, sometime in the late 90’s, Slim started recording and collating these private recordings of his favourite songs from his youth. Traditional Aussie songs which he grew up listening to back on his family farm, they are songs which probablyinspired and shaped his own future musical direction. Slim’s longtime producer Rod Coe discovered this personal collection of solo recordings on a single cassette by sheer accident when looking for something else in Slim’s Den.
To quote Slim’s wife and songwriter Joy McKean: “The songs you have here are some of those he heard and learned from the radio and the old portable gramophone when he was just a quiet country boy up in the isolated Nulla Nulla Creek. Many decades later, as a nationally known and loved singer and travelling showman, he still turned to the old songs for the pure enjoyment of singing them”.
In a career spanning over so many audio and visual formats this latest release will be the first time a Slim Dusty album has been released simultaneously in three formats of Vinyl LP, CD and Digital download.
Leaving the final comments on The Den Tapes to Slim’s wife, Joy McKean says, “These recordings reveal a very happy album; a man and his guitar, singing for the absolute joy of it…just singing”.
The Slim Dusty Centre, in Slim’s hometown of Kempsey, is a multi purpose facility that includes a Museum, a Travelling Exhibition Gallery, a Visitors Centre, a retail shop called The General Store, a Function Centre and the Dusty’s Dinner Camp Café. What began as a conversation backstage after a show between Slim Dusty AO MBE, Joy McKean OAM and some members of the Macleay Valley Coast community, has resulted in the much anticipated Slim Dusty Centre which will open its doors to the public from October 17 ahead of the official gala opening on November 19.
The Den Tapes will be available on CD, Digital & Limited Edition Vinyl LP
Release date: November 13, 2015
Available to pre-order now
