Hi, folks, I'm Slim and this is the Way Out West "On the Trail" web page. We're personally honored that you have chosen to visit our site and see what we've been up to!
Tom, Em, and I have been playing music together for at 8 years, as Way Out West, and we have a few years before that, playin' as Out of the Blue. Maybe, as the stories unwind, we'll cover the "missing" years. For now, I'll start with this weekend ...
Saturday, 3/22/2008 - Way Out West at Javalina's Coffee House . Bonnie Vining, proprietor, started a few years ago to give Tucson's many original songwriters a place to display their wares. At Javalina's Coffee House, you won't hear cover tunes; you'll hear nothing but original songs! This past Saturday, the weather was Spring perfect for an outdoor, evening performance. Bob Block was there getting shots of the group! Thank Bob for the following ...
Sharon and Jerry H. dropped by for a break driving from San Diego to Sierra Vista. It's great to have friends there, just when you start. Thanks, Sharon and Jerry! Twas' a good night of music and fun with friends. Adios, for now!
Let's step to the past ... Germany and Switzerland, 2005 and 2006. Thanks to Herbert Shildhammer, who heads up the Illertal Cowboys, a club of Country and Western aficionados. Herbert got us our first gig in Germany in 2005, playing a 4th of July picnic for the American Legion at a Napoleonic era fortress! Here we are performing at the fort in 2005 and with friends in the Line Dance club from Illertal, Germany. (That is a German vitamin drink that Tom is holding.)
In 2006, Herbert had us perform at the Illertal club, and then he goes and wins the "Big Guy" competition on the platform at the Ulm train station when we left for Zurich ...
The fun, traveling in Europe is getting to the station a little ahead of schedule, having enough time to pick up some local cheese, bread, and wine. When you're on the train, there's plenty of time to enjoy the feast and watch the landscape flow by.
Best gig was in Thun, Switzerland in 2006. Thun has a bluegrass festival, on the lake the town sits on. To reach the stage and festival grounds, you cross a 100 foot, two-person bridge to an island that's a little larger than a baseball field. And in the evening, the moon rises over the Alps and shines on the water of the lake! Yeeha!
and 
me and Steady Eddie, rock-solid bass player touring with an American C&W band that played the festival. And if you imagine me and Ed not in the picture, you see the lake, from behind the stage! The beer tent is in the other direction!
After the Thun festival, we went up to Solingen, Germany, to spend time with our friend, the wonderful bluegrass picker, Oliver Waitze. Oliver is a regular attendee at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and he he created the New Acoustic Gallery (music studio, store, and performance center) in Solingen, Germany.