Some of you, I’ m sure, remember him. He was a fellow who showed up in Brown County close to the same time that I did and brought a considerable amount of talent with him.
Slats was a multi-instrumentalist. He played the accordion, piano, harmonica, guitar, and probably a few others. Besides playing all those instruments, Slats had a wonderful singing voice, and you can hear him on any of the eight or so CDs that he produced, almost all of them with a Brown County focus. And another of his prodigious talents was that of songwriter.
I have known some singer songwriters but none better than Slats.
Nobody I know could arrange songs any better. Using Brown County as inspiration, he produced a compilation of songs that capture its scenery, history, and characters. Two of the CDs that stand out for me are his Christmas albums.
Back in the early“ aughts” of this century, Slats produced A Brown County Christmas: The Holidays in the Hills and A Brown County Christmas Volume Two. These albums contain songs that Slats wrote such as“ Christmas in a Cabin,”“ The Happy Eyes of Morning,”“ Slow Sleigh Ride,”“ Mary, Did You Know,” and one of my favorites,“ Me and Thirty Dirty Chickens Lickin’ Corn.”
Slats didn’ t produce any solo albums, they were all“ Slats Klug and Friends,” and Slats’ friends were the best local talent in the area.
Beyond these outstanding Christmas albums, Slats gave Brown County something else: memories of the annual holiday shows he put together at the Brown County Inn. I believe there were about six of them, and they were amazing.
Sometime after Thanksgiving, Slats and a dozen or more of his friends would get together to give a live presentation of the Christmas albums, tell stories and jokes, and generally have a raucous good time.
One of the highlights of these shows would occur when the band struck up a song the Slats wrote for his album My Brown County Home called“ Blood Alley Women.” As soon as that song was announced there would be a whoop from the audience and all the women would jump up and hit the dance floor. Those are good memories. I have a hard time accepting that those days are 20- plus years in the past. Slats is gone now, but I still think about him with his sly smiles and good sense of humor. And I will always associate him with memories of Brown County Christmases past. •
LAWRENCE FAMILY GLASS BLOWERS
Making art in the heart of Nashville since the 1970s 81 S Van Buren St and 36 Franklin St 812- 988-2600 • OPEN 10 – 5 DAILY
Lolli’ s House New location in Artists Colony Shops
• HOME DECOR • LOCAL HONEY
• Honey Milk Soaps • Goat Milk Soaps
• Freshies • Shirts •
• Exclusive Nashville / Brown County Items •
125 S. Van Buren St. • Nashville
Mother / Daughter Owned
AND QUINTESSENCE GALLERY
lollishousecreations @ gmail. com Nov./ Dec. 2025 • Our Brown County 35