Ags Connolly Pays Tribute to Mentor James “Slim” Hand
#510 (Traditional Country, Ameripolitan) on the Country DDS
For Britain’s premier traditional country singer, Ags Connolly, recording an album of songs from his hero, mentor, and friend James Hand is a full circle moment. It’s also an inevitability. Whether anyone enjoys this album or even pays attention, it’s something Ags had to do. It’s a tribute. It’s a testament to Conolly’s well-studied influences. And it’s also heartfelt and lovingly-composed.
If you love to dig for the most real deal country music out there lurking in the shadows, you’ve surely at least seen the praise for Texas legend James Hand, who passed away in June of 2020. It’s customary for us to grace fallen country greats with flowery language and fawning praise, even if it’s tinged with a bit of hyperbole as we feel the need to lionize past greats. With James Hand, no embellishment was involved, or necessary.
When Charley Crockett released his tribute to James Hand in 2021 called 10 For Slim and permanently added Slim songs to his live show, this certified just how influential James Hand truly was. Similar to Crockett, there’s no way Ags Connolly is going to do Slim songs better than Slim himself. That’s not the point. The point is to keep James Hand’s memory, songs, and music alive. Connolly hopes to do so especially for country fans in the UK and Europe who might have never heard them before.
You can’t claim Ags Connolly is jumping on some sort of James Hand bandwagon. He chronicled his history with James Hand in the 2014 song “I Saw James Hand” where he recalls, “When I saw James Hand in London first time, when he played with Dale Watson at the Borderline. If I didn’t know I was country, that made up my mind.”
That was 2006, and despite Connolly’s distant proximity to Texas, he’d found his musical compass. That’s just the kind of power James Hand had over people. As Ags goes on to sing, “If you’ve never seen James Hand, I won’t expect you to understand.” But those that did see Hand most certainly do. Even Willie Nelson called Slim “the real deal.”
To compose Your Pal Slim: Songs of James Hand, Ags Connolly first selected his favorite James Hand cuts, and the ones he felt he could interpret the best. This includes some of Slim’s most notable songs like “In The Corner, At The Table, By The Juke Box,” “Lesson In Depression,” and “Midnight Run.” But Connolly also explores the depth of Slim’s catalog by including a song like “Shadows Where The Magic Was,” which is arguably Hand’s greatest story song.
After laying down the basic tracks with Anna Robinson on bass, and Robert Pokornoy on drums in Oxfordshire, England, Ags Connolly put the call out across the pond for some of the actual people who played with James Hand to supply the finishing touches down in Austin.
This included guitarist Chris McElrath, who was Hand’s final lead guitar player and bandleader, fiddle player Beth Chrisman who played with Hand for many years, singer/songwriter Jake Penrod who happens to be more than proficient on pedal steel too, as well as Brennen Leigh on mandolin and backing vocals. When you take Ags Connolly’s phrasing which is similar to Slim’s (for obvious reasons), this makes Your Pal Slim as true to James Hand as it can be.
Whether you’re intimate with the James Hands catalog or not, you’re happy to see an album like this being made, especially knowing Ags Connolly’s story. Ags eventually went from a starry-eyed fan of James Hand to a friend, with the final song on the album “Corner Of My Street” meant to be something they wrote together. Unfortunately, James Hand passed away before they had the opportunity.
Country music isn’t just a culture, it’s a continuum. And it’s not just for the people who were born in Texas, America’s deep South, or Western landscape. It’s also for those that should have been. Ags owes his musical career to James Hand, and with Your Pal Slim: Songs of James Hand, he pays that inspiration forward. And who knows, perhaps someone else will hear Slim’s words, become inspired, and pay them forward themselves. That’s how country heroes never die.
Purchase from Ags Connolly
November 22, 2024 @ 10:50 am
Where’s the rating?!?
November 22, 2024 @ 11:24 am
I don’t review a lot of tribute records. One of the reasons is because the lack of original material makes them hard to rate since originality is such an important part of the rating. But I wanted to feature this one. I approached this as part review/part feature. So I don’t think a rating is required.
November 23, 2024 @ 2:31 am
Aha, good point well made. Happy Thanksgiving for next week too.
November 22, 2024 @ 1:03 pm
Im going to check this out. Love the ones charley has done. Prob time i checked out the originals as well. Great write up. Prob no other site would even mention this.
November 22, 2024 @ 2:26 pm
Ags exists in a sea of Tribute acts here in the UK. Every bar and club that puts on country music is obsessed with putting on a tribute act. Sickening. Ags was, is and will always be Country music and was, is and will always be head and shoulders above every other UK country music act. His best tune by coincidence is I saw James Hand.
November 24, 2024 @ 1:45 am
” … In the UK. Every bar and club that puts on country music is obsessed with putting on a tribute act …”
I don’t know where you live in the UK, and which venues/acts you’re thinking about. Country music has always been a niche interest in Britain – but its fans (including me) are faithful, and know what’s ‘real’ and what isn’t.
“Ags … was, is and will always be head and shoulders above every other UK country music act.”
At this point I will put in a shout-out for the Glaswegian artist, John Miller – see https://countrycasuals.bandcamp.com/
He is the real deal, has been doing it for many years now – and deserves to be much more widely known than I think he is. Some of his songs are up there with the classics.
November 25, 2024 @ 5:46 am
A bit of hyperbole on my part, to put it another way, tribute acts make up the bills of larger venues, they would rather take a punt on a Chris Stapleton tribute act, or a Luke Combs tribute act over original country music. I find it a little irritating. You go to the more local clubs you will find acts singing original material, and Scotland seems to be head and shoulders above England.
November 26, 2024 @ 5:16 am
“You go to the more local clubs you will find acts singing original material …”
Just to mention that, back in the noughties, I saw James Hand himself playing at The Musician pub in Leicester.
November 25, 2024 @ 5:54 am
Ags is fantastic and always a pleasure seeing him perform live like I did just the other weekend and have been enjoying listening to this album that I purchased from his website. Also his Siempre album released earlier this amongst his other albums are all superb and top quality country. He is the UK’s finest but there are also a few other good artists, musicians and bands around the UK. They aren’t all Tributes. Clint Bradley has been previously recognised through the International Western Music Association. You have a young up-and-coming Welsh gal call Megan Lee, a band called The Longshore Drifters, Brandon Ridley, Ashley Harding, Josh Beddis, Ian Cal Ford, Jack Browning, Kezia Gill and a number of others for people to seek out. There’s also a decent Bluegrass scene here in the UK.
November 22, 2024 @ 5:51 pm
So awesome! I had the pleasure of accidentally seeing James Hand play at the Little Longhorn Saloon in Austin one night. Had always heard the name but had no clue he was playing there that night. He was definitely the real deal and I really appreciate this tribute to him.
November 23, 2024 @ 4:04 am
Thanks for this article. I’ve never heard of him before. I like his James Hand record and digging into his original stuff. Very entertaining. I’ve discovered soo must cool artists and tunes from your site. Thanks again!
November 24, 2024 @ 11:06 am
Anything Beth Chrisman is involved in has to be good. Love her style of playing.