Bob “Slim” Dunlap, the Replacements’ former guitarist and a solo artist in his personal proper, died on Wednesday, December 18, The Minnesota Star Tribune reviews. Dunlap’s household mentioned, in an announcement, that the musician died of issues from the extreme stroke he had in 2012. The household additionally mentioned he was listening to the Slim Dunlap Band’s Stay on the Turf Membership (Thank You, Dancers!) on the time of his demise. Dunlap was 73 years previous.
In 1987, proper after the discharge of Happy to Meet Me, Dunlap joined the Replacements to fill in for Bob Stinson, the band’s authentic guitarist who was kicked out the yr prior for spiraling habits. In comparison with Stinson’s extra wild type, Dunlap performed with a mild, thought-about method to the guitar, which not solely added depth to the band’s uptempo numbers, but additionally introduced wistful introspection to their quieter songs. He was versatile, bluesy, and dependent—three traits that will affect the Replacements final two studio albums, 1989’s Don’t Inform a Soul and 1991’s All Shook Down. Trying again, singer-guitarist Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson credited Dunlap for bringing a spark of creativity and power to the band throughout that remaining run.
Born August 14, 1951, Dunlap grew up in Plainview, Minnesota, and repeatedly performed music within the space. Whereas juggling a myriad of jobs to assist his household, together with stints as a taxi driver and a janitor on the legendary Minneapolis venue First Avenue, he performed in a number of bands with native staple Curtiss A and stuffed in for quite a few Twin Cities initiatives. “I performed in each little band I might play in, each band that will have me,” he later instructed the Los Angeles Occasions. “Slowly however certainly, I received this repute as a man who might play something. One night time you’d see me play bluegrass in a little bit pizza store, the subsequent night time it will be arduous rock.”
After the Replacements broke up in 1991, Dunlap toured with the Georgia Satellites’ Dan Baird and, on his personal time, began penning solo materials. He formally made his debut as a singer-songwriter in 1993 with The Outdated New Me, his first solo full-length. He channeled his love of bluesy rock’n’roll into authentic songs that felt timeless and earnest, and returned to the drafting board as soon as extra for his sophomore album, Occasions Like This, in 1996.
